Sleep Solutions for Shift-working Parents: Helping Babies and Toddlers Rest Easy

Parenting is challenging enough, but when you add the complexity of working unpredictable or night shifts, managing your child's sleep can feel overwhelming. At Baby Sleep Science, we understand this struggle firsthand. As sleep researchers and professionals who work night shifts, I (Erin, a sleep researcher) and my colleagues, Dr. Devon Hanson (a sleep researcher) and Meg Casano (a nurse), have faced these challenges ourselves. We know how hard it can be to juggle the demands of shift work while trying to ensure your baby or toddler gets the sleep they need.

The Science

To understand how to manage your child's sleep, it's important to grasp the basics of sleep regulation, which involves two primary processes: the homeostatic sleep drive and the circadian rhythm. The homeostatic sleep drive increases the longer we stay awake, creating a pressure to sleep that is relieved by sleeping. Put simply, the homeostatic drive for sleep means that the longer you are awake, the sleepier you will be.

If the homeostatic drive for sleep was the only sleep drive, it would be fairly intuitive to solve sleep issues. Unfortunately, there are two sleep drives and it's the interaction of the two that complicates things. The circadian rhythm is the body's internal clock that regulates the timing of sleepiness and wakefulness over 24 hours. Light is what cues your circadian rhythm to promote waking during the day and sleep during the night. Shift workers can't easily adapt to working night shifts because they are usually exposed to light during the day. This creates a tension in the body called circadian misalignment. Essentially, this means that when you work shifts, your body will promote sleep at night even if you do things to try to stay awake, like taking naps and using caffeine. The circadian rhythm will also promote wakefulness during the day, making it hard to sleep when you have the opportunity to do so.

Now that we've established what you already know--that shift work is hard under normal circumstances--let's briefly review some baby and toddler sleep basics. Infants typically need to eat every few hours (if you need to know how many feedings are normal by age, check out this blog), which naturally fragments their sleep. Some babies will take a bottle from a nighttime caregiver, but babies experiencing separation anxiety may not. Similarly, it's normal for toddlers to wake up occasionally, but it can be very stressful for some toddlers to wake up to a different caregiver. Sometimes the variability in a shift working parent's schedule will result in a baby or toddler waking more often in general too.

As a shift-working parent, you face additional challenges in synchronizing your own sleep with your child's needs. The misalignment between your work hours and your child's natural sleep patterns can make it difficult to establish a consistent routine for both your child and yourself. Furthermore, the lack of a stable schedule can affect both your homeostatic and circadian drives, making it harder for you to be rested and alert during the day.

Strategies for Managing your child's Sleep

So, what can you do to help manage your child's sleep when you are a shift worker?

In general:

1. Accept your reality: The first thing that you need to do is accept that your child's sleep will not be perfect. Even babies and toddlers who are "good sleepers" have more variability in their sleep than the internet would lead you to believe. The disruption that comes from a parent working shifts is not trivial and even the best sleepers are likely to experience some disruption even if you do everything "right." Don't be discouraged though! You can expect to get to a manageable place sleep-wise.

2. Stabilize your child's sleep: Establish a regular bed and nap routine and schedule for your child before you start working shifts. If your child struggles to sleep separately, consider working on teaching your child to sleep independently. This could be by using a gradual baby-led or parent-led sleep training approach.

3. Coordinate with caregivers: Communicate clearly with other caregivers about your child's sleep schedule and bedtime routine. Ensure everyone is on the same page to maintain consistency, even when you're not there. Providing detailed instructions and checklists can be helpful. For example, make sure your partner/caregiver knows your child's bed/wake/nap times and knows how much and when your child normally eats overnight. Give your partner/caregiver suggestions about what to do if your child wakes at an atypical time. For example, if your baby normally only eats around 3 am when you are home, you could suggest that your partner rock your baby back to sleep during night waking outside this range rather than introducing new, and possibly unnecessary, feedings during the night.

4. Sleep Environment: Create a sleep-friendly environment that remains consistent regardless of who is putting your child to bed. This includes a dark, quiet room with a comfortable temperature. Consider using a white noise machine to block out background noise that might disrupt sleep.

on work days:

1. Consider your child's developmental stage and expectations: If your baby or toddler is in a phase of separation anxiety, it can be alarming to fall asleep with one caregiver and wake up to a different caregiver. Consider having your partner/caregiver do your child's bedtime routine even if you are home. This will help dampen your child's reactivity if/when the other caregiver responds.

2. Talk to your toddler: If your child is old enough, talk to your child about what to expect overnight when you are not home. For example, you might say something like, "Mommy has to help people at the hospital tonight but Grandma will be here if you need anything." You can also mark the days that you work nights on a calendar and point to it every day so that your child can understand what to expect at night.

3. Develop a work-specific routine: Babies and toddlers thrive on routine but it's ok to have different routines on different days (think weekends vs. weekdays for office workers with children in daycare). On days you work, plan your time at home so that you are able to balance your own needs with your child's needs. For example, perhaps you always aim to wake up around 3 pm after your night shift so that you can spend quality time with your child after his/her afternoon nap. This could be followed by dinner together and a bath before you have your child's nighttime caregiver take over the bedtime routine while you get ready for work.

4. Make a plan for your own sleep: It can be easy to sacrifice your own needs but you shouldn't shortchange your sleep. Consider this, sleep loss means you'll be in a worse mood, more stressed, and at greater risk of a driving or work accident. It's not helpful for your child if you are miserable. It's better to ensure that you have protected time to sleep and recover so that the time you have with your child is focused and enjoyable.

On non-work days:

1. Maintain great sleep habits: It can be easy to introduce variability into your child's schedule when you have time off. A little deviation to your child's sleep timing is fine but try to loosely maintain your child's schedule and routine.

2. Drop the guilt: It can be very easy to justify poor decisions based on guilt. For example, don't sleep in your toddler's bed on nights when you are home simply because you feel bad about being away on work nights. This will be confusing for your child and will make your absence on work nights even harder.

We hope you found these tips helpful! As always, we are here to help. If you are a shift-working parent and aren't sure how to manage, consider booking a consultation with us and we'll review the complexities of your situation to develop a plan together. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram for more evidence-based sleep information.

References

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Rosenbaum, E. and Morett, C.R., 2009. The effect of parents’ joint work schedules on infants’ behavior over the first two years of life: evidence from the ECLSB. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 13, pp.732-744.

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Muller, D., Paine, S.J., Wu, L.J. and Signal, T.L., 2019. “We're doing the best job we can”: maternal experiences of facilitators and barriers to preschoolers sleeping well in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Sleep Health, 5(3), pp.248-256.