What Is A Split Night?
A split night occurs when your baby sleeps for a long stretch at the beginning of the night, but wakes for one long stretch in the middle of the night before falling back asleep for another stretch. Parents generally describe this as a middle-of-the-night party because their baby is wide awake and happy, and nothing gets them back to sleep.
It’s important to note that this can happen from time to time. However, if it becomes a pattern and happens consistently, then something underlying is probably happening.
What Causes A Split Night?
Split nights are typically caused by a misalignment between the circadian rhythm (the body’s internal clock) and sleep pressure (the biological drive to sleep that builds the longer we are awake).
When these two systems are in sync, your child gradually builds sleep pressure after their last nap, falls asleep at their circadian-linked bedtime, and stays asleep through the night. As sleep pressure decreases in the early morning, the circadian rhythm takes over, helping them stay asleep until their usual wake time.
However, if sleep pressure isn’t high enough at bedtime or dissipates too early in the night, your child may wake up fully alert during the night—leading to a split night.
What Triggers a Split Night?
- Too Much Daytime Sleep: If naps are too long or too late in the day, your child may not have enough sleep pressure to make it through the night.
- Bedtime Is Too Early: If your child goes to bed before they have built up enough sleep pressure, they may struggle to sleep through the night.
- Too Much Sleep: Your child only needs so much sleep in 24 hours. Often, parents think their children need a lot of sleep when in reality, they need much less. For instance, if your child takes a 1-2 hour nap during the day and then goes to bed between 6-7 pm, waking up between 2-3 am would still give them 9-10 hours of total sleep—potentially enough to meet their needs, causing an early wake-up.
- Nap Transitions: As your child gets older, they will need less daytime sleep. Nap transitions usually occur around 4-5 months, 6-8 months, 13-18 months, and 2.5+ years. If your child is around these ages, it may be time to drop a nap.
- Development, Changes, Teething and Illness: Sleep disruptions can occur during any developmental progressions, changes in your child’s day or life, teething or illness. For instance, growth spurts, language explosions, starting childcare, teething, etc.
How To Fix Split Nights
How to fix split nights will depend on your unique child and the root cause.
I recommend logging your child’s sleep over a 24 hour period for 3-5 days. This will tell you how much sleep your child is getting and can help determine where adjustments could be made. However, general recommendations include:
Reduce Daytime Sleep
• Try an earlier wake and leave the rest of the day as normal. This may allow your child to get enough sleep and wake time. I suggest experimenting with 15-minute increments and see how that goes. This is particularly true if you let your child sleep in after a split night, which may perpetuate the problem. Waking your child at their regular wake time or slightly earlier may be helpful.
• Reduce nap duration(s). Again, I recommended 15-minute increments. If your child is taking more than one nap, you could shorten all of the naps, but shortening the last nap is a good place to start. This may mean that the last nap is a catnap (<30 mins). The last nap should end, allowing for a full wake window before bed.
• Start the nap(s) earlier in the day. This may require you to slowly adjust your child’s daytime schedule 15 minutes earlier over a period of time. The last nap should end, allowing for a full wake window before bed.
• Depending on the age of your baby, it may be time to drop a nap. Nap transitions usually occur around 4-5 months, 6-8 months, 13-18 months, and 2.5+ years.
Bedtime
• If naps are working for you and you don’t want to make any changes, you could try pushing bedtime later in 15-minute increments every 3 nights until you’ve resolved the split night or get to a place where things are working for you. This may make for a later bedtime.
• If you’ve done this and the split night has not resolved, try waking your child 15 minutes earlier every morning. When the split night is resolved, you can start making bedtime earlier in 15-minute increments every 3 nights. You may need to add a cat nap, extend a nap, or extend the mid-day wake window to compensate for the later bedtime and earlier wake.
• For younger babies (under 12 months), you can also try a bedtime nap. This requires waking your child after 45 minutes and getting them up for about an hour before putting them back to bed. You can do this with toddlers and older children as well. However, I find it works best with younger children, for parents who have late bedtimes, and when families can sleep later.
• A scheduled awakening may also help. This involves ‘stirring’ your child before they normally wake or before you go to bed. ‘Stirring’ means waking them just a little in order to shift their sleep cycle, which can prolong the wake. ‘Stirring’ could be a light touch, making a quiet noise, or moving them slightly. We have electric heat, and sometimes I turn it on. The thermostat’s click and the fan’s noise usually does the trick. You want some evidence that their sleep cycle has shifted. This could be a moan, a sigh, a change in breathing patterns, or movement. When this strategy works, it works well, but it can backfire.
Circadian Rhythm
Supporting your child’s body clock can also be helpful in managing split nights. This involves:
• Establish a daily rhythm. This means waking your child around the same time every day, having meals around the same time, doing daily activities around the same time, having a consistent bedtime routine, and having bedtime around the same time. You don’t have to be strict with time, but give or take 30 minutes on most days.
• Expose your child to bright light (preferably outdoor light) in the morning and throughout the day, and dim the lights 1-2 hours before bedtime. It may be helpful to use red or warm lightbulbs as blue light inhibits melatonin.
• Aim for no screens or blue light 1-2 hours before bedtime. Blue light can inhibit melatonin production.
Development, Changes, Teething or Illness
If your split night is due to a developmental progression (e.g., your child is working on a new skill), life changes, or teething or illness, I don’t recommend making any significant changes to your child’s sleep or altering your child’s schedule too much. I suggest waiting it out. Usually, things go back to normal.
However, you can support your child during this time. For example, if they are going through a developmental progression, give them lots of opportunities to practice their new skills (e.g., walking, crawling, pulling to stand) during the day. If your child is teething or sick, use comfort measures.
Final Thoughts
Resolving split nights takes time, patience, commitment, and experimentation. I generally recommend parents try one thing for at least one week before deciding whether or not it’s working. Although it can take longer to see results.
Disclaimer: The content of Postpartum Support Yukon’s website, posts, and blogs does not constitute medical advice, nor is it an emergency service. If you have concerns about any health or medical condition, diagnosis, or treatment, please consult with a licensed healthcare provider. Postpartum Support Yukon is intended for informational and educational purposes only.
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