How to Handle Night Wakings

Waking throughout the night with a baby is considered normal. We don’t expect newborns to sleep an 8-12 hour stretch without interrupting our sleep during that time– but you’re probably wondering how to handle night wakings both with younger babies and when they get older!

In this blog, we will cover:

• Night wakings by age

• What causes baby night wakings

• Can overtiredness cause night wakings?

• Night wakings and growth spurts?

• Night wakings during regressions

• Can.a pacifier cause night wakings?

• How to sleep train night wakings

• Night wakings and cry it out (CIO)

• Can teething cause night wakings

• Night wakings: Hunger or habit?

• What to do during night wakings

• Night wakings during nap transitions

• How to stop night wakings for baby

• How to stop night wakings for toddler

• Nightmares vs night terrors

Night wakings by age:

What’s considered normal for night time wakings (note: I didn’t say “common”, I said NORMAL– there’s a difference!) While it may be common for a 9 month old to wake as frequently as a newborn, it wouldn’t be considered normal. Though, it isn’t something you have to fix or solve unless YOU want to!

Let’s look at what research we have available to us:

• 0-2 months: most parents report several night time wakings (this would be in the normal category because newborns eat frequently even throughout the night)

• 3-5 months: most parents report at least one night time waking, 50% (or more) of parents say their longest stretch of sleep is around 5 hours (this study too!)

• 6-12 months: most parents report at least one night time waking (though many claim their babies sleep for more than 10 hours at night) (Also, more than 15% of parents reported that their 12 month old babies hadn’t yet slept 5+ hours)

• 12-24 months: most parents report 5 night wakings in a week

Fun fact: one study found that babies 6-12 months woke up, on average, about 3 times during the night. Yet many parents with babies this age report only one waking per night.

This study found it’s normal for infants this age to awaken 3-4 times each night. But many babies have learned to fall back to sleep quietly on their own, so that their parents aren’t even aware that their infants had awakened.

What causes baby night wakings

So now we know what would be considered normal for night time wakings, but what actually causes those wakings to happen? There’s actually quite a long list that we can run down (believe it or not 😅)

Here’s some top causes for baby night wakings:

• Schedule issues (needs less naps, overtired, undertired)

• Hunger (obviously some kids/ages will need to eat through the night!) and growth spurts

• Sleep dependencies (needing assistance to go back to sleep is a big predictor in night time wakings)

• Discomfort (temperature, clothing, etc)

• Teething (yes, it can disrupt sleep usually the night before, during, and after the tooth erupts)

• Illness (ear infections are a big disruptor but normal colds, etc also contribute)

• Regressions (learning new skills can disrupt sleep because the brain prioritizes that over sleep for a short period of time)

• Room sharing (room sharing as they get older and more aware can create more fragmented sleep overnight for both you and baby)

• Dirty diapers

• Separation anxiety

• Normal, protective wakings (nothing you can do about this but you CAN give them to skills to go back to sleep if nothing is preventing them from doing so)

Can overtiredness cause night wakings?

This is definitely a huge reason– when a baby is overtired, they’re going to release more cortisol which overrides their calm, sleepy hormones. It leads to more restless sleep overall and usually some frequent, angry night time wakings.

A very classic sign of overtiredness is a 45 minute waking after bedtime and early wakings!

Night wakings and growth spurts?

This study did find evidence for episodic rather than linear growth in infancy. Meaning, it comes in bursts rather than slowly increasing in size over time..

Important note, It has been a more common practice in human growth studies to focus on size, not change-in-size across age which is MOST important (i.e. are they following their OWN curve).

The above study also found, “Pediatric acknowledgment of growth spurts is limited to date. As growth spurts may be accompanied by “growing pains,” physical aches, agitation, altered health, sleep and eating patterns, continued work is needed”

This study found that infant growth in length did follow prolonged sleep and increased naps. 

Most parents suspect growth spurts based on eating patterns and not sleeping patterns. There isn’t a definitive way to predict when a growth spurt will occur (it can vary by child), but we do want to see an increase in calories over 24 hours and NOT just an increase in eating at night.

This study found, “Breast feeding at night was correlated with a more fragmented sleep, but not with physical growth. These findings suggest that sleep is related significantly to physical growth as early as in the first months of life.”

Fun fact: growth hormones are released during deep sleep!

Night wakings during regressions

Like above, night wakings happen during regressions because regressions are often caused from some sort of developmental milestone (physical or cognitive). And those developmental things are prioritized over sleep, for good reason! 

Does a pacifier cause night wakings?

It can 😩😩😩

A pacifier is recommended as a protectant against SIDS. Logically, we can assume the protection occurs because pacifiers highly fragment sleep but I don’t have proof of that so we will call it anecdotal.

Pacifiers are great for newborns! Love them for ages 0-4 months. And since the risk of SIDS is highest between 2-4 months, if your child takes it, great! (They’re not at an increased risk if they don’t though!)

However, before your child can replace it on their own, say between ages of 4-8 months, the pacifier can really disrupt sleep, to the point that you may have to replace it every 45 mins all.night.long.

That’s no fun for anyone. At this age, you can sleep train without the pacifier or continue replacing it until they can replace on their own. Here’s a blog about pacifiers though!

Personally, the pacifier always negatively impacted sleep for us (maybe I’ll share that story!) and it does carry an increased risk of ear infections when they’re using them over the age of 6 months. Also, there’s palate formation to consider as well!

