When baby will not fall asleep for naps or for bedtime, follow these steps to get baby to fall asleep. Help when baby won’t sleep. You want to fix the current nap or bedtime sleep issue, but you also want to prevent this from becoming a long-term sleep problem.
It can be very stressful when baby takes a long time to fall asleep. You are left wondering what to do and how to respond. Do you leave baby there? Do you get baby up? Do you help baby fall asleep?
You worry about intervening and ruining the sleep progress you have made, but you also worry about not intervening and having an overly tired baby on your hands. Let’s discuss this situation and how to handle it.
What To Do When Baby Takes a Long Time to Fall Asleep
When your baby is taking a long time to fall asleep, here are the steps to take.
How To Handle This Nap or Bedtime
There are different things you need to focus on if your baby is taking a long time to fall asleep. One is what do you do RIGHT NOW to preserve THIS nap or bedtime situation? The other is what do you do to prevent this from becoming a problem every day?
Resettle baby
One thing you can do is resettle your baby. Repeat your sleep routine. Go in to baby and do your entire sleep routine or an abbreviated version of the sleep routine. Then put baby back into the bed to fall asleep on his or her own.
This will work for some babies. For others, it will upset the baby and the baby will never fall asleep independently for this nap. Brayden was the type of baby who did not do well if I went in at all. No way. For all of my girls, I could go in and do a resettle and they would go to sleep.
Some babies will respond to a resettle, but only at the perfect timing for that baby. That might be 15 minutes for one baby and 25 for another.
This illustrates how important it is to take notes! Do it! Take notes! Keep track of what you try and if it works or not. I promise you will not remember all of the details. Not even those of you with amazing memories.
You can use a simple notebook and paper. You can also buy my Book of Logs. These are the actual tracking sheets I made to use with my babies. I have tracking sheets for sleep training, dreamfeed, optimal waketime, independent playtime, daily schedules… It is super helpful.
Move baby to a swing, front carrier, bouncy seat, etc.
Another thing you can do is to help your baby fall back asleep. This helps baby not get too tired to sleep. Ideally, your baby will resettle and go to sleep in his or her crib or bassinet. If not, you want your baby to at least sleep. Getting sleep in a swing is better than no sleep at all.
I have several posts with my sleep hierarchy for the various ages of baby to help you decide when it is okay to do a swing or something similar or when it is better to try to get baby to sleep in the crib.
Leave baby to fall asleep independently
If your baby will not fall asleep after you resettle and baby will not sleep in a swing or other location, another option to leave your little one to fall asleep independently.
Get baby up and start the next cycle
A final idea is to just move forward with your eat/wake/sleep routine and do “eat”. If your baby will not fall asleep at all, just get baby up and do your next cycle. Wait to feed baby as close to feeding time as possible (unless baby is having a growth spurt — remember to always feed baby when baby is hungry).
Once you do feed your baby, you will likely need to put baby to bed soon after the feeding. You do not want the baby getting overly tired. You can let them take a longer nap to make up for the missed sleep from the previous nap.
If this is happening at bed time, if baby will not fall asleep, get baby up, feed baby, and put baby right back to bed.
How to Prevent This from Repeating
Once you have handled the nap or bedtime of baby not sleeping, you will want to work to prevent this from becoming a constant thing.
Keep notes
Track sleep cues. Make sure you have cues correct. Look back at your notes and see what things are in common when baby does not fall asleep. Is it the waketime length? Is it the sleep routine? Look at all of the details.
>>>Read: Baby Sleep Cues and How to Get it Right for Your Baby
Make sure baby isn’t sick or in pain
If baby is sick or in pain from something (like an ear infection, reflux, or gas), baby will have a hard time sleeping. Treat the pain or sickness.
Consider changing waketime length
If baby’s waketime length isn’t correct, baby will not sleep well. Even a five minute difference can make or break a nap. Wake windows changes really often as your baby gets older, so it can feel like a moving target sometimes. Read: Optimal Waketime Lengths and The Cornerstone for Good Naps for more information on this.
Consider changing stimulation levels
Your baby might have too much stimulation or might need more stimulation. Evaluate these and see if baby needs a change. Generally speaking, a younger baby tends to need less stimulation and an older baby needs more stimulation. Read Importance of Exercise and Stimulation for Sleep and How To Calm Your Overstimulated Baby.
Consider extending the schedule
Sometimes your baby does not sleep well because the schedule needs to change. If she is on a 3 hour schedule, you might need to move to a 3.5 hour schedule or might need to move to a 4 hour shedule. Read up on when to move to a 4 hour schedule here.
Consider dropping a nap
Baby might need to drop a nap. Too much daytime sleep can lead to a hard time falling asleep at night or falling asleep for naps.
Read up on these dropping naps tips so you can know if it is time to drop a nap or not.
Be consistent with daily schedule
Your baby will have a hard time sleeping well if you do not have consistency in your daily schedule. Have a consistent time you start each day. Have a consistent bedtime each day. Try your best to keep a consistent schedule throughout the day.
Changes will come. When there are growth spurts, the schedule will be different. That is okay!
Read up on Getting a Consistent Schedule here.
Have a solid sleep routine
Part of your consistency needs to be with your sleep routine. Have a consistent sleep routine you have before naps and before bedtime. See my Sample Nap Routines here for ideas of what works.
Set up the sleep environment
Set your baby’s sleep environment up for the best sleep possible. Your baby might need some white noise or some blackout curtains to sleep better. See my post on Essential Elements to Any Babywise Bedroom for help setting things up for the best sleep.
Conclusion
When your baby has a hard time falling asleep, follow these steps to get the baby sleeping and to prevent future difficulty falling asleep.
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This post first appeared on this blog in April 2019