Should you pump at night, or is it okay to sleep? When you’re exclusively pumping, the answer depends on your baby’s age, your milk supply, and how you are feeling. Here’s what you need to know.
Do you need to pump at night?
The answer to this depends on a few things:
1. Your baby’s age
The younger your baby is, the more beneficial pumping at night may be.
In first months after birth, frequent pumping or nursing may increase the number of prolactin receptor sites:
The prolactin receptor theory suggests that frequent milk removal in the early weeks will increase the number of receptor sites. More receptor sites means that more prolactin can pass into the lactocytes and thus milk production capability would be increased.
Therefore, if you’re exclusively pumping, it’s a good idea to pump at night if possible for the first few months to ensure that you’re able activate enough receptor sites to establish a good milk supply.
2. Your milk supply
Whenever you drop a pumping session, there is a risk that your milk supply can be affected. Anything can happen – your supply can stay the same, it can go down, or it can even go up.
This risk is something you have to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to continue pumping at night. Unfortunately, there is no way to know for sure what will happen when you drop your middle of the night pumping session until you try it.
Therefore, you have to consider your milk supply along with your risk tolerance and feelings about your milk supply. If you have oversupply, making the decision to drop a the night time session will be easier. If you’re a “just enougher” who is anxious about pumping enough every day, it may be harder to make the call.
The other risk to your milk supply is that longer breaks in lactation can result in getting your period back sooner than you otherwise would, which for some women can impact milk supply.
3. Your sanity
Pumping at night can be important to establishing your milk supply. However, you can’t sleep in one hour chunks for an extended period of time and keep it together.
If your mental health is affected by the amount of sleep that you’re getting, that’s an important factor in deciding whether or not to pump at night.
Remember: Breastmilk is important, but your mental health is more important.
What does it mean to “pump at night”?
First, let’s talk about what night includes, as sometimes I am asked what specific times of the day you’d need to pump for it to be considered “pump at night.”
A 1990 study analyzed prolactin levels in 20 lactating women, and they found that levels were the highest between 11 pm and 7 am, and lower the rest of the time. The authors theorized that since babies typically go longer stretches without nursing at night, the high prolactin levels may help maintain milk supply during this time.
Our data suggest that the mechanisms responsible for the circadian rhythm in PRL secretion are relatively independent of the mechanisms of suckling-induced release. We propose that the nocturnal rise in PRL during lactation functions to ensure a robust milk supply during an extensive nonsuckling interval.
So we know that prolactin levels vary along a circadian rhythm. Unless you have a drastically different sleeping schedule (say, you work nights), I would consider “pumping at night” to be pumping during time that you would normally be sleeping.
How many times should you pump at night?
There are a few different ways you can set up your pumping schedule.
My preferred way was to pump every time that my baby woke up. This way, I knew I was pumping at the same timeframe as when he would have been nursing. It also eliminated issues where I’d wake up to pump on schedule and then get woken up an hour later when my baby needed to be fed.
However, if your baby is sleeping through the night, or your partner handles the feedings, or if you prefer to be on a set schedule, I would recommend pumping between 1-3 times per night when your baby is younger than 2-3 months. You might want to do 2-3 sessions when your baby is first born, and 1-2 later on in the newborn phase.
(I’m giving a range rather than exact numbers because so much depends on the factors we talked about above. If your baby is three months old and you’re trying to increase milk supply, it might make sense to pump twice at night. On the other hand, if your baby is two weeks old and you’re struggling with PPD, it’s okay to only pump once per night. Just do the best you can.)
How often should you pump at night? How long can you go at night without pumping?
If possible, I would suggest trying to get at least one longer stretch of sleep (say, 4-5 hours). This will get you through one complete sleep cycle and can be really helpful for maintaining your sanity. (Of course, this may not be possible depending on your baby’s sleep.)
Before you start to wean, the longest that I would suggest going at night when you are exclusively pumping is about 9 hours, if possible. For example, that might mean that your last pumping session of the night is at 9pm and your first is at 6am.
You can see some sample pumping schedules (including how much I pumped at night here.)
Do you pump at night? Tell us your experience in the comments!
References- Bonyata, Kelly, IBCLC. “How does milk production work?” https://kellymom.com/hot-topics/milkproduction/
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Stern JM, Reichlin S. Prolactin circadian rhythm persists throughout lactation in women. Neuroendocrinology. 1990;51(1):31-37. doi:10.1159/000125312 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2106085/
Comments & Chitchat
Amelia says
Hi Amanda, my schedule before dropping a pumping session was 9pm – 12am – 3.30am – 7am (and 3 other afternoon sessions). I wanted to sleep longer so now I pump at 9pm – 11pm – 6am.
