If you’ve ever Googled anything about Baby sleep—from “When should my baby sleep?” to “How do I get Baby on a sleep schedule?”—you’ve likely encountered the buzzy term “wake windows.” But what the heck is a wake window? And can understanding wake windows really improve your baby’s sleep? Here, we cut through the noise and deliver all you need to know about baby wake windows.
What are wake windows?
While the term “wake window” is a modern term, it simply refers to the period of time Baby is awake between sleeps. That’s it! A wake window spans from when your baby wakes up to the next time they fall asleep. These days, parents are often advised to keep a keen eye on age-appropriate wake windows, so that perfectly timed nap nirvana can be achieved. The idea being: You don’t need to wait for Baby’s sleep cues (like yawning or eye-rubbing) to anticipate a nap. Instead, you learn how long your baby should be awake between sleeps and put them to bed before that wake window slams shut, and you have an overtired baby on your hands.
Baby Wake Windows by Age
So many parents wait for lidded eyes, yawns, or for their little one’s head to slump onto their shoulder to know that Baby is ready for sleepytime…but that may be too late! (Being overtired triggers babies’ fight-or-flight response, which unleashes the hormone cortisol that keeps babies alert.) Ideally, you want your bub to go to bed at—or just before—sleepytime cues emerge. While it’s true that many tired babies can sleep anywhere, anytime…others can quickly move from happy alertness to exhausted misery in a blink of an eye. And that’s why keeping age-appropriate wake windows in mind can help sidestep overtired sleep struggles.