What Changed? Why Your Child May Be Waking Up Overnight

Sleep is crucial for everyone, particularly for children who are growing and learning. We all recognize the importance of a good night's rest for our little ones. Yet, there are times when children wake up for seemingly no reason at all. One common factor could be that something in the bedroom environment changed after they fell asleep. Understanding these factors and their effects can help parents manage nighttime awakenings effectively.

How Sleep Works

Even when it feels like we slept soundly, we are actually waking up all night long. According to John Hopkins, most of us experience mini-awakenings, without even noticing them, up to 20 times per hour! As long as everything is the same as when we fell asleep, most of us can put ourselves quickly back to sleep without disruption. But if something in the environment is different than when we fell asleep, this may lead to a longer middle of the night awakening.

This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective where we needed to be very aware of our surroundings to survive. If we have a micro-awakening and conditions are the same (e.g. no Saber-toothed tiger), we fall right back asleep. If we have a micro-awakening and conditions are not the same (e.g. tiger footsteps), we definitely do not want to fall back asleep.

Even though we thankfully don't have to deal with many of the same dangers, our brains are still operating under this system. We can use this knowledge to set our environments up to be the same all night, giving us the best chance of preventing long overnight wake ups.

Common Bedroom Changes That Affect Sleep

When changes in the bedroom environment occur, even subtly, children may wake up in the middle of the night. Here are some common factors that can impact the sleep environment:

Temperature Fluctuations

Changes in temperature are an important factor in how we sleep. Our natural circadian rhythm includes a drop in core temperature, which signals the body that it's time for sleep. Ideally, a child's bedroom should be cool, around 65-70°F. If the room temperature creeps too far out of this range during the night, children may wake up feeling uncomfortable. If you know your house tends to get warmer throughout the night, it can be helpful to set the thermometer on the cooler end of the range and dress children in lighter weight clothing and blankets to prevent overheating.

Tip: Regularly check the thermostat for cool, consistent temperatures and dress children in lightweight pajamas.

Noise Levels

There are many noises that may be happening in the house while a child is falling asleep. In order to help their children fall asleep with noise around them, many parents will put on some calming music or a sound machine, which can be very effective. Understandably, parents may place the music on a timer or turn it off when they are going to bed. But as we discovered, this change could lead to middle of the night awakenings. If using sound at bedtime, make sure it stays on and consistent the entire night. A white noise machine (60 decibels or less) or a fan can be good options for this.

Tip: Using a white noise machine or fan that stays on all night can help drown out other noises and create a consistent signal for sleep.

Light Exposure

Studies have shown that as many as 3 out of 4 children are afraid of the dark (Muris, 2001) If your child wants to sleep with a light on, they are definitely not alone. Take this common scenario- your child falls asleep with the hallway light on, so when you go to bed you understandably turn the light off. However, this may lead to your child having difficulty falling back asleep when they wake up in the middle of the night and are afraid of the dark again. One way to address this is placing a small nightlight off to the side of their bed (not directly in their line of sight) that can stay on the entire night.

Tip: If your child doesn't like to sleep in complete darkness, try a small nightlight that can stay on all night.

Bottles

Many young children rely on the comfort of drinking a bottle to drift off to sleep, but when they wake in the middle of the night and the bottle is empty, this may lead to getting out of bed or calling out in search of more. Switching the bottle out for a pacifier can be helpful, because the pacifier is able to stay consistent all night long. Put multiple pacifiers in the bed so your child can easily find another pacifier if they drop one. If your child is asking you to come put their pacifier back in if it drops, practicing doing this skill independently during the day may be beneficial.

Tip: Replace bottles with multiple pacifiers that child can put back in their mouth independently.

Caregiver Presence

Since it is very common for children to be afraid to sleep alone, parents will often lie down with their child to help them fall asleep and then quietly sneak back to their own bed once the child is asleep. As you can probably predict by now, if the child wakes up and finds the parent gone, they might call out or go to their parents' bed to look for them. The solution for this is in teaching the child to sleep independently though sleep training methods that slowly fade the presence of the caregiver over time until the child is able to fall asleep by themselves.

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Tip: Use sleep training methods to teach independent sleep.

When to Seek Help

While occasional awakenings are normal and often manageable with environmental adjustments, frequent disturbances may require further attention. If your child regularly has trouble falling or staying asleep, consulting a pediatrician or sleep specialist can be beneficial.

Tip: Each morning, briefly document how your child slept the night before on your phone's calendar or notes section. This information can provide valuable insights during your consultation.

References

Muris P, Merckelbach H, Ollendick TH, King NJ, Bogie N. Children's nighttime fears: parent-child ratings of frequency, content, origins, coping behaviors and severity. Behav Res Ther. 2001 Jan;39(1):13-28. doi: 10.1016/s0005-7967(99)00155-2. PMID: 11125721.