Baby Sleep Problems The Most Common Issues and How to Gently Solve Them

Every parent hits a wall at some point.

Maybe it happened in the first few weeks when you realised newborn sleep was nothing like you expected. Maybe it crept up on you gradually over months of broken nights until one day you looked in the mirror and barely recognised yourself. Maybe it hit suddenly after a regression or an illness threw everything off course and nothing has been the same since.

However you got here, you are here. And that is okay. Baby sleep problems are incredibly common and there is almost always something specific going on that is worth understanding properly.

So let us talk about the most common baby sleep problems, what is actually causing them and what you can gently do about them.

The most common baby sleep problems

Frequent night waking This is the big one. The sleep problem that brings more families to my door than anything else. A baby who wakes multiple times every night, sometimes every 45 minutes, sometimes more, leaving the whole family completely exhausted. Frequent night waking is almost always linked to sleep associations. If your baby relies on feeding, rocking or being held to fall asleep at bedtime, they will need that same thing every time they surface between sleep cycles in the night. Helping your baby learn to fall asleep more independently at bedtime is usually the key to cracking frequent night waking.

Only sleeping on mum Contact napping is beautiful and natural but when it becomes the only way your baby will sleep it can start to feel completely unsustainable. If your baby screams the moment they are put down and will only nap on you, the issue is usually a combination of sleep associations and the fact that your baby has not yet learned that they can feel safe and comfortable anywhere other than in your arms.

Fighting bedtime A baby who fights sleep at bedtime every single night is usually either overtired, undertired or has a bedtime timing issue. Getting the timing right and building a consistent, calming bedtime routine can make an enormous difference very quickly.

Early rising Waking at 5am or earlier is one of the most demoralising baby sleep problems because unlike a night waking where you can potentially resettle and go back to sleep, 5am feels horribly final. Early rising is almost always caused by overtiredness, a bedtime that is too late, too much or too little daytime sleep, or light creeping into the room in the early morning.

Short naps If your baby consistently wakes after exactly 30 to 45 minutes during naps, they are waking at the end of a sleep cycle and not linking into the next one. This is extremely common and usually improves as babies get older, but there are things you can do to gently encourage longer naps in the meantime.

Feeding to sleep Feeding to sleep is one of the most natural things in the world and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it in the early weeks. But as babies grow it can become a sleep association that drives frequent night waking and makes it very hard for your baby to settle without a feed. Gently moving the feed earlier in the bedtime routine and gradually introducing other forms of comfort can really help.

The four month sleep regression Around four months, a baby's sleep cycles permanently mature to resemble adult sleep patterns. This means more frequent waking between cycles and a much greater reliance on whatever sleep association helped them fall asleep at bedtime. The four month regression is one of the most common reasons families reach out for support and with the right help it can actually be a brilliant opportunity to lay really solid sleep foundations.

Separation anxiety As babies become more aware of the world around them, separation anxiety can really show up at sleep time. A baby who was previously settling well may suddenly become very distressed at bedtime or wake more frequently in the night. This is a normal developmental stage but it can feel relentless when you are in the middle of it.

What can you do about baby sleep problems?

The honest answer is that it depends entirely on what is causing them. Which is why generic advice so rarely works. What fixes frequent night waking for one baby might make no difference at all for another. What works for a breastfed four month old will look completely different to what works for a formula fed eight month old.

The most effective thing you can do is get support that is actually tailored to your baby and your situation rather than trying to apply generic advice that was never written with your baby in mind.

How I can help

I am Lottie, a Norland nanny with 10 years experience, 17 years working with babies and children altogether and OCN qualified through the Sleep Consultant Academy. Baby sleep problems are something I have been helping families navigate for nearly two decades and there is very little I have not seen.

Whether you need a quick hour to talk through what is going on with my Sleep MOT at £98, or a full bespoke sleep coaching programme with Night Night by Zoom at £349, I have a level of support to suit every family and every situation.

Whatever baby sleep problem you are dealing with right now, I promise you it is solvable. Every single family I have worked with has got to a better place. Every single one. And yours will too.

Your next step is simple. Book a free discovery call, tell me what is going on and let us figure out together what your baby needs. I cannot wait to help you get there.

Book your free discovery call here.