Sleeping FAQ: 12-18 Months – Night Waking

My 15-month-old daughter wakes and screams at night and sleeps little in the day.

My 15-month-old daughter is a twin; she was born 10 weeks early. Unlike her sister she has never been a good sleeper and uses a dummy for all sleeps in her cot. At 13 months she was still waking several times a night when a friend who had followed the CLB routine suggested we try controlled crying. It took 3 nights of leaving her to scream (we went in to the nursery and comforted her when she first woke but we did not return). On night 1 she cried for 3.5 hrs, night 2, 2 hrs and night 3, 20mins); she then slept through the night from 6.45pm to 7am for 2 months – fantastic. She has started to wake again, usually around 2am; we have been leaving her to cry for around 5 nights now with no success. She screams hysterically for anything up to 3 hrs. I am worried that, now she is 15months old, leaving her to scream like this may be creating some kind of negative sleep association. The twins do not sleep for long in the day and lately have been getting by on around 40mins sleep which they have in the morning (around 10 am having woken at 7am). I try to put them down around 1.30pm but they are bright as buttons and do not want to sleep. Could my daughter be overtired? How do I get the girls to sleep more in the day? She is very active, as she has just started walking. I am afraid that her night time wakings are started to affect her sister who has been a CLB for many months.

The girls have three meals a day which they eat well. They drink 7oz milk in a bottle before settling to sleep around 6.45pm.

Your daughter’s inability to settle herself back to sleep at night could be due to overtiredness and also the association she has with her dummy; needing it to fall asleep with.

By day try moving their nap in the morning earlier to 9.30am and keeping it to 30 mins. Then put them in their cots after lunch, around 12.30pm and see if they are tired enough to settle for a longer sleep. Overtiredness is likely when a toddler has their only nap of the day in the morning. By bedtime they are completely exhausted and fall into a very deep sleep. This can result in night waking or early morning waking. Now that your daughter is walking she may become chronically overtired and less able to settle to sleep both by day and night with such broken sleep and short naps. Overtiredness often leads to more wakings, so creating a vicious circle.

In the night you will need to put controlled crying in place, and eliminate her dummy if you feel that this is part of the problem. She may well be fully waking in the night because it has fallen out and she needs it to help her to sleep again.

To make controlled crying work properly you need to be aware that it means leaving your child for progressively longer stretches of time between visits, but not allowing them to cry for hours on end, with no reassurance from yourselves. It can be a distressing experience but carried out properly should begin to take effect within a week, and the results will be long lasting. It is teaching the child how to settle themselves back to sleep without any kind of assistance or prop.

Gina explains her method fully in The Complete Sleep Guide p45.

The outline is that when your child first wakes and cries you leave her between 5-10mins before you go in and reassure her. You can pat her and say “shush” then leave the room within 2mins even if she is still crying. You continue to go in and reassure her every 5-10mins for half an hour. Then you increase the time between visits to 15-20mins. On the first night you continue to check and reassure every 15-20mins until your daughter has fallen asleep. If she should wake again in the night then use the same method until you are checking every 15-20mins. On the second night you leave your daughter for 20mins before going in to reassure her. You can reassure with your voice but don’t stroke or touch her. After an hour of checking at 20 min intervals increase the time between visits to 35-40mins . If there is a subsequent waking wait 45mins, check without speaking or touching and keep your visit to 1min only. By the third night your child may settle within 20mins and you will have no need to check. If she does need a visit wait 15-20mins at first and increase back to 45- 50mins.

There is a case study about dummy dependence and controlled crying on p82 of the Complete Sleep Guide. Although it deals with a younger baby the principles remain the same.

If you are able to separate your daughters into separate rooms you may find it easier to cope with the crying which is part of controlled crying, although not for many days. This should help your other daughter to sleep through the night.