Is it normal for my toddler to still wake at night?
At some point many parents wonder if it’s still normal for their child to wake at night and need them. I hear many parents of toddlers frustrated and concerned that their toddler is still waking. So many parents expect wake ups in the first year but are unprepared for them to continue into the toddler years.
Having a realistic understanding of toddler sleep is just as important as understanding baby sleep norms. Toddlers are complex and dynamic, and their sleep can mirror the ups and downs of their development. It’s normal for toddlers to wake at night. It’s normal for them to wake and need support to fall back asleep. It’s normal for a nursing toddler to still feed to sleep and overnight.
What does the evidence say?
While there are less high-quality studies on normal toddler sleep compared to infants, we do have some data to back up what many people know from experience. Let’s take a look at some statistics from a couple very large studies.
12-Month-old babies wake on average 1.8 times a night (Paavonen et al., 2020).
One large study reported 26,6% of toddlers had nightly awakenings at 18 months (Hysing et al., 2014).
Another large study found the average number of wakes in 18-month-old was 1.1 per night, meaning a good number of toddlers were waking more while others were sleeping through the night (Paavonen et al., 2020).
According to one large study 28.4% of 2-year-olds had frequent night awakenings (Paavonen et al. 2020).
24-month-old babies still wake on average 0.9 times a night (Paavonen et al., 2020).
What about older toddlers?
Another study looking at slightly older toddlers between 2.5 years and 3.5 years found that toddlers wake a lot more than other studies suggest (Hoyniak et al., 2019). This study used actigraphy to collect sleep data verses the more commonly used parental report of wake ups. This means we don’t know if parents were needed at these waking or if many of these toddlers were happy to fall back asleep without support.
In this study, the average number of wake ups longer than 5 minutes were 4.72 at 30 months and 4.06 at 42 months.
Being awake for a longer period of time was normal with the longest waking averaging 31.18 minutes at 30 months, 25.77 minutes at 36 months, and 23.89 minutes at 42 months.
That’s an average of 4 wake ups a night and the longest awake period between 24 and 30 minutes. That’s definitely not what most people thing of when they think about older toddlers. You can read a good analysis of this study by Evolutionary Parenting.
Toddlers still have nighttime needs.
These numbers make it clear that toddlers wake quite a bit. Whether or not they need you at any given wake up will depend on if they have a need at that moment and how strongly they need you for that need. Temperament plays a big role in how much your toddler needs your support around sleep. It’s normal, common, and healthy for toddlers to seek their parents when they need something day or night. Maybe that something is to feed, to snuggle, to use the bathroom if potty trained. Maybe they are anxious from a bad dream or separation anxiety. Maybe it’s to practice every single new word they have and sing you a song. Maybe they just miss you.
If you and your toddler are both coping ok with your toddlers amount of waking, then there’s no reason to worry. You can learn more about normal toddler sleep in my article realistic sleep expectations by age.
If you are struggling, then there are a lot of factors to support better sleep for toddlers. It’s such a fun age and there are a lot of holistic and responsive things to do. I can help! Reach out and let’s talk.
References
Hoyniak, CP, Bates, JE, Staples, AD, Rudasill, KM, Molfese, DL, Molfese, VJ. (2019.) Child sleep and socioeconomic context in the development of cognitive abilities in early childhood. Child Development, 1718-1737.
Hysing PhD, M., Harvey PhD, A. G., Torgersen PhD, L., Ystrom PhD, E., Reichborn-Kjennerud PhD, T., & Sivertsen PhD, B. (2014). Trajectories and Predictors of Nocturnal Awakenings and Sleep Duration in Infants. Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 309-316.
Paavonen, E. J., Saarenpaa-Heikkila, O., Morales-Munoz, I., Virta, M., Hakala, N., Polkki, P., . . . Karlsson, L. (2020). Normal sleep development in infants: findings from two large birth cohorts. Sleep Medicine, 145-154.