Sleep Basics
Every new parent yearns for the key to unlocking a restful night’s sleep for their baby, and in turn, for themselves. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve experienced your fair share of sleepless nights and are seeking a better understanding of your baby’s wake windows and sleep needs. And, you’re in the right place.
Good sleep is as essential to your baby’s growth and development as nutrition (1). However, establishing a consistent sleep routine can often seem like a daunting task, brimming with uncertainties. There’s no shortage of advice – from countless Google searches to the myriad of sleep tips on social media from sleep experts and sleep consultants, advice from well-meaning family members, and endless comparisons with other people’s children. Falling into these traps can complicate the process even more. This guide is designed to help you navigate this often complex journey with a better understanding and less pressure.
We’ll explore ‘wake windows’ and ‘sleepy cues,’ two fundamental concepts in managing your child’s sleep routine (2). Understanding these elements can help create a flexible and healthy sleep schedule, leading to better sleep for your child and more predictable, less stressful days for you.
By learning to attune to your child’s sleep cues and understanding age-appropriate wake windows, you’ll be equipped to balance your child’s sleep pressure, a crucial factor affecting the length and quality of their sleep (3). We will also discuss the changing sleep needs of your child as they grow and how to adjust their wake windows accordingly (4).
Remember, as with any parenting strategy, what we offer here are general guidelines and not strict rules. Every child has different sleep needs, and you know your baby best. This guide will empower you to make informed decisions tailored to your child’s needs as well as your family’s lifestyle.
Wake windows provide a framework for understanding and managing the periods your baby is awake between sleep sessions (either naps or nighttime). These windows of wakefulness are crucial for establishing a predictable rhythm in your child’s day and forming flexible sleep schedules. But to fully grasp their importance, we must delve into the concept of sleep drive (5).
Your child’s sleep drive is essentially their need for sleep. Think of it as a sleep ‘appetite’ that gradually builds throughout the day as a child has more wake time. Just as hunger builds between meals and is relieved by eating, sleep pressure accumulates during periods of time awake and is relieved by sleeping (6). The longer your baby is awake, the stronger their sleep drive becomes. However, if a baby stays awake too long, they can hit a “second wind”, and their body will introduce more cortisol and adrenaline to help them stay awake. This creates a burst of energy that makes settling down for sleep more difficult. This is where wake windows step in to help.
Wake windows provide a structured timeline to ensure your baby gets the chance to nap and relieve the building sleep pressure before reaching that second wind stage. By understanding the appropriate awake windows for your baby’s age, you can work in sync with their natural sleep drive, making nap times and bedtimes a smoother experience for both of you and making sure you meet your baby’s needs.
Your baby’s sleep isn’t just about feeling tired, it also involves a sleep hormone called melatonin, which is guided by your baby’s body clock, or circadian rhythm (7). This rhythm responds to things like light and temperature, helping your baby produce melatonin when it’s dark and cool (8).
When talking about daytime sleep, when there’s less melatonin, your baby might resist napping, even if they’re really tired. This can make figuring out your baby’s nap schedule a bit tricky. However, by using wake windows to align naps with when your baby is naturally sleepy, you can help them take better and more restful naps.
Wake windows and sleepy cues are two key elements in understanding and managing your child’s sleep. Wake windows refer to the amount of time your baby is awake between sleep periods. As discussed earlier, they help ensure your child builds up enough sleep pressure to have longer stretches of sleep.
On the other hand, sleepy cues are your little one’s way of telling you they’re ready for sleep. These might be subtler in some children, which is why it’s essential to understand age-appropriate wake windows. Signals may range from yawning, rubbing eyes, fussing, and loss of interest in people or toys to more significant cues like grimacing vigorous wiggling, or intense crying.
At Sleep School, we promote an approach that harmonizes both factors. By attuning to your child’s sleepy cues and keeping an eye on when the next wake window ends, you can strike a balance that optimizes your child’s sleep pressure, enabling efficient settling for both naps and night sleep.
Relying solely on sleepy cues can lead to a disorganized sleep schedule. Given the natural energy ebbs and flows throughout the day, following these cues alone might result in short naps/catnaps and nap refusal. Even though your child seemed ready to nap, without enough sleep pressure build-up, they may fight the nap, or settle to sleep for just a short nap. This can lead to a scenario in which your child only took a short nap earlier in the day and then fought sleep for the rest of the day leading to an overtired baby.
Overtiredness is a common cause of frequent wake-ups and early rising, particularly during periods of change in your baby’s sleep patterns, such as during the notorious 6-month sleep regression. Understanding and utilizing both wake windows and sleepy cues together is pivotal to handling these changes and establishing a healthy sleep schedule for your baby, especially in the first year when naps change so much.
It’s important to note that terms like ‘overtiredness’ or ‘second wind’ often arise in baby sleep conversations, sometimes creating unnecessary alarm. They refer to states of nervous system dysregulation, which occur when a baby stays awake beyond their comfortable limit, disrupting their internal balance of alertness and calmness. However, one day of off-kilter naps won’t spiral your baby into overtiredness; it’s usually an accumulation of sleep debt over several days. And the good news? As caregivers, you have the ability to help your child regulate their systems when they become dysregulated. This is known as ‘coregulation’, and it’s a powerful tool in helping your baby develop healthy sleep habits.
