how to stop split nights
Have you ever been awake in the middle of the night for hours because your baby will not go back to sleep? Has your little one gone to sleep and then woke up for several hours before they eventually go back to sleep? If so, then your baby is probably having split nights and you are reading the right blog post 🤩
In this blog post about Split Nights, we will cover
What are split nights?
What causes split nights?
Why do split nights happen?
What to do during split nights?
How to stop split nights?
What Are Split Nights?
A split night usually involves one long waking, it happens every night or every few nights. A split night is easily distinguished from other night wakings because your baby will likely be in a good mood during this long waking. Nothing will help your little one go back to sleep; no nursing, soothing, sleep training or any kind of comfort, your baby is just AWAKE!
Well sleep trained babies can have split nights too! The issue is NOT that they do not know how to fall back to sleep but that they CANNOT fall asleep. You will often find your little one rolling around, changing positions and finger sucking.
Why Do Split Nights Happen?
It’s typically a disconnect between sleep pressure (what builds up to help us sleep) and circadian rhythm (what triggers hormones to drive sleep to happen).
Sleep pressure will dissipate with night sleep (it goes down with more sleep) and circadian rhythm then takes over to help your little one sleep through the rest of the until morning. However, when a split night happens, sleep pressure separates from the circadian rhythm… meaning your little one may wake after a solid chunk of sleep (6-9 hours) and feel wide awake at 3am.
What Causes Split Nights?
Short naps and habitually extra early bedtimes
Disrupted from regressions
Undertiredness
Sometimes overtiredness
Short Naps and Habitually Extra Early Bedtimes:
There are many times when early bedtimes are NECESSARY! I LOVE early bedtimes and have utilized them a lot! However, the problem is after habitually using an early bedtime, your baby will start to wake up earlier OR your baby can develop a split night. It’s a cycle of going to bed early, waking early, then going to bed early again perpetuating the early waking or split night… and it goes on and on.
How to Stop Split Night with short naps and early BTs?
Schedule changes! You have to break the early bedtime cycle by extending wake times during the day and shifting bedtime to be later. If your little one is sensitive to change, gradually do this— but it does HAVE to be done, so accept some fallout in order to change the cycle.
Disrupted from Regressions:
This is very normal when a baby is working on something new or they are not feeling well. However, if it happens for more than a few nights or past when they are feeling better, it’s good to go back to their schedule/sleep timing and make a tweak.
Undertiredness (too much day sleep/not enough awake time):
In this situation, a child is often sleeping too much during the day and maxing out on sleep time or they’re not awake enough during the day to bridge the gap of sleep pressure to circadian rhythm (so then they stay awake for 1-2 hours at night to build that sleep pressure back up).
How to Stop Split nights with Undertiredness?
Reduce day time sleep and potentially increase wake times, if they are not appropriate. Calculate how much they are sleeping in 24 hours and try to aim for a 10-12 hour night of sleep with the rest for daytime sleep!
Overtiredness:
Chronic over tiredness can impact night time sleep from the imbalance of cortisol in their system making it more difficult to fall back to sleep when they are awake at night. However, these wakings are often UNHAPPY.
How to Stop Split nights with Overtiredness?
In these cases, an earlier bedtime scattered throughout the week can improve things as well as a slight increase in day time sleep.
What to do During Split Nights?
Stay consistent with independent sleep and change your child’s schedule! It’s very rarely a sleep training issue and almost always a schedule issue. Sometimes, you do need a little sleep training if they’re habitually helped back to sleep, but more often than not, the right schedule is most helpful. Check out this blog on determining sleep needs to see if you can troubleshoot!
If your little one is experiencing split nights and you just can’t figure it out on your own, set up a free 15 minute consult with me to discuss if Schedules and Transitions package is right for you and your family!
