How to solve your child’s night wakings
Every Tuesday over on Instagram we do a free Q+A where you can ask any sleep questions you have about your kids (newborns to preschool age). We have such a great time connecting with you and learning more about your families.
Every week we get tons of questions that go something like this:
“How do I solve my 8 month old’s night wakings?”
“How do I help my 14 month old stop waking for comfort feeds during the night?”
“How do I help my toddler or preschooler sleep without needing me to sleep in their room with them?”
All of these questions essentially ask the same thing: how do I solve my child’s night wakings? Which is EXACTLY what we help parents with here at the Goodnight House. However, the answer to that question is a little bigger than what we can answer in a simple Instagram story slide.
Today on the podcast, I want to take this entire episode to answer this question and help you solve your child’s night wakings! (This episode is for children over 5-6 months old, as newborns are a whole different ball game. Check out our newborn services and free resources).
We also have a free download in the show notes of this episode - it’s a workbook style guide that goes along with this episode and offers even more details to help you solve your child’s night wakings: get the free workbook HERE.
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Sleep is a pretty complex puzzle and every child and family is going to have different aspects to their stories and what they need. I’m going to give you the meat and potatoes of how to solve night wakings, but I need you to know that your child is a unique individual and helping them learn to sleep is not a one size fits all. With that being said, all of the steps I’m going to share with you will apply to every single child and these are the main things you’ll need to focus on when solving your child’s night wakings.
Bedtime routine
We actually have an entire podcast episode all about bedtime routines HERE. The main point and the reason bedtime routines are so vital for helping solve your child’s night wakings is that the steps in a bedtime routine help cue your child’s brain that it’s time for sleep. Each step becomes a cue that tells your child it’s almost time to go to sleep. A solid bedtime routine is a key to helping your little one sleep better.
Those steps and that time during the bedtime routine help your child as they transition from play to sleep. It doesn’t matter so much what you DO during their bedtime routine, as much as it matters that you do the same steps in the same order each and every night.
Bedtime routine does not have to be boring, hush-hush, or feel like a punishment. It can be a special time where you can enjoy each other and spend a few sweet minutes together as a family or one-on-one with your child before you end the day ❤️
In the free download for this episode, we share example bedtime routines for each age and stage - so go download that now if you haven’t so you can see what an age appropriate bedtime routine might look like for your child.
Sleep Props
Have you ever heard of the term “sleep prop” or “sleep association?” Sleep props get a bad rap, but they actually aren’t all bad. Basically, they’re anything external that helps your child fall asleep.
There are two types of sleep props: dependent sleep props and independent sleep props.
Independent sleep props are sleep props that don’t need parental intervention and your child can be independent with them. Independent sleep props are things like swaddles or sleep sacks, a dark room, a bedtime routine, white noise etc.
Dependent Sleep props are sleep props that require parental intervention to help the child fall asleep. These include things like rocking to sleep, feeding to sleep, or laying with your child to help them fall asleep.
If your child has one or more dependent sleep props, it is one of the major reason they experience night wakings. This is because they have to call you for help to assist them back to sleep every time they wake up or transition through sleep cycles.
To help solve your child’s nighttime wake ups, you will want to narrow down what their dependent sleep props are. Download our Free Guide: 4 Steps to Solve your Child’s Night Wakings to learn more about sleep props and figure out what your child’s sleep props are.
Appropriate daytime schedule
The next piece of the puzzle in solving your child’s middle of the night wakings actually has everything to do about their daytime. If a baby or child is overtired or not tired enough when they go to bed at night, they will have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep. For this reason, we want to make sure we are supporting them appropriately during the day with a nap schedule and daytime sleep that meets them where they’re at developmentally.
Download our Free Guide: 4 Steps to Solve your Child’s Night Wakings for a super simple chart where we’ve listed every age up to age 5. Download it now to find out how many naps and how much day sleep your child should be getting. Implementing a developmentally appropriate schedule will serve them so well and set them up for success in the middle of the night!
Consistency in response
The last tip I have for solving your child’s night wakings is to come up with a consistent response for each time your child wakes in the night and needs your support.
The important part here is that as parents, we want to respond vs react to our kids. When we’re intentional and think through what our response will be to middle of the night wakings, we can go to them confidently and support them in a predictable way instead of reacting to their wakings differently each time.
When we respond intentionally, we're ultimately offering a sense of security to our kids. Our kids are able to see how we are responding in confidence, how we're not stressed out or anxious, and they can know and be reassured that they are safe and secure.
You’ve got this!
I really hope this episode has given you some tangible things you can implement starting today. That’s always the goal with each and every podcast episode. If you haven’t yet, I can’t encourage you enough to go download the free guide that goes along with this episode. It’s one of our favorite free resources we offer and it’s packed with helpful information and additional tips to make solving night wakings as simple as possible.
If you’ve gotten to the end of this podcast and feel like you can run with these steps to solve your child’s night wakings, that makes us SO excited and we are cheering you on!!
If you’re at the end of this and thinking you’d like some extra support through the sleep training process, we’re here for you! For some families, the 5th step to solving their child’s night wakings is getting support from a sleep consultant! When we work 1:1 with families, we do a deep dive into every aspect of a child’s days / nights / personality / family dynamics - and make a plan that uniquely fits that child and the family’s needs.
We would be honored to come alongside you and walk through this process with you! Check out our 1:1 personalized sleep plans (or if you have a newborn, check out our Online Newborn Sleep Class).