Waking a sleeping baby can completely go against our natural instincts. And we've all heard the rule "Never Wake a Sleeping Baby!!". Also let's be honest - it's always tempting to leave them longer and enjoy another cuppa or do whatever is is you do during naptime!
However, there are some reasons why you may want to wake a sleeping baby.
If they are on multiple naps and one is going over 2 hours. This may likely impact their sleep pressure for the next nap and bedtime. Also - it helps ensure your feeding routine! For toddlers - it might be they sleep 2.5 hours in the day as their only nap which is perfectly normal - but again I'd try not to go over that.
To help squeeze in their last nap! If they aren't ready to nap drop - and that last nap is still needed you may need to cap the others to make it happen.
Day plans! Sometimes we just have other things going on - so we may need to cap the first nap to allow those baby classes etc to happen. Let them make up for it in the next nap!
Helping their circadian rhythm If your little one in the younger days is struggling between the difference of night and day sleep - we may need to help them in this. When babies are first born, they have no circadian rhythm and so waking them to ensure the morning start or daylight exposures can hep reinforce the night and day sleep.
To bring a consistent wake time to their day. And I know how tempting it is to sleep right through wake time if they've had a tough night too! This is often one of the biggest things I see - where the wake time varies too much but bedtime stays the same. This often brings a different sleep pressure - and therefore different night patterns. If you want to see consistency in timings and impacts on the nights - the mornings need to fall into place too. It doesn't have to be by the minute, but within around 15 minutes of your ideal wake time.
Too much day Sleep! If your little one is sleeping less overnight, and catching up during the day and this is impacting the nights - you may need to consider capping the nap! Split nights and bedtime battles can often be closely linked to too much day sleep!
And if you do need to wake your little one - even just opening the blinds, making some subtle noises around their sleep space can be enough to get them to gently rouse out of sleep. Or it may be taking them out the car, or a more noticeable wake up depending on your little one.
Exceptions to this will likely be if they are poorly - as their bodies may just need that bit more rest. But there is also nothing wrong with needing to wake our little ones from sleep. And it's ok to want them to get the best sleep pressure to ensure the nights bring that great, deep sleep that is needed for their growth and development too.
Some babies do well without a schedule, and their nights uninterrupted no matter what the day sleep looks like. For the most part though, most babies are much more time sensitive than we think so helping them in this may be the key!
If you feel as though their day sleep is forever changing - come Join Us Here to get that support for consistently great sleep!
Jade Sleep Nanny
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