Will putting a baby to bed later make them sleep in later in the morning?
No — this is a myth. Babies are not machines programmed to sleep for a fixed number of hours, so sending them to bed later does not result in a later wake-up time. In practice, an earlier bedtime is more likely to help them sleep longer, because it prevents them from becoming overtired.
Bill Clapson and Emily Clapson address this directly in the Baby & Toddler Sleep: Myths, Safe Sleep & Bedtime Tips for Parents episode of The Toddle About Show. The logic behind the myth feels intuitive — keep them up later, get a longer morning — but it simply does not hold up. As Clapson puts it, babies "are not programmed to just shut down for 12 hours." Delaying bedtime tends to create an overtired baby who wakes just as early, or even earlier, than usual.
The hosts point to their own routine as a practical reference: their target is to start the bedtime routine at 7 pm, with lights off and the child asleep by 8 pm. That earlier window is deliberate — not a concession to the child, but a strategy for the whole family's sleep quality. For reliable, evidence-backed guidance on baby sleep, they recommend the Lullaby Trust as the primary authority worth listening to.
You can hear the full conversation, including more sleep myths unpacked, on Listenly.
"Broken sleep doesn't just make you tired. It makes you short tempered, more anxious, less enjoyable as a parent. So when we work on children's sleep, it's really important to focus on the whole family."
— The Toddle About Show, Baby & Toddler Sleep episodeSee also
This is a myth — keeping a baby awake during the day does not make them sleep better at night. In fact, the reverse is true: the better babies sleep during the day, the better they tend to sleep at night.