Refusing to Sleep

About

Contact

Newsletter

What's New

BabyTube!

Pregnancy

Childbirth

Baby care

For mom

For dad

Refusing to Sleep

by Felicity
(Richmond, VA)

My 5 month old will not nap during the day or sleep at night without an all out battle.

He cries, screams, yells, stiffens up, arches his back, tears pouring down his face, etc. when it is nap time or bedtime.

I know he is tired as he can barely keep his eyes open and when he does finally go to sleep he usually sleeps for about 2 hours.

Any ideas why this is happening or what I can do to help ease him into sleep? My child care provider fights this battle everyday during the week and I know she is getting frustrated (as am I). Help please!!

Baby Help Line Response:

Hi Felicity!

I have a few ideas on how you might be able to help your baby.

First of all, one reason why he might be so upset could be that he is over tired. Have you tried putting him to rest a little bit earlier? I don’t know if you have figured out yet how for how long he is usually awake between naps (and before going to bed for the night). Many babies at the age of around 5 months or so have a fairly stable 2-3-4 pattern; awake around 2 hours in the morning, then sleep for a while, then awake for 3 hours etc.

If you spend a couple of days mapping your baby's schedule and watch for signs of him getting tired, you might be able to prepare him for sleep before he becomes completely exhausted.

One option could be to take him for a walk in his stroller about 15-20 minutes before he’s about to crash. This way he might just stay calm and drift off to sleep.

If this is not issue, there are still other things you can do.

Does your baby use a pacifier? If not, consider introducing one, since many babies find it easier to self-soothe with the help of a dummy.

Some babies also get calm if a light handkerchief or something similar is placed over their forehead and eyes when about to go to sleep.

Singing and rocking and stroking his head can also be effective.

The key is really to find a way to help your boy understand that it is nice and safe to relax and to help him get in that stage before he is completely exhausted.

Creating a calm and cosy routine that you and your child care provider stick to should help him. It might take a little while of course, to help him getting into a new habit. And in my experience, especially with babies that refuse the pacifier, it is harder to teach them to self-soothe, but it not impossible!

For a few more tips on how you can establish a sleep-routine to help your baby, click here.

I hope this helps!

/Paula

Comments for
Refusing to Sleep

Click here to add your own comments

Dec 15, 2008

No sleep
by: Anonymous

My son refuses to sleep as well. It is a battle every night to get him to sleep and then when he does he still wakes up very frequently, about every two hours. He will not take a pacifier, hates to be rocked and stiffens his little body up so much that it is hard to hold him. I have no idea how to help him sleep better. He is 5 months old and his sleep problems seem to get worse the older he gets.

Feb 03, 2009

go slowly and have patience
by: Holly

Our daughter is not a big fan of sleep. we are not really into letting her cry it out, and in any case, I don't think it would work, she is so persistent. anyway, I just wanted to write and say that while we have no idea what we are doing or what to do to make sleep easier for her (and for us!) we are going slowly and gently with her. We don't want to make sleep a traumatic thing for her, so when it seems like things aren't working, we back off a little.
Paying attention to her sleepy signs really helps us: even before she starts rubbing her eyes and getting cranky (this is too late). When she is in a state of kind of calm, dazed... that's when we start getting her ready for bed. I will feed her then we do the jammies etc. sometimes we can put her in her bed when she's awake, sometimes we have to hold her till she sleeps. It is really hard, I sympathize with you, and it really seems like all the other babies are sleeping no problem!!
good luck!

Mar 27, 2009

Same thing!
by: Anonymous

We are having the same problem. Our 5 month old does not want to go to sleep and it's getting worse the older he gets. He has always been this way! Right after he was born, he was so alert and you even had to rock him then. He wouldn't just fall asleep like other newborns usually do lol! But now he has gotten to where when we sit down to take a bottle he fights me. He knows that if he takes that bottle he will go to sleep. I just don't get it...we have a routine going and I watch for him to start getting tired. He sleeps great when he does go to sleep and has been for a long while now. Usually only wakes up once a night around 6 then sleeps until 9. And he is even starting to cut out his 6 o'clock feeding on his own. He just doesn't want to go to sleep.