What is a false start at bedtime? Why your baby might be waking up an hour after you put them to bed for the night
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What is a false start at bedtime?
A false start is when your baby wakes up under an hour of being put down to sleep, sometimes despite seeming very ready for sleep when you put them down for the night! It is commonly down to two main themes - what is happening during the day and how your little one falls asleep for the night. Let's look at 5 reasons that fall into these two themes in more detail to help you identify where you might be able to make changes to your routine or how you help your baby settle.
5 reasons your baby might be having false starts
1. Their age (they're under 3 months)
At this age you probably don't have a routine in place as your baby's circadian rhythms haven't kicked in yet, so it's almost impossible to predict when, where and how your baby might sleep - naps are just the Wild West! If you have a 2-3-month-old, in the later part of the evening, around 7/8pm, they may well be sleeping, but waking up after around an hour or so as they're likely treating this first phase of overnight sleep as a nap. They'll then have another short wake window before being ready for bedtime around 9/10pm (or, if like mine they're committed cluster feeders - something closer to 11pm!). As they get older and their wake windows lengthen, they will naturally drop this final power nap, and you can begin to bring bedtime to something nearer to 7pm if a 7-7 schedule is something that works for your family.
2. Their last awake window of the day needs adjusting The main reason your baby might be doing false starts at bedtime is they are likely going to bed over- or under-tired - usually due to too much, too little or off-schedule naps during the day. Over-tired babies wake frequently overnight - this is due to tiredness raising their cortisol levels which leads to increased adrenaline, making it very difficult to fall back to sleep. How do I know if my baby is over-tired?
Generally cranky, crying more than usual
Waking from naps or overnight sleep upset after 20-30 mins
Going stiff or pushing away from you
Their awake windows are longer than they should be for their age
Under-tired babies struggle to stay asleep as they haven't had the chance to build enough sleep drive during the day to stay asleep for longer stretches.
How do I know if my baby is under-tired?
They aren't showing any tired cues
Awake windows too short for their age
Fights naps, or wakes after one sleep cycle (30-40 mins) very alert and happy
You can help with over- and under-tiredness by ensuring your baby is following awake windows that are appropriate for their age. The timings are based around natural circadian rhythms which means that naps will fall when your baby has built up just the right amount of sleep drive to have the desired length nap. Let’s look at age-appropriate sleep amounts and awake windows that you might like to follow to minimise over- and under-tiredness:
Age Range | Total Nap Time | Total Overnight Sleep | Awake Windows |
0-3 months | 4-5 hours | 10-12 hours | 45-90 minutes |
3-6 months | 3-4 hours | 10-12 hours | 1.5-2.5 hours |
6-9 months | 3-4 hours | 10-12 hours | 2-3 hours |
9-12 months | 2-3 hours | 10-12 hours | 2.5-3.5 hours |
12-18 months | 2-3 hours | 11-12 hours | 3-4 hours |
18-24 months | 1-2 hours | 11-12 hours | 4-5 hours |
Please note that these are general guidelines, and individual baby’s sleep needs may vary. 3. They're getting too close to sleep late in the day
As an adult we know it can be hard to stay awake at certain times during the day – 3pm slump, or falling asleep watching TV at 9pm ring any bells?
This is due to circadian rhythms - our internal biological clock that regulates sleep and wakefulness, causing energy levels to dip at certain times of the day. Often, if you just can’t stay awake and have even the smallest nap, it can throw your overnight sleep off considerably and make settling for bedtime a challenge. The same can happen when you’re winding your baby down for bedtime. If they sneak in even a tiny micro sleep on that final feed of the day or during a sing-song on that final cuddle, it can make going to sleep for the night tricky as that all-important sleep drive has been reduced.
To avoid these micro sleeps, try giving milk earlier in the wind-down routine so that it can’t act as a sleep prop and help them off to sleep. You can also try an earlier bedtime that is in line with your desired awake windows if the last nap of the day has been short or ended earlier than you would have liked. Don’t worry – this won’t mean they’ll wake earlier than usual in the morning, it just means they’ll add their missed nap sleep onto their overnight sleep instead.
4. Their routine might need tweaking
You may have heard a lot of sleep experts talk about trying to achieve a 7am – 7pm routine. This is because most babies will biologically rise and fall in time with the sun and circadian rhythms then loosely dictate when they will nap between those times – this is how we can predict when your baby is most likely to need rest during the day. Your family’s unique circumstances and schedules will determine if this works for you and your baby, and it may be that flexing an hour or so outside of these times works best for say a parent who works late who otherwise wouldn’t see their baby in the evenings.
When babies don’t have a predictable wake or bedtime, if total nap length across the day is inconsistent or if nap times are too long or short, it is difficult for your baby to build the right amount of sleep drive to nap for longer than 1 sleep cycle (20-40 mins) or to stay asleep for very long after being put down for the night.
To help with this, you could aim to start your baby’s day at the same time each day, establish a predictable routine for naps, and ensure the final wake window of the day is in line with the timings appropriate for their age (see table above).
5. They woke up differently to how they fell asleep
Babies sleep in 2–4-hour sleep cycles overnight, waking gently after each one. Some will be able to settle back to sleep easily, but others will struggle, particularly if they were helped to sleep with a sleep association like rocking, a dummy or feeding, then woke up without it. This can be frustrating for your baby, making it tricky to self-soothe and drift off back to sleep. This is why I encourage falling asleep independently as a priority in helping to develop long-term healthy sleep foundations.
If you’d like to learn more about false starts, or other reasons your baby might be struggling with good sleep, you can book a free discovery call to see how I might be able to help.