So now that you know why daytime sleep is important for your child, you’re then faced with the question of how to know if you simply follow “wake windows” for their age or do you work off of a set schedule?Ī wake window is the length of time your child is up between morning time and a nap or from a nap to another nap or a nap and then bedtime. So ensuring your child is getting just the right amount of daytime sleep for their age while also ensuring they are not kept up too long in between naps and bedtime is a key piece of the overall sleep puzzle.When your child becomes overtired not only can it make falling asleep for the nap harder for them sometimes (ironic, I know!) but it can lead to short naps, false starts after bedtime and it can even bring on night wakings. We get this question A LOT! So before we go into the fun stuff, let’s start with some basics around infant and toddler sleep so that you have this foundational understanding of their sleep before we then talk about schedules.ĭaytime sleep and nighttime sleep go hand in hand for your little one! And often when daytime sleep is not only totally thrown off for a few days but it’s not age-appropriate, well, it can make nighttime sleep rough! 9.Breaking down when to purely follow wake windows and when to follow a set, yet flexible schedule Also, if your baby wakes up hungry close to midnight, it is a good idea to change the diaper first and then feed so that they can drift off to a comfy sleep immediately after. If your baby wakes up often, the first thing you should do is check if the diaper needs to be changed. ![]() Wet diapers are not conducive to a peaceful night’s sleep. Second, if you rush in every time your baby cries, they may never learn to soothe themselves back to sleep. Instead, if you wait for a while to let your baby settle down, they may go back to sleep independently. First, picking your baby up from the crib and holding them in your arms further disturbs them and wakes them up fully. However, this could be counterproductive in two ways. Your immediate response when you hear your baby crying in the middle of the night is to rush to hold and comfort them. Dim the lights, put on soothing music, or turn on your white noise machine to create a conducive environment for your baby to enter ‘sleep mode.’ Soon, your baby will start associating this particular environment with sleep time, making it easy for you to put them to sleep. Tweak the baby’s environment when it is bedtime. This might help your baby sleep for a longer duration without waking up in between. Keep track of their daytime nap times and try to gradually minimize the overall nap time during the day. Frequent and long naps during the day can affect their sleep at night. Monitor their daytime napsĪs the baby grows, the number of hours of sleep they need reduces. This sleep training creates an ideal situation where you and your partner have an uninterrupted sleep, and your baby learns to comfort themselves without needing your presence or help. Teach your baby how to soothe themselves to sleep when they wake up in the middle of the night. ![]() Help your baby soothe themselves to sleep ![]() ![]() Studies show that infants fall asleep sooner when they are in an environment with white noise (5). You could invest in a white noise machine or download a white noise app to help your baby drift off to sleep. Because it contains all frequencies, it is used to mask other sounds in the room. White noise is the sound that is produced when sounds of different frequencies are combined.
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