Have you heard of the old saying “Never wake a sleeping baby”. This is a pretty big baby sleep myth. I love the saying and I am all for prioritizing a baby’s sleep; but I always want to put a bit of a caveat on it. For me, I want a baby to be able to sleep as long as they want, after all sleep is so important, but there are times I do have to suggest you wake a baby. In this article I cover 7 times it is ok to wake a sleeping baby.
1) To feed a newborn.
Newborns need to feed very regularly. This is incredibly important as they work towards gaining their birth weight in the first couple of weeks and then keep regular weight gain after that. It also helps to ensure that the breastfeeding parent is doing well with milk production. Every newborn is different with exactly how often, but as a lactation counselor I suggest between 9-12 feeds a day. This equates to needing a feeding every 2-3 hours. In order to make sure a baby feeds that regularly they will likely need to be woken sometimes. In fact, lactation experts also suggest feeding newborn babies during REM sleep, so that actually means picking a baby up when they are still sleeping!
2) To work on day and night confusion.
Day and night confusion – when a newborn baby sleeps around the clock off and on with no real pattern. Their longest period of sleep (which may be no longer than 4 hours) can happen any time of the day or night. Waking babies regularly to eat during this period helps a baby’s internal clock adjust and develop their circadian rhythm.
3) To preserve their sleep schedule.
Once a baby has hit 6 months of age a baby’s naps are generally on a set schedule as these times are based on their circadian rhythm. They are times on the clock where their body is primed and ready to sleep and thus they are more likely to take long naps. This means it is important to wake a sleeping baby by 7am so that they can hit that ideal morning nap time. We may also wake them from a nap if the nap is too long and will impact on them hitting that next nap time.
4) Too much daytime sleep which is then impacting on nighttime sleep.
This one I don’t suggest too often but it can happen. If a baby is sleeping so lon during day time naps that they are getting too much day sleep and it is causing issues like night wakings or early wake ups then it can be helpful to cap naps. Some sleep consultants will suggest just capping all naps at 2 hours, but I don’t tend to suggest doing this unless it truly is causing issues overnight as I believe all sleep is important. And more often than not if a baby is taking a longer nap it is because they need it.
5) It is too close to bedtime.
Babies who are past the newborn phase require a bedtime between 6 to 8 pm. If the baby is sleeping too long during their last nap of the day and it is getting too close to bedtime, it can be useful to wake them. This is because they won’t build up enough sleep pressure by their ideal bedtime and becuase a too late bedtime can lead to less deep sleep, which generally happens before midnight.
6)Wake your baby to do dream feed.
So this one is isn’tr one I usually suggest, but many parents find useful in the newborn period to help their baby sleep long stretches at a more ideal time of the night (after mom and dad go to bed). It doesn’t work for all babies unfortunately (it certainly didn’t for my second son), but if it works for you, then this can be a reason to wake a sleeping baby.
7) Because your baby is close to a nap transition.
If your baby is close to a nap transition, but not quite ready to fully transition you may need to cap a nap. This is because you won’t be able to fit all their naps in on schedule while ensuring bedtime isn’t too late.
Hopefully any new parent reading this feel confident now that it is okay to wake their sleeping baby sometimes, especially when you are working so hard on developing healthy sleep habits.
If you’d love some help and support with your little one’s sleep please do not hesitate to reach out. Helping parents with their child or baby’s sleep is my super power! I offer packages to suit everybody’s needs and budget.
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