Daytime Habits That Disrupt Nighttime Sleep
When parents come to us with sleep questions, they’re usually focused on what they can do differently at night: adjust the routine, the overnight feeds, what baby is wearing, where they’re sleeping. All of these factors are important, but sometimes it’s actually what happens after the sun comes up that interferes with night sleep.
That’s because sleep does not start when we get into bed, it’s a 24-hour process that is tracked and controlled by a clock nestled deep in the brain (a cluster of cells called the suprachiasmatic nuclei) and is influenced by our daytime patterns. The brain clock is always tracking our behaviors, so it can, ideally, anticipate and support our sleep.
That means we have to give the right data to our baby or kids’ brain clock.
Here are some examples of how daytime behaviors can negatively affect our little one’s sleep:
Lack of morning sun:
The strongest signal to the brain clock is morning sun. The intensity, angle and wavelengths of the morning sun are registered by the eye and travel to the brain to say “wake up, sleepyhead!” The brain clock tracks this timing and knows when to release the nighttime chemistry, later that evening, that supports falling asleep and sleeping well. Going outside in the first hour after waking, even when it’s cloudy, is an important practice for all of us. 5-10 minutes will do the trick when it’s sunny, and aim for 20 minutes if it’s cloudy. Even on the gloomiest day, the sun is many times more intense than indoor, artificial lights.
Sleeping in too late:
Remember that sleeping in (which also keeps us from seeing morning sun) can make it harder to fall asleep at bedtime. We often see this with very young babies who aren’t waking up or seeing the sun until 9am or later. It’s normal for the first few months to start the day later, but if you’re working on establishing an early bedtime, remember the morning matters.
Naps that are too long:
We don’t like to wake sleeping babies, but after about 2 months of age, if they sleep longer than 2.5 hours, we want to wake them. This is because a 3 hour or longer nap can reduce the sleep pressure for nighttime significantly, and because the longest, deepest sleep should be saved for night. A too long nap can confuse the brain clock.
Naps that end too late:
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As you know from reading The Happy Sleeper or Generation Sleepless, we need a significant amount of sleep drive to build up before bedtime. For babies, often the longest span of awake time is before bedtime (for details on awake spans refer to the class or book).
Not enough exercise:
Rolling, crawling, running, jumping, climbing. Babies and little kids need a lot of it, and thankfully have the drive to exercise built in – they just need the time and space to do it. Make sure your infant isn’t spending too much time in a device and has a lot of time to move their body on the floor or outside on a blanket. We like the grippy yoga-mat type surfaces for babies because they better support movement.
No wind down:
Just like the brain needs morning signals from the sun, it also needs to know it’s time for winding down and preparing for sleep. Remember Paleo Sleep from Generation Sleepless? We evolved outside and now, with our modern lives indoors under artificial lights, we are disconnected from the natural cues of light and dark. We have to mimic them as much as possible. For babies and little kids, this means lowering the lights in the house, especially overhead ones, an hour before bed. Signal to your child that sleep is coming, with some wind down cues like putting on music, changing the lighting, getting into PJ’s. Then, say goodnight living room, goodnight kitchen, goodnight sister, and so forth before going into their bedroom for the bedtime routine.
The more we keep to these daytime practices, the clearer and stronger the signals to the brain. Now we’ve stacked the deck in favor of a smooth night of sleep.