Why is my baby waking up at night?

This is by far the most common question posed about baby sleep. “Why?” Exhausted parents seek an answer to this question to either help explain and rationalize appropriate night wakings (just knowing that there is a good reason for night wakings can calm frayed parent nerves) or remedy night wakings that have reached an unsustainable level. Let’s break it down.

Age

Newborns (ages 0-4 months) have tiny tummies and need to eat every couple of hours. Newborns SHOULD be waking throughout the night to eat. Around 8-12 weeks your newborn should hopefully be settling in for at least one longer stretch at the beginning of the night. By 4 months (i.e. no longer a newborn) your baby has the potential to sleep through the night with 1-2 wakes for eating. By 6 months most pediatricians and lactation consultants agree that night feeding is not necessary for nutritional purposes, though can be continued if it is mutually enjoyable to parent and baby. In my experience, night feeding past 6 months ends up being more disruptive to sleep than helpful.

Bottom line - it is developmentally appropriate for your baby to wake to eat between birth-6 months of age.

Actual hunger vs. habitual hunger

Just because your 6+ month old baby wakes to eat does not mean night feeding must continue indefinitely. If night feeds are getting more and more disruptive to your and your baby’s sleep, ask your pediatrician if your baby needs to continue night feeds for nutritional purposes.

Babies under 6 months old may be hungry 1+ times over night and should be fed. But if your 11 month old is still waking twice for a 6oz bottle each time, you may be thinking “well I have to feed her, she's hungry." Yes, she has habitual hunger, but that does not mean it's an appropriate meal time. If, for the past 6 months, she has always eaten twice overnight, her body has adjusted to that routine, and she will continue to wake to eat even though overnight meals are unnecessary (and sleep-disruptive) at that age. The good news is you can change that habit!

If your baby is 6+ months old and showing no signs of self-weaning middle-of-the-night feeds (and your pediatrician has given you the go-ahead to night wean) then you can nudge your baby in that direction by gradually weaning. This will help your baby get used to fewer calories overnight over a period of 1-2 weeks rather than cutting feeds cold turkey. If your baby is breastfed, time the number of minutes your baby typically nurses during a night feed, and slowly decrease the time you offer the breast. For example - if your baby typically nurses for 15 minutes at each wake, unlatch your baby at 12 minutes for 2-3 days, then 10 minutes for 2-3 days, then 7 minutes for 2-3 days, then 5 minutes for 2-3 days, then no more nursing during night wakes. You can choose an alternate method to soothe your baby during a night wake or work on independent falling back to sleep.

If your baby is bottle fed, gradually reduce the number of ounces in each overnight bottle. For example - if your baby typically takes a 5oz bottle at each night wake, then offer a 4oz bottle for 2-3 nights, then a 3oz bottle for 2-3 nights, then a 2oz bottle for 2-3 nights, then no more bottles during night wakes. You can choose an alternate method to soothe your baby during a night wake or work on independent falling back to sleep.

Bottom line - just because your 6+ month old baby is eating a lot overnight does not mean they NEED to eat overnight for nutrition purposes. If sleep is highly disrupted, consider night weaning to help your baby sleep longer stretches.

Dream feeds

A dream feed is when you rouse your sleeping baby to eat before you go to sleep in the hopes that preemptive feeding will. allow for a longer stretch of sleep. There is a place for dream feeding newborns, particularly if your baby always seems to wake 30-60 minutes after you fall asleep. However, beyond 4 months, if you are still offering an early evening dream feed you may be contributing to further night wakes.

Once your baby is about 4 months old, they have more developed circadian rhythms (24-hour cycles of bodily functions, including sleep). From bedtime through midnight is when the bulk of your baby’s deepest sleep occurs. Waking your baby to eat during this delicious stretch of deep sleep is counter-productive and likely to exacerbate wakes throughout the rest of the night. The older your baby is, the harder it will be for your baby to fall back to sleep after a dream feed as well.

Bottom line - if you are in the habit of offering dream feeds, make sure to stop offering them once your baby turns 4 months old.

Overtiredness

What exactly is the state of being overtired? Overtiredness occurs when your body is ready for sleep but you are not sleeping. When that happens, your body essentially says “hey, I can help you stay awake!” and starts pumping out adrenaline and cortisol, hormones to keep you awake and alert. When you finally do try to sleep, those hormones are still present in your body and can make it harder to fall asleep and/or can lead to night wakes.

Babies can experience overtiredness from too much awake time between naps, too-late bedtimes, and too-little overall sleep. If a baby has been awake far longer than is expected for their age, or has gotten much less overall daytime sleep than they need, that baby is very likely to wake during the night.

Bottom line - make sure your baby is getting an age-appropriate number of naps, hours of sleep, and bedtime.

Too much noise or light

This light is far too bright! Save the light projections for play time and keep your baby’s sleep space nice and dark.

Our brains are wired to respond to light and dark cues. Once a baby is over 4 months old, that baby is more likely to be awakened by light. Make sure to keep your baby’s room dark. This might mean investing in some blackout curtains or extra window shades so your baby’s room is super dark for naps and bedtime.

Some babies are especially sensitive to sounds. Even the sound of a parent turning in bed or snoring can rouse a baby in light sleep! If your baby is currently room-sharing, consider adding a white noise machine to the bedroom to help muffle extraneous sounds. Some parents also find their baby sleeps better in a separate room.

Bottom line - keep your baby's room dark and quiet.

Non-independent falling asleep

This is probably the most common reason that a baby is experiencing multiple night wakes. If a baby falls asleep with the assistance of motion (rocking, bouncing), contact/cuddling, bottle, breast, or paci and that assistance is REMOVED after the baby falls asleep (i.e. transferring your baby to the crib), your baby is likely to wake throughout the night looking for that assistance again.

This all goes back to sleep science. Every night we all go through periods of light and deep sleep. During our lightest phase of sleep we go through a “partial awakening” during which we are not conscious but our brain is alert enough to assess the environment around us. If the sleep environment is pretty much the same as when we fell asleep, we don’t recall this mini wake up and fall back into a deep sleep. If something has changed significantly our brain registers that difference and is likely to wake us fully because something must be wrong with our sleep environment! For example, if your baby is typically rocked to sleep and then transferred to the crib, during a partial awakening your baby’s brain is going “whoah - there was motion, I was in Daddy’s arms, now I’m on my back, it’s still. How on earth did I get here? I need to get back to that rocking” and your baby is likely wake up and cry out for that rocking to restart.

Bottom line - working on independent falling asleep at the beginning of the night will help your baby stay asleep during the night.

Hopefully this demystifies the WHY of night wakes. If you're stuck trying to figure out how to achieve better sleep, please reach out for sleep support!

Rachel Glantz is the certified pediatric sleep consultant and founder of Pine Street Sleep LLC.