Baby
Why Your Baby Wakes Every 2 Hours
By Raised Editorial ยท
Is your baby waking up like clockwork every two hours, all night long? The culprit is usually a 'sleep association.' Here is how to identify and break the cycle.
In the newborn phase, you expect to wake up every two hours. But when your 5-month-old or 9-month-old starts waking up at 11 PM, 1 AM, 3 AM, and 5 AM, sleep deprivation reaches a dangerous new level.
When a baby past the newborn stage wakes up consistently every two hours, it is rarely due to hunger. It is almost always a biological issue related to how their sleep cycles work.
Here is a troubleshooting guide to understanding why your baby is waking up like clockwork, and how to fix it.
The Culprit: The Sleep Cycle
Starting around 4 months of age, a baby's sleep cycle matures. A single infant sleep cycle lasts roughly 45 to 90 minutes. At the end of every cycle, they briefly wake up.
This brief waking is an evolutionary survival mechanism to check their surroundings. Am I safe? Am I warm? Is a predator nearby?
If the answer is yes, they usually roll over and go straight into the next sleep cycle. You probably don't even know they woke up.
So why is your baby screaming for you every time this happens?
The "Sleep Association" Trap
When your baby wakes up at the end of a sleep cycle, they check to see if their environment is exactly the same as it was when they fell asleep.
If they fell asleep while you were rocking them, feeding them, or holding their hand, that action has become their "sleep association." It is the necessary ingredient they need to fall asleep.
When they wake up two hours later in a dark, still crib, they realize the "ingredient" is missing. You are not there. They panic. They cannot connect to the next sleep cycle without you putting the pacifier back in, giving them the breast, or rocking them.
They aren't waking up because they are hungry or in pain; they are waking up because they simply do not know how to sleep independently.
How to Break the Cycle
To stop the 2-hour wakings, you must remove the sleep association at the very beginning of the night.
- Identify the Crutch: What is the very last thing that happens before your baby closes their eyes? Is it feeding? A pacifier? Patting their back?
- Move the Crutch: You do not have to stop feeding your baby before bed, but you must move the feed so it is not the last thing they do. Feed them in the living room with the lights on, then read a book, then put them in the crib.
- Drowsy, but Awake: You must put the baby into the crib while they are still awake. They must be aware that they are being placed into the crib, and they must do the final work of falling asleep on their own.
Dealing with the Middle of the Night
When they wake up at 1 AM, what should you do?
If they fell asleep independently at bedtime, you must give them the chance to fall back asleep independently in the middle of the night.
Wait 5 to 10 minutes before going in. If they escalate, go in and offer verbal reassurance, but do not pick them up, and do not use the old "sleep crutch." You can use sleep training methods like the Ferber Method (graduated extinction) or the Chair Method to support them while they learn this new skill.
It takes about 3 to 7 days of consistency, but once a baby learns how to connect their sleep cycles on their own, the 2-hour wakings will disappear for good.