Golden slumbers

Whether or not you are directly responsible for your charge's bedtime routine, it's important that you are familiar with the normal patterns of sleep throughout early childhood. Not only will any disruption impinge on the child's behaviour during the day, but, as a professional carer, you will be more able to support and advise parents if and when problems arise if you are well-informed.

The good news is that it is usually comparatively simple to establish a sleep routine which fits in with the family's individual needs. Of course, at the very beginning, parents or carers must brace themselves for some disturbed nights. The average newborn sleeps for 16 or 17 hours out of the 24, but he will rarely sleep for longer than five hours at a stretch because he needs to feed often and regularly at this stage. He will probably also have a longish period of wakefulness, which could be during the day or night. If you are a live-in nanny you will have to negotiate with the parents just whose job it is to get up in the night - this may have already been signalled by whose bed the baby has been placed closest to!