Exploring Sleep Readiness

Why sleep doesn’t start at bedtime — and what the body needs first.

Child playing with a blue toy in a bathtub filled with bubbles

Sleep Doesn’t Obey. It Responds.

It’s a physiological state — one that requires the nervous system to slow down, feel safe, and recognize what comes next.

When that state isn’t reached, sleep becomes inconsistent, fragile, or difficult to sustain.

This is true for adults.
And it’s especially true for babies.

Three children in a bathtub with a woman, playing with toys and bubbles.

The Industry Gets This Wrong

Most baby sleep advice focuses on outcomes and only reacts once problems show up:

  • hours slept
  • wake windows
  • schedules
  • fixes, hacks, gadgets, pills

All of it assumes sleep begins at a specific “time” — whenever the adult decides it should.

But by evening, the body has already decided whether it’s ready.

Proactive preparation will always beat reactive sleep strategies - Babies or Adults.

If the nervous system is overstimulated, unsettled, or unpredictable — and has no reliable way to return to calm — sleep becomes a fight‑or‑flight state.

The child isn’t resisting sleep; their body is protecting them.

Baby drinking from a bottle wrapped in a patterned blanket

Sleep Readiness Is A Life Skill

A skill in which the body understands what it is to rest.

It’s built when the nervous system experiences:

  • predictability
  • repetition
  • physical signals that indicate slowing down

Sleep readiness isn’t created with hacks, apps, or tools.

It’s built through consistent physical cues, experienced over time.

The 3‑3‑3 Rule: Teach sleep in the first 3 months, or the first 3 years… or prepare for 3 years of repair work.

Child wrapped in a towel with bear pattern, sitting on a bed with another person holding a bottle.

Birth is the body’s first regulatory experience.

Some babies — including many born via C-section — may miss parts of that transition. Others may simply be more sensitive to stimulation, touch and attachment.

That doesn’t mean something is wrong.

It means the body may need clearer, more deliberate signals to learn how to wind down.

Sleep readiness applies to all babies. Some just need it earlier — or more consistently.

Child in a bathtub with bubbles, being bathed by an adult, surrounded by bath toys.

The nervous system doesn’t respond to instructions.

It responds to sensation, sequence, and repetition.

Warmth.
Touch.
Predictable order.

These signals tell the body what phase it’s entering — activity, transition, rest.

This is how readiness is learned.

Woman and two children in a bathtub with a towel on the edge.

Why Bath Comes First - Nightly

Bath is uniquely effective because it combines:

  • warmth (which lowers stimulation)
  • repetition (which creates expectation)
  • sequence (which teaches what comes next)

When done consistently, bath becomes the body’s first signal that the day is ending.

Sleep doesn’t need to be forced.
It follows naturally. It is humanity's default for rest.