How can you explain and understand night-time awakenings in children?

When your child is growing but the wake-ups keep coming night after night and week after week, you may wonder why they’re so frequent. Is it hunger or teething? Is he scared or just needing your presence? Nighttime awakenings can become very draining and exhausting for the whole family, but before trying to make them disappear at all costs, it’s better to understand them.

Are nighttime awakenings normal?

Yes, most nighttime awakenings are normal. At night, sleep goes through different stages: from light sleep to deeper sleep, and then to REM sleep (also called 

(REM sleep). At the end of a cycle, your child often transitions back to a lighter sleep, where they’re easier to wake. It’s often during these transitions that you can observe little awakenings: your baby changes position, rolls around in bed, fusses a bit, opens their eyes, or calls out to you. Scientific reviews show that in infants and children, nighttime awakenings are frequent and there’s a lot of variability from one child to another. Some settle back to sleep on their own, while others have trouble falling back asleep independently.

Is hunger causing your child to wake up at night?

One of the most common reasons for nighttime awakenings is hunger. Until around 6 to 8 months, night feeds provide something useful to your baby's diet. So you can expect your baby to wake up a few times to feed. Weight, development, growth, and daytime food intake can all influence when it's the right time to eliminate them, especially if nighttime awakenings persist. It can be difficult to know if a night feed still meets a real hunger or a well-established habit.

Milk also has properties that promote falling back asleep: it soothes, it comforts. The catch is that your child can’t get up in the middle of the night to prepare their own drink. They depend on your help, and this help can sometimes perpetuate night wakings. If you want to make sure that hunger isn’t causing your baby’s multiple night wakings, you can ask the healthcare professional who’s following your child if nighttime feedings are still necessary for their healthy development.

Are these sleep associations?

Another common reason for night wakings is what we call sleep associations, where your baby learns to fall asleep under certain conditions. Some sleep associations are easy for your baby to replicate without help, such as playing with their hair or sucking their thumb. Other sleep associations require more outside assistance (that’s you!). If your baby falls asleep in your arms, while breastfeeding, with a bottle, or while being rocked, for example, they may be surprised to wake up later alone in their crib. Even if they’re safe, your baby may have a moment of confusion: “Wait… how did I get here?” Some babies handle this transition well. They wake up, reorient themselves, and fall back asleep without help. Others seek to recreate the exact conditions present at the time of falling asleep.. 

Research on infant sleep points in the same direction: what happens at bedtime and during awakenings can influence how awakenings evolve during the first year. So you can try to create sleep associations that your baby can more easily reproduce on their own.

Can teething cause night-time awakenings?

Teething is also often mentioned as a hypothesis, and it’s true that a child can be more irritable or uncomfortable during these times. That said, teething periods and sleep changes don’t always coincide so clearly. Even though many parents notice that their baby sleeps less well during teething, a recent longitudinal study using objective sleep measures found no significant difference between nights associated with teething and other nights. This doesn’t mean your baby can never be uncomfortable when a tooth comes in, but rather that teething doesn’t always explain night wakings, especially when they persist. It’s not that teeth never disrupt sleep, but rather that they’re not always the only explanation, especially if the wakings persist for several weeks. 

Can fear be the cause of night-time awakenings?

Nightmares and night terrors are also possible explanations, especially in older children. The results of a longitudinal study conducted with Quebec preschoolers show that most children had occasional bad dreams between 2 ½ and 6 years old, while frequent bad dreams were much rarer (between 1.3% to 3.9% of children often did so)

Your child may verbalize their fear during night wakings, sometimes it shows in their tears, their face, or their need to be reassured. Nightmares can be recounted, especially when the child is old enough to put words to what they experienced. Night terrors, however, are different: the child seems very agitated or panicked, but they are not fully awake and usually don’t remember the episode (link to the article on night terrors).

In other words, an occasional nightmare is part of normal development, while very frequent, persistent, or very disturbing nightmares may indicate that you need to take a closer look at what's going on. The same goes for several nighttime fears, like the famous fear of the dark, which can appear around the age of 2. Your child may naturally feel more vulnerable in the evening and at night, and they may show fear from time to time. However, if the fear comes back regularly, affects their sleep, or prevents them from functioning normally, take the time to talk to your child to better understand what's worrying them.

Is our child testing our limits with nighttime awakenings?

At other times, your child’s night awakenings are more about testing boundaries. Your child is developing autonomy while you’re learning to set limits. At night, this can mean repeated requests: a glass of water, another hug, a trip to the bathroom, a presence in the room, and then another. Testing boundaries is often part of a child’s development, and maintaining a clear and warm framework can help reduce awakenings.

What can you do as a parent when your child wakes up multiple times at night?

Before looking for a solution, start by observing what’s happening and asking yourself a few questions. When do the awakenings occur? If they happen mostly at the beginning of the night, look at the duration and time of naps, bedtime, and the signs of fatigue your child showed in the evening. If they occur more at the end of the night, ask yourself if their sleep schedule still meets their needs or if environmental factors, like light, noise, or temperature, might be causing them to wake up.

• If your child wakes up several times a night, at fairly similar times, also observe what they're looking for to fall back asleep. Are they asking for milk, your arms, your presence, or an intervention similar to the one that helped them fall asleep at bedtime? This may suggest that they're trying to recreate the same conditions between sleep cycles.
• Does your child really seem to be hungry? Watch how they eat during the day and what they do when offered milk at night. Do they drink a good amount eagerly or just take a few sips before falling back asleep? If they’re feeding well during the day and drinking very little at night, milk may have become more of a way to fall back asleep. In that case, you can try offering it a little earlier in the bedtime routine, rather than right before falling asleep.
• Does your child seem scared? You might notice it in their expression, the way they cling to you, if they name what’s frightening them, or if they talk about a nightmare. If they seem uncomfortable instead, also think about how they were during the day: did they have less energy, less appetite, a fever, congestion, or other unusual symptoms? A child who was full of energy all day is usually less likely to wake up just because of physical discomfort, even though it’s still possible. If your child is snoring loudly, having trouble breathing, or seems to be in pain, it’s best to talk to a healthcare professional.
• Finally, ask yourself if these awakenings are new. Did they start after an illness, a trip, a change in routine, starting daycare, or a more demanding period? Some children react strongly to changes, and a few difficult nights can often resolve with a little patience and stability. If the awakenings persist, also observe what might be maintaining them: a new habit of falling back asleep, a different intervention each night, a schedule that has become less suitable, or an environmental factor disrupting sleep such as light, temperature, or noise.

The way your child manages to calm down, separate from you, and regain a sense of security after waking up is part of a broader development, influenced by your relationship, their maturation, and their gradual ability to self-regulate. Understanding the likely cause of the awakenings doesn’t solve everything, but it can help you respond more appropriately. For example, a four-month-old baby who feeds well at night and falls back asleep quickly probably doesn’t require the same response as a two-year-old who gets up six times to ask for water. A child who’s trembling after a nightmare doesn’t require the same response as a child who’s smiling in the hallway asking to be tucked in for the third time. If the awakenings remain frequent, intense, or have lasted more than two weeks without improvement, it may be worth seeking support from a professional to restore the family’s sleep.