Is night waking in babies a sign that something is wrong?

Night waking is completely normal and is not a sign that a parent has done anything wrong or that something is the matter with the baby. Babies wake during the night to be fed, because of developmental leaps, or simply because they wake up — the goal is not to eliminate waking altogether, but to ensure their sleep is safe and that the best conditions for settling are in place.

In the episode, Bill Clapson and Emily Clapson address this head-on as part of a broader myth-busting conversation about baby sleep. One common misconception they tackle is the idea that keeping a baby awake during the day leads to better sleep at night — something they firmly dismiss. Babies are not machines that can be programmed to shut down on cue, and treating night waking as a failure or a problem to be fixed misses the point entirely.

For parents navigating the fog of broken nights, they point to the Lullaby Trust as the primary trusted authority on sleep guidance. The Lullaby Trust's recommendations — including having babies sleep in the same room as parents for the first six months — exist to keep sleep safe, not to manage parental expectations about frequency of waking.

This framing matters. Night waking affects the whole household, and acknowledging that it is normal — rather than a failure of parenting — is the first step toward approaching it with less anxiety and more clarity about what actually helps.