Why Keeping Your Baby Awake to Encourage Nighttime Sleep BACKFIRES Every Time!

“I’ll just keep my baby awake during the day so they’ll sleep better at night”

Surprise, this will backfire on you every time!

Babies have high sleep needs compared to adults, from 18-20 hours out of every 24 for a newborn, to 14 out of every 24 hours for babies 6-11 months. Even well into the toddler and preschool age they do best with 11-13 hours out of 24. It’s up to us to help them divide these hours appropriately into both daytime naps and overnight sleep.

I know how tempting it is, as a tired new parent, to want to keep your baby up later at night in hopes of getting a longer stretch of sleep before you have to get up again. Although staying awake longer might have a sleepy-inducing effect on us as adults, babies are the opposite!

A baby who doesn’t get an appropriate amount of daytime sleep will be fussy, cranky, whiny, overstimulated, and resist bedtime. This over-tiredness will actually result in MORE night wakings, and an EARLIER morning wake time!

Over time, they will be running a “sleep deficit” and it will become even more difficult to get them to unlearn chronic fussiness, bedtime battles, and frequent wakings.

What to do instead to help your baby sleep better at night:

Follow appropriate wake windows and daytime naps. Young babies have late bedtimes, and older babies have early bedtimes! For example, a 4 month old takes 4 naps a day, so their last feeding of the day before bedtime is going to be later at night - closer to your bedtime. While a 9 month old who only takes 2 naps a day, is going to start their final bedtime routine at 6:30pm!

Make sure you are laying your baby down awake, in a sleep sack for comfort and warmth, in a dark nursery, with a sound machine and a pacifier (if they like one), before they get over-tired.

Watch your baby for sleepy cues (blinking, rubbing their heads, clumsiness or avoiding eye contact). It’s always important to keep one eye on the baby and one eye on the clock, never fixating on just one or the other. If your baby is displaying sleepy cues, but according to the clock it’s still 15 minutes away until naptime, you can go ahead and lay your baby down so they don’t become over-tired!

If you need help figuring out your baby’s wake windows and ideal nap times, get my free printable daily baby sleep schedule according to age!

Make sure you’re following me on Insta for tons of sleep education!