Ideal Wake Window For Babies By Age?
The Baby Wake Window Guide From Fox And The Moon Sleep.
What are wake windows?
Wake windows are the time your baby spends awake between naps and sleep time. A quick Google search will give you hundreds of different options and suggestions about how long your baby “should” be awake for. Baby-related websites are full of tables suggesting very specific amounts of time your baby should spend awake depending on their age.
What do we think of prescribed wake windows?
No one can determine how long your baby can sustain awake. It’s different for every baby! We can recognise the differences between babies in how much they eat, when they hit milestones, such as talking and walking, and so much more. So why can’t our society recognise that each baby will have different sleep needs? Some will need more daytime sleep, some will need less. Some will take shorter but more frequent naps, while others will take less but longer naps. Us, as adults, have varying sleep needs. Some of us need 8 hours a night whereas others are thriving off of 6 hours. We need to apply this same knowledge to babies and their varying, unique needs.
Aside from each baby being unique, a baby’s sleep needs will vary from day to day. This will depend on many factors. Did they have a long night’s sleep? They will likely need less naps / be able to sustain longer awake. Did they have a super busy energy-exerting morning? They may not make it to their “usual” nap time. Are they going through a developmental phase of rapid growth? Their time awake may be less as they need to sleep to grow. And so much more!
And similarly, in our experience, a baby’s wake window won’t be consistent throughout the day. For example, if they are on multiple naps they may have short wake windows between naps but a slightly longer one before bed, or vice versa. It really is completely unique. But that’s not to say that as sleep coaches, we can’t use wake windows to optimise sleep, because they can be important…
So how do we advise our clients on wake windows?
Well firstly, education is so important. We teach them all of the above. We teach them to stop comparing their baby to norms or spending hours trying to get a baby to sleep because that’sthe time google says they “should” be sleeping. We teach and empower parents to learn and utilise their baby’s cues. When are they telling us they are tired? We teach clients how to spot the unique sleep cues their baby is exhibiting. Trying to get a baby down for a nap when they are actually telling us they’re ready for a nap, is significantly easier than watching a clock to tell us.
And the most important resource we use: a sleep diary. Whenever a client works with us 1:2:1 the very first thing they do is fill out a comprehensive sleep diary. This diary documents when they woke up, when you started trying for naps/bedtime and when they actually fell asleep. Over the course of a week, this helps us learn their optimal wake windows. It should take a baby about 15-20 minutes to fall asleep. Any longer they might be not tired enough and any shorter they might be a little over tired crashing to sleep. We can analyse these patterns and then we can recommend you your own personalised sleep routine, which can significantly improve the amount of time it takes to get your baby down for a nap. We can also use them to optimise night time sleep. For example, if a baby is having some good nights and some bad nights, how do their wake windows before bed vary on these nights? Is a certain wake window more conducive to a settled nights sleep?
If you are struggling with your childs wake windows, routine, nap battles or bedtime battles, get in touch today for some personalised 1:2:1 support. We also have comprehensive PDF sleep guides for different age ranges, these guides have average wake windows in there that we have determined based on our experience and can be a good starting point when using the above information to determine your child’s unique wake windows.
Molly & Emily x
Infant Sleep Coaches