When your baby can’t fall asleep

Many babies seem to be in top form in the late evening hours and never dream of going to sleep. In many cases, to the chagrin of the parents who are so often forced to postpone their own night’s sleep or relaxing time together. But there is hope. Often only a few small changes in the daily routine are necessary, which can help both the baby and the parents to fall asleep earlier.

Avoid late daytime naps

A late nap is often one of the reasons why babies cannot fall asleep in the evening because they are simply not tired enough. You should therefore make sure that your baby is awake for at least four hours between the last nap and the time you want to sleep in the evening. For example, if you want to put him to bed at 8 p.m., then he should have finished his last nap of the day by 4 p.m. Likewise, your baby should not sleep too long. If necessary, wake him up at a reasonable time so that he is suitably tired in the evening.

Establish a fixed routine in the evening

A fixed evening ritual usually makes it easier for your baby to fall asleep. Because your child understands within the framework of this fixed procedure that it should now prepare for sleep. This time should be relaxed and calm. Professor Zulley, sleep expert at the University of Regensburg, also advises that this time should be a quiet time for the whole family. If parents and siblings are still allowed to watch TV or romp when a child is supposed to sleep, it feels isolated and punished. Therefore, the whole family should be involved in this period of rest.

“Provoke” tiredness

How long does your baby usually lie awake in bed at night before falling asleep? If it’s longer than half an hour, don’t put your baby down until the time he actually falls asleep. However, make sure that your baby gets up at the same time in the morning as usual. In the first few days, it will probably not fall asleep any faster and the small sleep deficit will probably have an impact on your baby’s mood. But after a few days, tiredness will prevail and it will fall asleep faster. Your baby will learn to fall asleep as soon as it is in bed. If falling asleep faster has worked, you can bring bedtime forward again in small stages. Put your baby to bed a few minutes earlier every night. After a few days it will get used to it.

employment for the older ones

Especially with children from the age of three it happens that they cannot fall asleep for a long time in the evening. Some children claim this only to delay going to bed a little longer. However, if the evening discussion regularly drags on for more than an hour, you can assume that your child actually cannot sleep yet. In this case, agree with your child that while they may stay up later, they should be able to occupy themselves alone in their room during this time, for example with a radio play. And of course the newly agreed bedtime should be observed without further discussion. If this procedure is well established and your child falls asleep better, you can move bedtime back a little. If you are unable to fall asleep again at an earlier point in time, then your child seems to be a “little sleeper”. In this case, it makes sense to leave it at bedtime later and to keep yourself busy in your own room. More peaceful evening hours are guaranteed in any case.

So there are ways to convert your child from a night owl to an early sleeper. With a little patience and good observation, you can achieve a lot with small changes. Keeping a sleep log might help you analyze your child’s sleep pattern.

More tips to help your baby fall asleep

In our special ” How your baby learns to sleep ” you will find many more tips and information about the subject of sleeping. In our article “ 10 tips: How your baby learns to sleep ” you can read through and print out the most important information.