I did all your suggestions, adding the minutes to the rest of my pumping sessions and at first my supply did not go down (instead, on some days it went up due to more sleep). But after about 3 days I suddenly see a drop in my supply, and my breast not leaking anymore in the morning. Do you think it’s because I drop the 3.30am session or could it be something else? Anything I can do to get my supply up again while having longer stretch of sleep? Thank you so much.
Amanda Glenn, CLC says
Hi Amelia! What you did was perfect – you definitely didn’t do anything wrong. Some people are more susceptible to supply loss from missing sessions than others and there’s no way to know until you try it.
It could be something else – it could be your period coming back, it could be supply regulation, if you’ve been sick or started a new medication that could have an effect. But I think the 3:30 session is the most likely culprit. What if you tried 11pm – 4am – 7am for a week? I know that’s only 5 hours but 5 hours is a HUGE difference from 3.5. And then see what happens with your supply. If it does seem to come back, I would say maybe stick with that a little longer until your baby is a little older. If it doesn’t make a difference, then you can go back to 11-6. I hope that helps!
Chelsea says
Hello! I’ve been exclusively pumping since my 4 month old was born—pumping a bottle while she’s eating and then giving it to her at her next feeding. She recently started sleeping 12 hours a night (Wahoo!). How long do you think I can leave out a bottle overnight and still feed it to her when she wakes up? If I pump at 10:30, is it bad to give her the bottle when she wakes up at 7:30? I know it’s supposed to be before 8 hours but it’s so hard to pump or heat up a bottle when she’s so hungry in the mornings. Thanks for your help!
Amanda Glenn, CLC says
Hi Chelsea! the guidelines say 4 hours and i think if your house is cold it’s probably okay to stretch it to 6 – but 9 is maybe a little too long. One thought – do you ever get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom? Or wake up at all? You could maybe keep a bottle in a cooler by your bed and just put it on your nightstand when you happen to wake up. Or you could put it in a cooler with an ice pack if she will take slightly cold milk? Just a few ideas – hope that helps!
Christina says
Hi my baby is 1 month old today. I am mainly breastfeeding and was advised a couple weeks ago from a lactation consultant to pump after 4 hours at night (in order to let him sleep after he passed Birth weight). His longest stretch of 5 hours sleeping was last night but I got used to not pumping because he was waking up every 3-4 hours on his own. At what point do I not worry about pumping at night? Will my breasts just get used to producing more during the day or should I continue to pump at night ?
Amanda Glenn, CLC says
Hi Christina! I don’t want to second guess your LC but I personally think 5 hours is okay? In any case – at 12 weeks, once your supply is regulated, you can probably stop. A lot of exclusive pumpers do stop pumping at night at that point. But I would maybe work with your LC to see what she had in mind? Sorry I can’t give you a clearer answer since I’m not working with you like she is!
Sarah says
Thank you for this!
My baby is 4 months old, for the past few weeks he’s been sleeping through from 7-8pm to 5-6am, and I’ve not woken up to pump. If he happens to wake, I will pump, but other than that I will pump when I wake up for the day 6-7 am every 3-4 hours. Is this ok or should I wake to pump? The past couple of days I e noticed my supply is lower but I think I am struggling with clogged ducts 🥺
Amanda Glenn, CLC says
Hi Sarah! What time is your last pumping session before bed? If it’s around 9-10pm or later, I think this is likely fine. (I can’t guarantee anything to do with supply, but it’s very similar to the schedule I used and doesn’t concern me.) Here’s more info about clogged ducts that might help – I’m so sorry you’re dealing with that:
https://exclusivepumping.com/clogged-ducts/
Carly says
Hi! New to exclusively pumping! I have been doing it for about 5 weeks now (my baby is jusy shy I’d 3 months old) I am pumping every 3 hrs during the day, and only when baby wakes at night.
Ie, bedtime 830-pump, wake at 1230pump, wake at 330 pump, wake at 630 pump. Then I start every 3 hrs during the day no matter when he eats.
Would it be okay to drop one pumping session during the weekend so my husband can feed and I can get one long stretch of sleep? I’m hoping it won’t affect my supply too much if I just drop 1 session once a week?
Amanda Glenn, CLC says
Hi Carly! At 3 months that schedule sounds fine to me – no particular concerns. Good luck!
Caroline says
Curious to know. What happens to those prolactin receptor sites when v that breastfeeding journey comes to an end? So if you’ve had babies before and breastfed them, will that mean that you have more receptor sites for the next baby? Or is it essential to pump or feed regularly at the start, regardless of the number of previous breastfed babies?
Amanda Glenn, CLC says
Hi Caroline! That’s a great question, and I think we don’t really know the answer because there hasn’t been enough research. I think it probably resets with each baby, but I don’t know that at all for sure. I would love to see research on that!