Speaking to Kidspot, baby and child sleep expert at Sleep by Steph, Steph Gouin revealed: "Night lights really aren’t necessary and more importantly, they aren’t a very good idea because they can have a huge impact on a child’s ability to fall asleep and stay asleep, in the early days and particularly as they get older.
"When we are exposed to the dark in the evening and overnight, ‘melatonin’ our sleep hormone is released and that makes us feel sleepy and drowsy. On the flip side, when our bodies are exposed to light - and that’s any light be it red, pink, blue, green, and whatever other colours are out there on the market - our awake hormone ‘cortisol’ can be released to tell us to wake up."
Any artificial light messes with nature
Ms Gouin explained that if a baby or child sleeps with a night light, it's likely their body is being told to wake, rather than to go to sleep.
"Even when their eyes are closed, the light still comes through, which can mean confusing and mixed messages throughout the entire stretch of night sleep," she added.
"Having a night light or any artificial light on in the sleep space completely messes with nature.
Advertisement
"Our bodies are so cleverly designed to sleep and wake naturally on their own, influenced by dark, night, sleep and day, light, wake - we really shouldn't mess with that and why would we want to?"