Dream feeds: do they work?

Updated 24 October 2026 · Written by the Lullsong team. General information, not medical advice.

The study

Pinilla and Birch (1993) randomly split 26 first-time families with breastfed newborns into two groups. Parents in one group gave a feed between 10 pm and midnight every night, slowly stretched the time between night feeds by first settling their baby in other ways, and made day and night more different.

By eight weeks, all 13 babies in that group slept from midnight to 5 am, compared with 3 of 13 in the other group. They fed less at night but drank more in the early morning, so their total milk over 24 hours was the same.

The limits matter: the trial was tiny, it is over 30 years old, it only included breastfed babies, and the late feed was one of several changes. Nobody knows how much the dream feed itself did.

How to try it

• Feed just before you go to bed yourself, with lights low and no talking.
• Burp your baby, then lay them back down on their back in their own crib.
• Give it about a week. If your baby wakes more or fusses, drop it.

When to ask first

If your newborn needs regular feeds for weight gain, follow your paediatrician’s or midwife’s advice about night feeds before changing them.

Sources

1. Pinilla T, Birch LL. Help me make it through the night: behavioral entrainment of breast-fed infants' sleep patterns. Pediatrics 1993;91:436-444. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.91.2.436

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