Why Does My Baby Keep Waking Up In The Middle Of The Night?
By: Naré Panossian, P.A.-C, Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant

This might be the single most common question new parents ask.

Is it a developmental milestone? A regression? Are they getting too much sleep during the day, or not enough? Maybe they are just hungry. Maybe they are too hot or too cold.

Well, the truth is, it could be any of those things, and it could be a combination of several of them.

What that means, and what you have probably already figured out, is that sleep for babies is tremendously complicated.

Their bodies and brains are rapidly going through significant changes. By the time they have one issue under control, a new one pops up to take its place.

There are factors you can control, obviously. If your baby is too hot, you can turn up the AC or put a fan in the room. If they are teething, a little medication can often solve the problem, at least temporarily.

But those are the simple fixes. The reason most people have such a challenging time with their child’s sleep is because of problems that aren’t so simple and don’t have obvious solutions.

Imagine this scenario: An 18 month old child gets plenty of fresh air and sunlight during the day, goes down easily for long, restful naps, but when bedtime rolls around, suddenly they are full of energy and want to play. When they are told it’s time for bed, they get upset and bedtime becomes a battle. Once they do finally get to sleep, they wake up several times at night and never sleep past 5:30 in the morning.

So what’s going on? Is baby getting too much sleep during the day?

That would be the reasonable assumption, for sure. After all, if us grown-ups were lucky enough to have the time to take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, there’s a good chance we would have a hard time falling and staying asleep that night.

But, the opposite is almost always the case. What the baby is demonstrating in this scenario is actually a need for more sleep, not less.

In order to understand this counterintuitive reasoning, first a little scientific background on how this whole system of sleep works.

About three hours prior to when we are naturally prone to waking up, our bodies start secreting a hormone called cortisol. If you have done some reading on your baby’s sleep prior to this, the sight of that word probably causes you to flinch a little.

Cortisol is a stimulating hormone, and is also produced in times of stress, in order to elevate the heart rate and stimulate the nervous system. But, in the morning, it’s just trying to get us started. Think of it as mother nature’s caffeine.

If cortisol is our morning cup of coffee, melatonin is our evening wind down glass of wine or cup of chamomile tea. Once the sun starts to go down, our bodies recognize the onset of night and begin to produce this lovely sleep-inducing hormone, which helps us get to sleep and stay asleep until morning, when the whole process starts over again. Melatonin production is increased and starts earlier in the evening when we awaken to some nice, bright sunlight.

But, as beautifully crafted as this system is, it’s not perfect and it’s easily confused. So, in the situation we examined above, here is what’s happening...

Baby is taking great naps during the day, which is obviously wonderful, and getting lots of time outdoors, so their body is ready to crank out some melatonin when nighttime rolls around. So, what’s with that burst of energy right before bedtime?

When baby’s body has begun producing melatonin, there is a narrow window of time when the body expects baby to be going to sleep. After all, they are a baby. What do they have to stay awake for? They don’t watch The Real Housewives and they haven’t discovered the Internet yet.

The brain instinctively decides that something isn’t right; that for whatever reason, baby can’t sleep. And, if baby senses any stress, adding a shot of cortisol should help increase their chance for survival.

So, that is exactly what it does. Baby’s system starts secreting cortisol and, before you know it, they are a little bit cranked. This often shows up in the form of playfulness and an abundance of energy. In short, baby missed the window and now they are going to have a hard time getting to sleep, but their behavior indicates anything but sleepiness.

What does all of this have to do with the dreaded 3 A.M. wake ups?

Assuming your baby’s circadian rhythm is scheduling a 6 A.M. wake up, then their body starts to secrete cortisol three hours prior to that and at this point, the melatonin production has ceased for the night. So, baby hits the end of a sleep cycle around 3:00 am. They get to that “slightly awake” state, and now there is a little bit of stimulant and no natural sedative. This, combined with a lack of independent sleep skills, means that baby is probably going to wake up fully, and have a really hard time getting back to sleep.

Now, for the big question you have probably been hoping I might have an answer for after reading through all that scientific stuff. How do I fix it?!
While there is no quick fix for adjusting a baby’s hormone production schedule, you can definitely help out by getting them outdoors during the day as much as possible. As I mentioned before, natural light during the day is the big cheerleader for melatonin production at night.

It also helps to ensure that your baby’s room is as dark as you can get it at night and start turning down the lights in the house at least one hour before bedtime. Simulating the sunset will help cue melatonin production so that it’s in full swing when it time to go into the crib.

Avoid any TV, iPhone, tablet, or screen time of any kind for that same hour before bedtime,(preferably even longer) as these devices emit a geyser of blue light, which will stimulate cortisol production right at the time when you are trying to avoid it.

But above all, the number one way to help your baby sleep through the night is to get them on a predictable, consistent sleep schedule and teach them the skills they need to fall asleep independently.

The truth is, you are never going to prevent nighttime wake ups. We all wake up in the night, regardless of our age. As adults, we just have the ability to calmly assess the situation when we wake up in the dark, realize where we are, see that it’s still nighttime, and go right back to sleep. Most of the time we don’t even remember it the next morning.

So, although we can’t prevent baby from waking up at night, we can safely and effectively help them learn to recognize that they are safe, in familiar territory, still tired, and capable of getting back to sleep on their own. You can find more information about how to do this by downloading my “5 Tips to Get Your Baby Sleeping Through the Night” guide.

Hope this helps and you and your family get the rest you need and deserve!