What the F is a false start?
The world of baby sleep can feel like a minefield and false starts can be especially frustrating.
You’ve spent forever settling your little one, carefully transferred them to their cot and have just put your feet up when BAM 45minutes later they are awake again 😫
This is what you call a false start… classified as any wake within 1hour of falling asleep at bedtime, essentially your baby has treated bedtime like a short nap.
Why do False Starts happen?
There are a few reasons your baby may be false starting at bedtime and I will run through the main culprits here:
😴 Over tired
If you notice your baby is crashing to sleep within a a couple of minutes or they are difficult to settle, very upset and taking a long time to fall asleep needing lots of support and then having a false start, it could be that they are overtired.
This can be caused by not enough day sleep or the awake window before bed being too long, if either of these are the case then an earlier bedtime can be helpful.
🎉 Under tired
Equally, if your little one has had too much day sleep or the awake window before bedtime is too short, then this can result in bedtime being too early. This means your baby hasn’t built enough sleep pressure to fall asleep and stay asleep.
In this case, assess day sleep needs and ensure your little ones day and night sleep is balanced appropriately. You can also try nudging bedtime later by 15minutes to start with to see if this helps.
🖤 Sleep environment
It is worth considering if their is anything in your baby’s environment that could be causing them to wake, for example has the white noise turned off? is your toddler going to bed disturbing them? is the room too light?
💫 Settling method
A big thing to consider is how your baby is falling asleep? Are they able to settle themselves off independently, or do they need support such as rocking or feeding to sleep?
If they are currently being supported to sleep they may be waking after a sleep cycle looking for what got them to sleep to get them back to sleep, it can be quite jarring for little ones to fall asleep in one place and wake up in another and therefore common for them to wake after a sleep cycle if they fell asleep in your arms and then woke in their cot. In this case it may well be time to make a plan forward and introduce an alternative settling method to encourage independent settling.
Asses day time sleep
So in summary, if your baby is having difficulty staying asleep at bedtime it is worth assessing their daytime sleep needs and if they are getting the right balance of day and night sleep, it is also worth considering an alternative settling method to help them drift off independently, meaning when they transition through sleep cycles during the night they can also do this themselves, and therefore not wake seeking support. ❤️
I hope this has helped answer some of your questions about false starts and potentially given you areas you can work on to improve your sleep situation 🤍
If you are in need of some extra support figuring out your little ones sleep needs or introducing an alternative settling method to prevent those frustrating false starts and enable settled nights, I would LOVE to help you…
I offer a range of consultations to take a deep dive into your unique sleep situation, with varying support options depending on your individual needs and level of hand holding you would like throughout the process.
OR
If you are more of a go it alone kind of person and feel confident in implementing changes to your little ones sleep once you have the information and knowledge you need, then the instant download sleep plans are PERFECT for you, allowing you to get started straight away and go at your own pace.
If you’d like to chat more about the support available book a FREE 15minute intro call and let’s get started 💥
Lots of Love
Jade x