As a new parent it is only a matter of weeks of night wakings before you start looking forward to the moment when your new baby will start sleeping through the night.

More than often your wish becomes a realisation around the 6-month mark  but for many parents’ months can go by and your little one is still waking in the night.

If this sounds familiar then you might want to read on to discover my 5 Key reasons as to why the night wakes may be happening.

Hopefully once you have identified the reason or reasons behind their night waking it will enable you to make the necessary changes and before long you will all be enjoying a night of peaceful sleep and restoration.

5 tips to address night wakings?

The first reason why your baby may be waking at night or early in the morning is because their awake windows during the day are too long. Awake windows are crucial when it comes to our little one’s sleep. These windows of wakefulness essentially dictate how much sleep our babies will have throughout a 24-hour period. If you leave your baby too long before putting them down for a nap – cortisol will override the sleep pressure and rather than dropping of they will struggle to fall and stay asleep.

Ensure your baby is having adequate sleep over a 24 hour period

The second thing you need to look at if your baby is waking regularly in the night is the overall amount of sleep that they are having in a 24-hour period.  Although this differs hugely between babies if they are getting either too little or too much over and above the recommended guidelines it can dramatically increase night awakening and early risings.

Night feeds can also be a cause of constant night waking’s although it is important to remember that babies especially new born babies sleep lightly and wake often for a reason. It is crucial that they can wake for their night feeds and only when they are physically able to sleep for between 10 -12 hours without needing a feed should you consider trying to remove them altogether. It is important to remember however, that if you are still feeding your baby at night it shouldn’t have to mean no sleep. It is perfectly possible to still have one feed during the night and have good sleep. In fact, is can be beneficial for many breast-feeding mothers to keep up with one feed a night during the first year of their baby’s life as it helps keep up their supply.

Manage your expectations it is perfectly normal for babies to wake fully once or twice during the night in the first 2 years of their lives

It is important to manage your expectations when it comes to night waking’s and your baby’s sleep particularly around the time of major developmental milestones.  During a developmental leap your baby will spend a huge proportion of their night in light sleep.  It is during these stages of light sleep that they take the information from the day and put it in to their long-term memory. It is therefore not surprising that around the time of major developmental milestones that their sleep is lighter as it is this sleep which allows them to process the new motor or mental skills that they have learnt.  When your baby is in  light sleep they are much more likely to wake and therefore during these periods of major development expect them to fully arouse more than normal.  The key is to be patient with them and on yourself, and not set unrealistic expectations when it comes to their sleep at night.  Help them at night waking’s and don’t expect them to self soothe overnight. More than often once they have learnt their new skill/skills they will start to sleep through again.

Sleep Associations are often the cause of night waking’s

Finally, the last thing you need to be aware of when it comes to understanding why you baby may be waking at night are sleep associations.  Whatever you are doing at bedtime be it feeding them to sleep, rocking, patting, holding them in your arms it may well be that when they wake during their nightly sleep cycles they will require you to do the same again for them to fall asleep. This is not a problem as long as you are able to sustain it but there may come a point when feeding your baby to sleep every two hours is not working for you or your family. If this is the case, then you may like to think about trading one association for another that doesn’t directly involve you.

If you would like any more sleep tips and suggestions, please do get in touch for your free initial 15 – minute chat with me.

What kind of sleep issue does your child have quiz!