How to sleep train night wakings

This is actually fairly simple! I always suggest consistency with your response, so whatever method you’re using to sleep train at bedtime and for naps is the same way you would sleep train during night time wakings.

Night wakings: Hunger or habit?

Now, if you’re wanting to sleep train through some night wakings and not all, that’s totally possible. You’re not required to wean night time feedings even if you just want to see some consolidated sleep happening over night. If your child is waking for hunger, this will not be confusing for them! You’re meeting a need when they have it and allowing them to return to sleep independently when they can.

A way to classify a hunger waking would be:

• A longer stretch between feedings than during the day (we all naturally “fast” longer during the night than we do during the day)

• Takes a full feeding

• Goes back to sleep quickly and stays asleep for another longer stretch of sleep

A habit waking would look like:

• Feeding as often or more than you do during the day (could also be reverse cycling!)

• Not taking a full feeding every time you feed them

• Has trouble going back to sleep or wakes soon after eating again

You do not have to keep them awake during the feeding when it’s a hunger feeding. It won’t impact their ability to return to sleep on their own when it isn’t a hunger feeding. However, when you do get ready to night wean, keeping them awake can help!

Night wakings and cry it out (CIO)

If you’re using extinction/CIO for your sleep training method of choice, you can continue to use that overnight if you choose to! However, I do find it easier to at least do one check in to rule out a reason they could be awake, if only for your peace of mind. This isn’t confusing at all! And a way to keep the balance between responsive and a faster method for sleep training. 

Can teething cause night waking?

Teething can absolutely cause night time wakings, however it’s not going to be for weeks on end. If you don’t see evidence of a tooth coming through, it’s unlikely to be bothering them enough to disrupt sleep. Teething isn’t nearly as painful as it’s made out to be online!

I love this study – it’s one of the most in depth, meticulous studies out there. The researchers sent dentists into the home of 47 children between the ages of 5-15 months EVERY day for 8 months. They checked temperature, examined gums, interviewed parents, etc. The study found that teething was associated with sleep disturbances, drooling, rashes, runny noses, diarrhea, appetite loss, irritability, and slight rises in temperature (not clinical fevers). But the interesting thing is that these symptoms consistently occurred only on the day that a child’s tooth erupted and one day after. No symptoms regularly occurred in the days before the tooth appeared.

What to do during night wakings

Really, anything you want! But what we do want to be is: CONSISTENT.

If you respond inconsistently to every night time waking, there will unfortunately be more night time wakings. This is why a sleep training method is so helpful because it gives you a more systematic way to respond while STILL responding to your child.

It won’t be like throwing something at the wall and seeing what sticks– it helps you parent more effectively in the middle of the night when you’re tired and just want to go back to sleep.

Because the more you do it, the more it becomes a habit for you too.

I think it’s always helpful to pause (more on that here), observe, and then run through a check list of things like:

• Is this a normal feeding time? They’re probably hungry!

• It’s not a normal feeding time– maybe sending in a non-breastfeeding partner would be helpful.

• How were they acting today? Under the weather, congested, grumpy? They may need medicine, snuggles, etc

• Was their schedule off? Were they really busy/overstimulated? They could just need some time to settle and go back to sleep or a quick check in for reassurance.

• And as always, it could be a dirty diaper making them uncomfortable so a quick check for poop or leaking out can be helpful.

• Is it warm in their room? Colder than when they went to bed? Temperature can disrupt sleep because our body temperature changes with sleep!

Night wakings during nap transitions

Night wakings can both indicate a need for a nap transition AND occur as some natural fall out from a changing schedule whenever they’re settling in to a new one.

If your child is nearing the age for a nap transition and you’re seeing unusual night time wakings– this could be your sign!

Don’t be alarmed and don't change your wake times all the time! Give them some grace to adjust as you log sleep and identify patterns with their new schedule/wake times. 

How to stop night wakings for baby

As a pro-sleep training sleep consultant, my vote is sleep training to reduce the amount of night time wakings to an age appropriate amount.

If that’s not your jam, then consider these things:

• Look at their schedule and see if there’s a tweak you can make

• Triple check their sleep environment (using loud white noise? Dark as a cave? Comfy temp?)

• Change up the way you respond to a less desired way (send in a non-feeding partner, rock instead of feeding)

How to stop night wakings for toddler

For toddlers, sleep training is also an option if they’re falling asleep with your assistance or presence, because just like infants, they’ll look for that in the middle of the night to go back to sleep.

You could also try an okay to wake clock and tell them they can get up when their light is green- it gives them a tangible boundary and a way to know when it’s morning and time to get up.

You can also use reward charts in the morning for staying in their bed all night.

Always investigate things like sleep apnea if you’re concerned about your toddlers night time wakings! 

And sometimes— this is your sign to drop their nap and replace it with quiet time!

Nightmares vs night terrors

These are very distinct and night terrors are often overused as a reason for night time wakings. I break down the difference between the two in this blog so you can get a clear idea of what might be going on for your little one!

Now, you know that night wakings can be a normal part of overnight sleep for little ones– but waking frequently doesn't have to be YOUR normal even though it’s common. You can absolutely sleep train your little one while responding overnight, feeding whenever you’d like, and stlll have night time sleep consolidate to a normal length. Sleep training is actually a very flexible process, despite what you mean see online. You can check out this recent blog for more information about sleep training as well as research and as always, I’m here to support you in that journey!