How to Wake a Sleeping Baby or Toddler Peacefully from a Nap

If your child is like my twins, you have a “good” sleep problem: they nap a lot. While my eldest napped for 45 minutes—tops—my twins take a two-hour nap. Many times they sleep even longer than that. This is great for when I need a break. But not so great when long naps would botch the rest of their naps or even bed time. Because even an extra 30 minutes could mean they don’t sleep right away come bedtime or that the next nap was pushed further back. Now we need to learn how to wake a sleeping baby from their peaceful slumber.

Not cool then.

Because of that, my husband and I wake them up according to schedule. As difficult as it is to wake a sleeping baby or toddler, we avoid having them oversleep.

The problem, however, is the waking up part. When you’re in deep sleep, you know what it’s like to get woken up. It’s not pretty. And when done wrong, my kids have responded by screaming, crying—you name it.

And boy did we do it wrong. Before, our previous method began by opening the door to their room. If that didn’t work, we’d open the curtains and blinds. And if they were still asleep by that point, we’d turn the fan off. Sometimes even that didn’t work. But no matter what stage they’d wake up using this method, one thing was for sure: they woke up cranky.

I can see why. Waking up to their sleep environment altered is confusing when you’re still sleepy.

But over time, I’ve found tips on how to wake a sleeping baby or toddler peacefully.

How to wake a sleeping baby or toddler

First, keep the room the same while you transition your child from deep sleep to light sleep.

More at SleepingShouldBeEasy.com.