With a baby in your home, there are lots of things on your mind! You’re asking yourself questions that had never occurred to you before. One of the things you might be wondering about: baby sleep temperature guidelines.
What is the ideal room temperature for a baby to get a good night of sleep? How can you keep your baby from overheating?
What sort of pajamas should your little one wear while snoozing? And what kind of bed linens should go on their crib?
These are all important questions, and we’d like to address them in this article! Here are five things you need to know about baby sleep temperature guidelines to keep your baby comfortable while they snooze.
Baby Sleep Temperature Guidelines
1) Set The Thermostat
The first thing to address (and probably your biggest question) is how to set the thermostat in your house so your baby can sleep comfortably and safely all night long.
What is the ideal temperature? That’s a great question and one that doesn’t necessarily have an exact answer. The definition of “hot” and “cold” can vary from person to person as well as between different cultures and climates.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the reference point for all things babies and kids, notes that “it is difficult to provide specific room temperature guidelines to avoid overheating.”
That’s why helping your baby sleep comfortably all night long has to do with a lot more than just the temperature of the room. It also involves thinking about the pajamas they wear and simply keeping an eye on them to make sure they don’t seem too hot.
That being said, if you’re looking for a ballpark idea of how to set the thermostat, we’d like to offer some guidelines.
The Ohio chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics gives the following advice when it comes to setting the thermostat: “Set the room temperature in a range that is comfortable for a lightly clothed adult.”
And Sheridan Hernandez, M.D. from The Pediatric Specialists Medical Group in Florida, suggests “keeping the room temperature between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit.”
With some sort of idea of how to set the thermostat, let’s move on to the next guideline since what your baby sleeps with is just as important as the room temperature.
2) Don’t Cover Your Baby With A Blanket
You might be inclined to cover your little bundle of joy with a soft blanket to keep them warm at night. As cozy as it sounds, don’t do it. Blankets are not safe for babies!
Your baby isn’t capable of removing a blanket if they get too hot during the night (or putting it back on if they get too cold!). And, even more importantly, a blanket is a safety hazard. In fact, anything other than a fitted sheet in the crib is a safety hazard.
When it comes to bedding, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends putting your baby to sleep on a firm mattress “covered by a fitted sheet with no other bedding or soft objects to reduce the risk of SIDS and suffocation.”
So, your baby’s crib mattress should be outfitted with a fitted sheet and nothing else! No top sheet, no blanket, no quilt, and no pillows.
For a cute, breathable, soft sheet option, try Newton Baby’s Breathable, Organic Cotton Sheets. These hypoallergenic crib sheets are made of pre-shrunk, organic muslin cotton that is machine-washable for the most hygienic sleep surface.
Our sheets come in two sizes — standard and mini — and the all-around elastic guarantees a safe, snug fit for any crib mattress!
Since blankets are out for safety reasons, turn to sleep clothing like a sleep sack (which is basically a wearable blanket) or a swaddle to keep your baby just right all night long.
That brings us to our next baby sleep temperature guideline.
3) Wrap Or Swaddle Your Baby
Instead of a blanket, the safest way for your baby to stay warm enough while they sleep is by wearing either a swaddle or a sleep sack.
A swaddle is a light blanket that you use to wrap your baby up snugly! If you’ve ever seen a baby wrapped up like a burrito, you’ve seen a swaddled baby. Newborns can be swaddled until they are around two months old or they begin to roll over.
A sleep sack is like a wearable blanket with (typically) a zipper in the front. These are appropriate for little ones after they outgrow a swaddle.
If you’re not sure how to go about swaddling an infant, start with a Newton Baby Organic Swaddle Blanket and check out our article How To Swaddle A Baby. Learning how to wrap your baby might seem complicated, but with a little practice, you’ll be a pro in no time!
Swaddling your newborn calms their startle reflex, promotes better sleep, and keeps them from scratching their face. And, as long as you use a light swaddle instead of a thick blanket, it also helps to keep them at the right temperature all night long.
Our Organic Swaddle Blanket is made with breathable, 100% organic muslin cotton to help regulate temperature, reduce the risk of overheating, and keep your baby safe and comfy while they sleep!
4) Dress Your Baby In One Extra Layer
Assuming your baby is in a swaddle or sleep sack while they snooze, what should they wear underneath it to maintain the ideal temperature?
According to the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, you shouldn’t bundle them up too much or cover their face or head.
They say that “infants should be dressed appropriately for the environment, with no greater than 1 layer more than an adult would wear to be comfortable in that environment.”
Regardless of how you dress your baby, the other important thing is to keep an eye on your little one to make sure they aren’t getting too hot. Nothing can replace checking in on your baby yourself!
Check to see if they are hot to the touch, sweating (you might notice damp hair), or flushed in the cheeks.
Speaking of sweating, plenty of parents notice that their little one often wakes up with a sweaty back. Putting your baby to sleep on their back is the safest method, but it can often lead to a sweaty situation!
If you want to do something about the sweaty back situation, a breathable mattress like Newton Baby’s Crib Mattress can help! Let’s take a look.
4) Put Your Baby To Sleep On A Breathable Mattress
A breathable mattress allows for airflow underneath your baby’s back, and it means your baby can breathe straight through the mattress if they turn over in the middle of the night. That provides you with a lot of peace of mind!
What makes our Crib Mattress breathable? Something called Wovenaire technology, which was invented in Japan and is now made in the USA.
High quality, food-grade polymer is extruded into a crystal clear pool of water, creating a unique, resilient three-dimensional shape that is 90% air by volume. That’s right — this mattress is mostly air, making it more breathable than leading organic mattresses.
You can also rest assured that this crib mattress has no foam, latex, springs or glue (and therefore, no toxic chemicals or allergens) — and exceeds the most rigorous 3rd-party emissions standards which test for off-gassing.
Plus, it’s the only crib mattress that’s washable from cover to core so you can easily do away with mold, bacteria, and allergens!
5) Use A Breathable Mattress Pad
If you already have the nursery outfitted with a standard crib mattress, you can still offer breathability with Newton Baby’s Waterproof Crib Mattress Pad.
This mattress pad is not only waterproof, protecting the mattress from leaks, but it’s also breathable, making any crib mattress safer!
Our breathe-through spacer material adds 3/8" of air circulation to the surface of the mattress. And the TPU lining is a waterproof, breathable fabric layer, maintaining the breathability of this mattress pad!
Last but not least, this mattress pad is 100% washable so you can quickly deal with any middle-of-the-night accidents. That said, we still recommend having an extra one on hand just in case.
Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold — Just Right!
You want your baby to sleep well all night long, and part of keeping them comfy is making sure they’re not too hot and not too cold but just right! The baby sleep temperature guidelines in this article can help you do just that.
Start by setting the thermostat to an appropriate temperature — typically between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, dress your baby in the appropriate pajamas and put them in an Organic Swaddle Blanket or sleep sack rather than covering them with a blanket.
Finally, lay them down to sleep on a breathable mattress, like the Newton Baby Crib Mattress. With these guidelines and a few check-ins to make sure that your baby isn’t too hot, they’ll sleep comfortably all night long.
Sweet dreams!
