Dream Feeding: Can It Really Help Your Baby Sleep? - What To Expect

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by Korin Miller reviewed mark

Medically Reviewed by Lauren Crosby, M.D., F.A.A.P.

All What to Expect content that addresses health or safety is medically reviewed by a team of vetted health professionals. Our Medical Review Board includes OB/GYNs, pediatricians, infectious disease specialists, doulas, lactation counselors, endocrinologists, fertility specialists and more.

We believe you should always know the source of the information you're reading. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies. | September 1, 2025 Latest update:

Updates to information, copy, sources, and formatting.

See moreStocksy dream feeding baby, baby being bottle-fed with eyes closed

Learn whether those after-bedtime feeding sessions known as dream feeds will help your little one sleep better, and how to safely try them on your baby.Back to Top

In This Article

What is a dream feed?
When to start dream feeding your baby
How to dream feed your baby
Does a dream feed really help baby sleep longer?
Risks of dream feeding
When to stop dream feeding
When to call the doctor

show all show less

Having a new baby in the house means adjusting to his sleep schedule and figuring out how you can get enough rest while you care for him. But if your little one is past the newborn stage and still waking to feed more than a few times a night, a dream feed may help.

Key Takeaways

A dream feed is a late-night feeding (usually occurring around 10 to 11 p.m.) where parents gently rouse but don’t fully wake their baby to give milk, with the goal of helping both little ones and parents sleep longer stretches.

To do a dream feed, experts usually recommend starting around 2 to 3 months (when babies can go longer between feeds); it’s not always recommended beyond 4 to 6 months, though, since it can disrupt deep sleep. Dream feeds should ideally be done two to three hours after your baby’s last feed, timed before parents go to bed.

Dream feeding might be effective, but more research is needed. Some parents report longer sleep stretches, and limited studies suggest there might be potential benefits.

What is a dream feed?

A dream feed is a late-night feeding that you give your baby right before you head off to bed, usually around two or three hours after you've put your little one down for the night.[1] Dream feeds are initiated by parents, not babies.

Dream feeding involves rousing your baby from sleep (but not fully waking him) to breastfeed or offer him a bottle. The idea is that giving your baby a late meal may fill him up enough to get him to sleep for a longer stretch overnight, so that you can get more sleep yourself.[2]

Dream feeds can also help you feed your little one before they cry for a feed, which means you're "not responding to every cry during the night with a feed, which could then get the baby into a habit of eating more at night," says Lauren Crosby, M.D., a pediatrician in Beverly Hills, California, and member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board.

He might be too sleepy to make it through a full meal, but having that late-night snack could hold him off from wanting the next one for at least another hour or two. As a result, both you and your baby could have longer, uninterrupted sleep. So everyone wins!

Some babies who need to gain weight may also require extra calories. A dream feed can help your baby get the extra nutrition he needs. Track your breastfeeding and pumping sessions with the Baby Tracker tool in our free app

“My baby will take a dream feed no problem,” says What to Expect Community user rawrrs. “I don’t do it often (usually just if he goes to bed really early), but I pick him up and nurse him in the dark and then when he starts comfort nursing instead of eating I unlatch, pat his pack for a minute, and then put him down again and he’ll settle fully back to sleep. It kind of resets the clock on when he’ll wake again.”

Here’s a good breakdown of what a regular night of sleep might look like for you and your baby without a dream feed:

6:30 p.m.: Feed your baby before bed
7 p.m.: Baby goes to bed
10:30 p.m.: You go to bed
12:30 a.m.: Baby wakes up for a feeding
1 a.m.: Baby is back to sleep and you go back to sleep
3:30 a.m.: Baby wakes up for a feeding
4 a.m.: Baby goes back to sleep
6:30 a.m.: Baby wakes for a feeding
7 a.m.: Baby might go back to sleep or be up to start the day

And here’s what it can look like with a dream feed:

6:30 p.m.: Feed your baby before bed
7 p.m.: Baby goes to bed
10 p.m.: Dream feed
10:30 p.m.: You go to sleep
4 a.m.: Baby wakes for a feeding
4:30 a.m.: Baby goes back to sleep and you go back to sleep
7 a.m.: Baby wakes for feeding and to start the day

When to start dream feeding your baby

Newborns have small stomachs and need to eat at least every two to three hours. Once your baby starts showing signs that he can sleep for longer stretches without a feed — usually around 2 to 3 months old — then you could give dream feeding a try.

It’s possible to start dream feeding older babies too, but by about 4 to 6 months, most infants will log around 10 to 12 hours of sleep a night (though it varies), with just a feeding or two during that time. So if you're lucky, a dream feed might not even be necessary at that point.

A dream feed in this age group could also do baby more harm than good because the first sleep is the deepest and most restorative. Consequently, interrupting it could cause your baby to have less quality sleep.