When it comes to baby sleep, one size does not fit all. The amount of sleep a child needs can significantly vary depending on their age, development, and individual disposition. While there are general guidelines to provide an idea of how much sleep your baby might need, it’s essential to remember that these are averages and not strict quotas.
Instead of solely focusing on the number of hours slept, it’s equally important to pay attention to your child’s mood, energy levels, and overall well-being. A child who is cheerful, alert, and engaged during their awake times is likely getting adequate rest, regardless of whether their sleep duration matches the guidelines precisely.
That said, the National Sleep Foundation’s guidelines (as of July 2023) do offer a useful starting point for gauging your child’s sleep needs over a 24-hour period:
For newborn wake windows (0-3 months), there are no specific guidelines due to the wide variance in sleep needs in this age group. The key is to monitor your newborn’s sleep and adjust accordingly, bearing in mind that newborn sleep patterns are highly erratic and will stabilize over time.
In essence, while it’s useful to have guidelines, they should serve as a reference point rather than a hard and fast rule. Each child is unique, and the optimal amount of sleep can vary from one child to the next.
Wake windows tend to expand as your child grows and can tolerate longer periods of alertness before needing sleep again.
It’s crucial to remember that these guidelines are just that—guidelines (9). Every child is unique, with some able to stay awake for more extended periods of time, while others need shorter stretches. As such, these recommended wake windows should be used as starting points, which you can then adjust to best fit your child’s individual sleep habits.
Additionally, for prematurely born babies, it’s important to calculate their age based on the original due date, not the actual birth date. This adjustment allows for a more accurate understanding of their sleep development stages (10).
The following table provides a general idea of the average awake time between naps for different age groups. Keep in mind, these should serve as rough guides, and your child may need more or less awake time:
Given these guidelines, the next step is to translate these principles into practice and fine-tune them to your specific child’s sleep patterns. Always remember, every child is unique, and the most successful sleep schedules take individual needs and preferences into account.
Generally, wake windows start shorter in the morning and get longer as the day goes on (11). Calculating wake windows, as with much about parenting, isn’t an exact science. While we often suggest calculating wake windows from the time your child is removed from their sleep space to the time they are put back into it, this is a simplification meant to provide a general guideline.
For example, if your little one wakes up at 6:30am but stays content in their crib until 6:45am, that’s when you might start tracking their first wake window. So, if you’re aiming for a 2.5-hour first wake window, you would aim to start their first nap at 9:15am. The rest of the day will flow from there depending on the length of that first nap. Start the second wake window from the time you remove your baby from the sleep space, until their next nap.
However, the true calculation of wake windows should ideally take into account more than just time. Your child’s temperament upon waking, how restful their sleep was, their daily activities, mood, and various other factors all play a part in determining the ideal length of their wake window. This might feel complex, and sometimes it is, but as you grow more attuned to your child’s needs and patterns, you’ll become more adept at navigating these nuances.
Remember, these times and calculations are not absolutes but are flexible guidelines. The goal isn’t about strict adherence to the clock or solely reacting to your baby’s sleepy cues. Instead, it’s about learning to tune into your child’s sleepy cues while using the wake window concept as a useful backdrop. For instance, if your 6-month-old shows sleepy cues only an hour after waking, it’s likely they haven’t yet accumulated enough sleep pressure for a substantial nap. By waiting a bit longer, you allow more sleep pressure to build, thus enabling a longer, more restful nap.
Think of wake windows as a gradient or range, providing a flexible framework to understand your child’s sleep needs. The balance between observing your child’s cues and using these guidelines sets the stage for healthier, more effective sleep patterns. This approach acknowledges the complexity of baby sleep and empowers you to respond adaptively to your child’s unique needs.
As your child grows, their increased engagement with the world means they’ll need more wakefulness to accumulate enough sleep pressure for longer, more restful slumbers. Until they transition to a single daily nap (usually between 14-18 months), you’ll likely need to revise their sleep schedule every 4-6 weeks.
However, the need for schedule adjustments doesn’t end there. You should also consider a reassessment if you notice persistent sleep challenges, such as extended bedtime routines, frequent night waking, split nights, or early rising that can’t be attributed to any recent travel, illness, or alterations in your child’s environment (like starting daycare, the birth of a sibling, or moving house) (11).
In essence, establishing a flexible sleep schedule that evolves with your child ensures they get the rest they need at each developmental stage, promoting overall well-being and healthy growth (12).
Understanding your baby’s wake windows and sleepy cues, along with the concepts of dysregulation and coregulation, are empowering tools in your parenting toolbox. These insights can transform the sometimes chaotic process of getting your baby to sleep into a more predictable and manageable part of your day.
This understanding allows you to be proactive, rather than reactive, in your approach to your child’s sleep. You can preempt sleep problems before they start and better manage them when they do arise. Recognizing the signs of sleepiness can help you guide your child to sleep before they experience dysregulation. Moreover, understanding wake windows can help structure your day in a way that promotes restful, restorative sleep, while the practice of coregulation provides a means to help your baby regain balance when needed.
Remember, every baby is unique, so these guidelines may need to be adapted to fit your child and your family’s lifestyle. And as with any aspect of parenting, there will be days when things don’t go as planned, and that’s okay. The most important thing is to provide a loving, nurturing environment for your child to grow and thrive.
In the world of baby sleep, knowledge truly is power. So, take these insights, apply them to your family’s needs, and watch as your understanding of your baby’s sleep patterns grows. Happy sleeping!
