The 4 Most Common Reasons Your Baby Isn't Sleeping

Are you struggling to get your little one to sleep? Do they go down easily some days but on others you feel like you need the patience of a saint to achieve the same thing? You are not alone.

For some families it can be a real balancing act to get their little ones to sleep, not to mention to stay asleep.

We are here to help. Let’s take a look at 4 of the most common reasons why your little one might not be sleeping well and how to avoid them.

Your little one is overtired:

If your baby has been awake for too long, their little body will start to have a chemical reaction caused by their lack of sleep. This means they start to produce excess Cortisol (a stress hormone) that in turn converts to adrenaline. Your little one is therefore trying to fall asleep while they are in the middle of a ‘fight or flight’ mode experience. This is why overtired babies are incredibly difficult to get to sleep.

To make matters worse, when you do eventually get them to close their eyes, your little one will likely wake shortly after their sleep cycle because their body has gone beyond being tired, it will take some time and patience to get them back on track for better sleep.

The best way to deal with over-tiredness is to avoid it in the first place. Get your little one into a healthy sleep routine with age appropriate awake times and be consistent.

See our Awake Times Guide to help you develop a healthy sleep routine.

Your little one is under-tired:

Under-tired? Yes, Under-tired!

Your little one being under-tired is also a contributing factor to them being able to sleep – although it is the less likely than overtired, especially in younger babies.

Let’s talk sleep pressure. In order to sleep or nap, your little one needs to build up the right amount of sleep pressure. Sleep pressure is the brain’s desire for sleep, and it builds throughout the day. The longer your little one is awake, the more sleep pressure they’ll experience.

If your little one is under-tired (i.e. they haven’t built up enough sleep pressure), they are likely to take a while to settle. They may be smiling, rolling around, or just having a good old chat with you instead of falling asleep.  Or, they may settle easily for their nap but then wake again after only 40-45 minutes, wide awake and difficult to re-settle.

Top tip: Establishing a healthy feeding routine will help you know when your little one is hungry.

Are they hungry?:

Your little one won’t sleep well at all if they’re hungry.

To rule hunger out from the equation, feed breast or bottle-fed babies on demand or at least every 3-4 hours during the day to make sure they’re getting enough calories during the day to sustain them for the longer stretches of sleep overnight. If your little one is established on solids (usually between 6-9 months of age), make sure they’re eating plenty of complex carbohydrates and protein. You can then expect your little one to reduce their night feeds or even wean off of them completely.

Sleep Environment:

There are three key considerations for your little one’s sleep environment – darkness, temperature, and white noise.

• A Dark Room:
  From 3 weeks of age we recommend a dark room for sleep. 
  By putting your little one down for their naps and longer sleeps in a dark space, you’ll be helping them to settle into healthy sleep cycles at an early age.
  When your little one’s in a dark sleep space, their body will release Melatonin – the sleepy hormone.  If the room is too light, it will likely cause your little one’s body to wake up at the end of a sleep cycle, not able to re-settle into their next sleep cycle.

• Room Temperature

  Temperature can also play a role in your little one’s sleep.  Children under 18 months of age cannot self-regulate their body temperature and so they rely on us to dress them appropriately and keep the room at a steady temperature. We recommended keeping your little one’s room at 18-20ﹾ over winter and at 20-24ﹾ over summer.

• Use White Noise

  White noise acts as an additional buffer for your little one from the outside world. Why is buffering helpful? Perhaps you have a noisy neighbour or roadworks going on down the street? White noise is non-addictive and can be played for all naps and overnight sleeps. We recommend playing it between 50-60 dB. When you’re ready to wean your little one off the white noise, just start turning it down and eventually off over the period of about one week.

Want some extra help?

If you’ve ticked off all these boxes but your little one’s still struggling with their sleep, you can book in a free 15min consult.
During our chat we can discuss how we can achieve healthy sleep habits for your little one with a tailored sleep package just for them