How to dream feed your baby

Dream feeding your baby is fairly easy. Here’s how:[3]

Try to dream feed when your baby is in an active sleep period. Known as REM sleep, this phase will be fairly obvious because your baby will twitch, move his arms, legs, fingers, and feet, flutter his eyelids, and sometimes even change facial expressions. If you can catch him at a time when he’s stirring, that’s ideal — he’s more likely to get a fuller feeding in that case. Since timing this may be tricky, though, this isn’t required for a dream feed.
Time it to try to maximize sleep so the longer stretch of your baby’s sleep occurs when you want to sleep too. You shouldn’t dream feed your little one sooner than two to three hours after he last ate. Otherwise, your baby may be too full to take enough milk to make a dream feed effective. That could mean timing the dream feed to happen between 10 and 11 p.m., though it depends on your baby’s schedule.
Dream feed shortly before you plan to go to bed. So if you go to bed at 11 p.m., aim to feed your baby at about 10:30 p.m. or so.
Gently pick up your baby from the crib or bassinet. Try to rouse him (without fully waking him up) enough to eat by tickling his feet or cheeks.
Put your breast or the bottle to the corner of baby's mouth. This should stimulate a latch and the sucking reflex, so your baby will get in a late-night snack. Make sure to prop your baby up in your arms when you're feeding him.
Once your baby is finished taking milk, put him back in the crib on his back. Whether he's fallen asleep during dream feeding or not, try burping him to relieve potential gas before putting him back to bed.[4]

Does a dream feed really help baby sleep longer?

While some parents swear that dream feeding helps their babies sleep longer, there isn’t a lot of research to support it.

One study had 279 mothers with young babies either undergo a sleep education program or serve as controls. The families in the education program received information on dream feeding, bedtime routines, self-soothing and using swaddles, pacifiers and white noise to help their babies sleep.

The babies in the families who underwent the sleep education program ended up sleeping longer, but it’s difficult to say how much dream feeding played a role.

Another small study found that breastfed newborn babies who were given a dream feed between 10 p.m. and midnight slept well between midnight and 5 a.m.

"I tell parents that it is always worth trying dream feeds if their pediatrician is on board, since some babies to respond well to them, which in turn helps parents get a longer stretch of sleep," says Dr. Crosby. "And what parent doesn't need more sleep?"

Risks of dream feeding

The choice to dream feed or not is ultimately up to you, though it shouldn't be forced if your baby doesn't seem interested or hungry.

It isn't considered safe to feed a baby who is completely asleep or lying down on his back. So you’ll want to wake your baby up enough for him to take a bottle or do another nursing session. Your best bet is to try waking him a little when he's already moving around in his sleep, as you'll have more luck getting him to take milk that way.

Dream feeding might wake up your baby more and lead to trouble falling back to sleep, or result in more night wakings because you disrupted that first very restorative period of sleep. Dream feeding may also backfire in the long run because baby will get used to having an extra feed overnight.

Dream feeding is considered to be a safe practice as long as you take your baby out of the crib, wake him up enough to eat and avoid feeding him flat on his back, especially if you're giving him a bottle. It's best to dream feed your baby in a semi-upright position, with his head cradled into the crook of your arm.

quote symbol I tell parents that it is always worth trying dream feeds if their pediatrician is on board, since some babies to respond well to them, which in turn helps parents get a longer stretch of sleep.

Dr. Lauren Crosby, a pediatrician in California and member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board

While dream feeding is generally safe, there are some risks to be aware of:

Overfeeding. Your baby may not need that extra feed or may not even be hungry during a dream feed, so there's a chance of feeding him too much by adding a dream feed. Plus, as a result, he could spit up, get fussy or have more dirty diapers overnight, increasing the chance of diaper rash.
Choking. If you prop your baby's head up slightly when you're dream feeding him, as recommended, this shouldn’t be an issue. But there is a risk of choking if you feed baby lying flat on his back.
Middle-ear infections. Bottle-feeding a baby on his back can allow milk to run into the Eustachian tubes in the ears, possibly leading to an ear infection. Hold baby at an incline in your arms and you should be fine.
Gas. Babies are usually gassy because their digestive systems are immature and they tend to swallow air during feedings. Doing a dream feed can make your baby gassy, especially if attempts to burp him afterward aren’t effective.

When to stop dream feeding

By 6 months, most healthy babies don’t need dream feeds anymore. But age alone shouldn’t be your only barometer for when to stop dream feeding. Sometimes dream feeds just don’t have the desired outcome.

The goal is to fill your baby up so he’ll sleep longer at night. But some families find that it does nothing or even that it leads to baby waking up more often. If that’s the case, it’s probably a good idea to stop dream feeding.

When to call the doctor

If your baby isn’t interested in dream feeding, that’s okay — it’s not something that’s required for you or your baby to get a good night’s sleep.

But if you’re interested in trying dream feeding, it doesn’t hurt to ask your pediatrician at your next checkup about whether to incorporate a dream feed into your baby's schedule.

Dream feeding doesn’t work for every baby, but if your little one is a willing middle-of-the-night snacker, it could help you both get a little more quality shut-eye.

Not sure if your baby’s sleep is on track? Open the What to Expect app for more sleep tips, including month-by-month routines, guides to sleep training, and more.

From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author of What to Expect When You're Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.

Sources

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Marvin Resmovits, M.D., Pediatrician, Kidz Kare of Great Neck, Great Neck, NY, and Member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board.
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Lauren Crosby, M.D., a pediatrician in Beverly Hills, California, and member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board

Updates history

September 1, 2025

Editor: Kathleen Felton/Catherine Donaldson-Evans

Light copy updates and updates to sourcing.
Fact-checked for accuracy.

August 29, 2024

Editor: Catherine Donaldson-Evans

Updates to information, copy, sources, and formatting.
New medical review.

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