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I know the most common ‘problem’ reported to me by parents is frequent nighthawking’s, we can deal with anything if we can get some sleep at night, we expect sleep to be broken in the newborn stage but months or years of broken sleep can really take its toll on the whole family. I want to share 3 steps you can take that improves nighttime sleep – without doing any nighttime coaching.
Although it may feel like everyone else’s baby is sleeping through the night and taking long naps every day, the truth is that’s not the norm, a recent analysis of the most credible studies found that it is common for babies to be waking on average between 1-3 times until 18 months and still waking a couple times at night (infrequently) until 24 months.
Now the babies I work with are generally at the lower end of waking’s with 1 or 2 and sleeping right through (depending on age) once we have made some key changes.
Naps can also be a real bone of contention for parents, naps can range from 20 mins to 2 or even 3 hours at a time, but frequent short naps can be just as rejuvenating as less frequent longer naps, a true nap pattern begins to emerge around 4/5 months but it doesn’t feel like there is any pattern or routine until more like 6 months to most parents.
If you are struggling with naps or frequent nighthawking’s how you structure your day can be a game changer.
The purpose of naps is to reduce sleep pressure – the drive to fall asleep that builds over the hours of wakefulness. Children will have different limits on their sleep pressure depending on their age. A newborn may only be able to stay awake for 45 minutes before their sleep pressure builds to the point where they need to go to sleep again. If the child does not go to sleep when their sleep pressure begins to rise, they will release cortisol to stay alert. This makes going to sleep harder, however if an older child is going down for naps when their sleep pressure has not built up fully, they may protest or fall asleep ok, but take short crappy naps.
With this in mind, the best piece of information I can give you is a rough guide by age of how long a baby can cope with being awake before their sleep pressure builds fully. You can download a quick reference guide at the end of this blog with a comprehensive guide to naps from newborn to age 3.
|
Age |
Awake Window |
No. of naps |
|---|---|---|
|
Birth to 6 weeks |
30-60 minutes |
Numerous naps |
|
6 weeks to 12 weeks |
1-1.25 hours |
Numerous naps |
|
3-4 months |
1.25-1.75 hours |
6-4 naps |
|
4-5 months |
1.5-2.25 hours |
4 naps |
|
5-6 months |
1.5-2.5 hours |
4-3 naps |
|
6-7 months |
2-2.75 hours |
3-2 naps |
|
7-12 months |
2.75-4hours |
2 naps |
|
12-16 months |
3.5-4.5 hours |
1-2 naps |
|
16-24 months |
4-6 hours |
1 nap |
|
2-3 years |
5-7 hours |
1 nap (getting shorter) |
Most children are ready to drop their nap entirely by about 3 years.
I encourage a, WAKE, FEED, PLAY, SLEEP pattern, I never worry about 4 or 3 hourly feeds, while some babies will naturally fall into this pattern some are more like every 2-2.5 hours in the daytime with longer blocks in the nighttime, and as your baby grows we want to make sure they are getting the opportunity for more feeds in the 12 hours of day than in the 12 hours of night.
This way there is 5-6 feeds in the daytime and 1-2 in the nighttime or possibly sleeping through.
These example are a guide only and give you an idea on how to best use awake times specific to the age of your baby, I find they help families to structure their day and optimise nighttime sleep - we can’t really control what time our babies wake in the morning or how long they take for naps and I know this is a big problem when following a ‘one size’ program for sleep, the question I get asked most often is “what if they wake at odd times?” – well hopefully awake windows are your answer.
A regular bedtime routine is one of the most important things to help a baby sleep well. An Ideal bedtime routine, will boost connection with cuddles, feeding and lullabies but be short and predictable too. This gives everyone plenty of time to wind down from the day, but will not drag on so long that your baby starts to get overtired.
We also know from clinical research that better sleep outcomes are associated with the more nights a week that a routine is implemented.
1. Keep your little one’s bedtime routine simple and at a pace which allows them to know what is coming next, the nightly ritual helps them feel safe and secure and settle down for the night happily.
2. Keep the bedtime routine to around 30 minutes in total from start to putting them down for the night. Too long and they get a second wind, too short and it’s not stepped enough to work as a cue for them.
Routine example:
There are two schools of thought on settling, one is that you MUST put your baby down awake and allow them to self-settle to sleep, the other is that we MUST help them to sleep by feeding or cuddling – which is right?
Well in all honesty both – I mean in an ideal world most parents would wish for cosy cuddling to sleep then placing baby down soon after and their baby stays asleep and sleeps for long blocks of time.
This rarely happens.....
Commonly what I hear is that my baby was a good sleeper, sleeping well and then suddenly it seems to have regressed, this is usually more to do with your baby growing and becoming more aware so what was working well (feeding to sleep, drowsy but awake, rocking) no longer works.
In my experience how your baby falls asleep at bedtime has an impact on the frequency of waking’s in the nighttime, this is also backed up with evidence and research.
The understanding behind this, is that if your baby falls asleep by feeding to sleepy or drowsy then rocked and sung too, they will likely wake and signal for the same activity or device that helped them to sleep at naptime/bedtime for all nightwakings, these are called sleep associations aka sleep props.
So what to do about that?
Gently and over several weeks set things up so your baby can settle to sleep without these activities or devices, it does NOT need to be a Cry-it- Out approach or even a Controlled Crying (Ferber) approach, it can be much gentler and slower than that.
Here is a check list of the steps you might make:
Once you have made changes to the daytime schedule and how your baby falls asleep for naps and at bedtime you will likely see a big improvement in the frequency of nighthawking’s – download the freebies below for more detailed information.
Links for freebies:
Comprehensive Nap Guide – Newborn to 3 Years
http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/_naps
Quick Reference Guide – Awake Windows
https://www.dropbox.com/s/urz0n4gmboucfgq/quick%20ref%20guide%20to%20nap%20gaps.png?dl=0
1 Galland, B. C. et al. (2012) ‘Normal sleep patterns in infants and children: A systematic review of observational studies’, Sleep Medicine Reviews. W.B. Saunders, 16(3), pp. 213–222. doi: 10.1016/J.SMRV.2011.06.001
2 Mindell, J. A. et al. (2015) ‘Bedtime Routines for Young Children: A Dose-Dependent Association with Sleep Outcomes’, Sleep, 38(5), pp. 717–722.
3 Adair, R. H. and Bauchner, H. (1993) ‘Sleep problems in childhood’, Current Problems in Pediatrics, 23(4), pp. 147–170.
Sadeh, A. et al. (2007) ‘Infant sleep and parental sleep-related cognitions’, Journal of Family Psychology, 21(1), pp. 74–87.
Sette, S. et al. (2017) ‘Predictors of sleep disturbances in the first year of life: a longitudinal study’, Sleep Medicine. Elsevier B.V., 36, pp. 78–85.
St James-Roberts, I. et al. (2015) ‘Video evidence that London infants can resettle themselves back to sleep after waking in the night, as well as sleep for long periods, by 3 months of age’, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 36(5).
