Several years ago, when our child was still waking up at night at age two, I went to our pediatrician with a simple complaint: “My 2-year-old is still waking up at night.” The brief piece of advice we received that day transformed our evenings and restored sleep to our household.
Recently a friend was dealing with the same nighttime awakenings, and that reminded me to share what helped us in case it can encourage other parents facing similar toddler sleep problems.
Our son had been an excellent sleeper from the start. He came home from the hospital and slept through the night, and at one year old he still slept solidly. Then, around two years of age, he began waking frequently overnight. It started as a few nights here and there and then became a nightly ritual. He would wake up crying and seem unrested in the morning — more irritable and out of sorts than usual.
After paying closer attention to his sleep pattern, we noticed a clear routine. He was going to bed around 7:00 p.m. (earlier — about 6:00 p.m. — if he hadn’t napped) and waking between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m., so he was still getting roughly 12–13 hours of sleep overall, which is generally the right amount for his age. Yet he started waking again near midnight, crying. Often a quick check, tucking him in, or offering a sip of water would send him back to sleep. Sometimes he insisted on changing his pajamas — a quirky habit, but part of the pattern.
These interruptions were affecting daytime behavior. He was less rested and more prone to fussiness, while I grew exhausted after weeks of interrupted nights — especially while caring for three other children, including a baby at the time.
The problem didn’t resolve quickly. Months passed and I became more worn out. At his three-year well-child visit I mentioned the ongoing night wakings, and the pediatrician offered a simple, practical strategy that made an immediate difference.
This advice changed his sleep patterns, and he began to sleep through the night
What you need to do
The pediatrician suggested a gentle pre-bedtime ritual with a specific twist: when you go to bed for the night, go into your child’s room first and lightly rouse them — give a quick hug, a brief tuck-in, a gentle back rub or a kiss on the cheek. The key is to stir them just enough to interrupt their sleep cycle without fully waking them. You should not carry them out of bed, engage in prolonged conversation, or lie down with them. The goal is a soft, brief awakening that nudges them through the stage of sleep where they tend to wake up later.
Why this helps: many children begin to wake during transitions in their sleep cycles, particularly around REM sleep. Lightly rousing them before you sleep ensures they complete that transition with less chance of sitting up and calling out later. In our case, a few seconds of gentle contact was enough to break the cycle that had been causing the midnight and early-morning disturbances.
I studied child development in college, so the explanation made sense to me, and the technique worked immediately. The first night we tried it he slept through the night — and continued to sleep consistently after that. It was a relief and felt surprisingly simple: stir him a little before you go to bed and let him resettle into a deeper sleep.
It worked perfectly for our family. He stopped waking repeatedly, began sleeping the entire night again, and mornings were brighter for everyone.
For more sleep tips
If you’re looking for additional ideas, consider tracking sleep times and awakenings to identify consistent patterns, keep bedtime routines predictable, and create a calm, dim bedroom environment. A consistent pre-sleep ritual paired with the gentle rousing technique described here can help many toddlers return to uninterrupted nighttime sleep.
P.S. — A little reassurance: our children are older now and mostly sleep through the night. Sleep challenges can be frustrating, but they often improve with small, targeted adjustments. These are the tired-to-well-rested faces after we found what worked for us.
Related images and notes from our journey
