Get Your Baby to Sleep

Babies are supposed to be sleeping most of the time (14 to 18 hours a day, according to baby sleep charts). So when your baby won’t sleep, it gets pretty frustrating. The reasons that your baby wakes up or refuses to fall asleep will change somewhat as he or she gets older.

Here we break down the most common reasons a baby won’t sleep, broken down by your baby’s age.
Contents:
Newborn Won’t Sleep (0-3 months)
Older Baby Won’t Sleep (4 months and older)
Gassy Baby Won’t Sleep
Teething Baby Won’t Sleep

When Your Newborn Won’t Sleep

For the first couple of months, your newborn should sleep 2-4 hours at a time. If you do it right, the baby’s sleep schedule follows points on a clock: feeding at 3, 6, 9, and 12 (a three-hour schedule) or at 4, 8, and 12 (a four-hour schedule).

If your baby is sleeping less than two hours at a time, then something is wrong. Let’s go through some of the most common reasons that newborns this age have trouble sleeping.

1. Hunger. In my experience, when a newborn won’t sleep it’s often because he’s hungry. The drive to eat and be sated is instinctive and powerful in newborn babies. More powerful than their second instinct, which is to sleep. Even if you manage to get a hungry baby to sleep, he won’t be asleep long. To make sure you’re feeding your baby enough at night, see the nighttime feeding guide.
2. Digestion. Another common problem that keeps babies awake is digestive discomfort in the form of gas or reflux. If your baby squirms or seems to be in pain, this is almost certainly the culprit – see what to do when your baby has gas. Burping will often help; sometimes  you even can get another burp out of your baby after he’s been laying down for a few minutes.
3. Diaper. The diaper is the next thing to check. Parents sometimes underestimate the importance of diapers for sleeping. Babies can often sleep with a diaper that’s a little bit wet, but soaking wet or dirty diapers tend to keep them awake.
4. Discomfort. Your newborn should be warm and snug; long-sleeve pajamas and a good swaddling usually takes care of this. For safety, your newborn should have only one more layer on than you do, to prevent overheating. Mittens and hats are a good idea as well; see our detailed guide on what a newborn should sleep in.

There are other, less common reasons that a baby won’t sleep (such as certain developmental issues), but altogether I’d estimate that hunger, digestion, diaper, and discomfort account for 90% of late-night wake ups. Check all of these things, resolve them, and put your baby back down. Soon enough, instinct will take over.

When Your Older Baby Won’t Sleep

By the age of 3-4 months, you should notice your baby starts going a little bit longer without food – say 5 hours during the day, possibly longer at night. All three of mine started sleeping 7-10 hours overnight at around 3 months. This is largely because older babies can eat more and hold more food, which helps a lot. When you give your baby cereal, which is usually around 6 months, you’ll really notice a difference. If you have an older baby still waking up every 3-4 hours, let’s run down the list of probable causes.

• Hunger is still #1, even for older babies. Just as they can hold more food, their intake requirements go up. As soon as your pediatrician suggests solid food, start offering it to your baby.
• Gas and reflux diminish somewhat as your baby’s digestive system matures, but they still can cause some late-night wake ups. Even solid food will give them bubbles in the tummy. At this age, it’s all about getting the burp out. You know whether or not you’ve gotten it, so don’t give up until you do.
• The diaper is a more frequent cause of wake-ups, because older babies know better when they’re wet or dirty, and they don’t like it. We started using Huggies Overnites diapers, which are super-absorbent, and that seemed to help.
• One sleep issue that you don’t see in newborns, but do in older infants, is that the baby just might not be tired. Their sleep requirements diminish somewhat, and they need to burn that energy off. Putting a baby in a bouncer – I highly recommend the Fisher Price Jumperoo — or doing some tummy time often helps with this. See my review of jumpers and gyms to find one that’s right for your baby.

Gassy Baby Won’t Sleep

Gas or digestive discomfort is a common culprit when babies won’t sleep. This is often because their digestive systems aren’t fully mature, and they take all of their food in liquid form. The good news is that there are at least 5 things to do for a gassy baby, so this is a problem you can probably solve. It also tends to improve as your baby gets older.

Fair warning, though: you might encounter gas problems a bit later on when you give your baby cereal for the first time.

Teething Baby Won’t Sleep

The last sleeping problem I’ll talk about is teething. At first, you probably won’t even realize when this is happening. You’ll just notice an exceptionally fussy baby who:

• Can’t fall asleep, or doesn’t stay asleep for long.
• Wakes up screaming, as if in pain
• Spits out the pacifier
• Seems hungry, but refuses to drink from a bottle

Giraffe Teether

Check for this by washing your hands thoroughly, and then running a finger, with great care, along your baby’s gums. Often you can see where a place is red and/or swollen. If you run a finger over it, you’ll feel the roughness of the tooth breaching the gums.

Once you confirm that teething is the reason your baby won’t go to sleep, apply a teething pain ointment (mild antisthetic like Baby Orajel) to that part of the gums. Baby Tylenol may help as well. The torment will end when the tooth breaches and comes in. For more help, see our article on what to do when baby is teething.

What To Read Next

If you like this article, you might want to subscribe by e-mail or RSS so that you’re notified when new content is posted.

Baby sleep problems takes you through the most common sleep issues and how to address them.	The periodic table of baby sleep has all the essential elements for healthy baby sleep habits.	Visit our sleep training section for strategies and tips for teaching your baby to sleep through the night.	View our top 10 baby items for helping babies sleep at night.

No related articles.