“You will get enough Stage 1 to 2 sleep to help lower your sleep drive, and the caffeine will kick in at around the time you wake up,” he says. “It will give you the energy boost you need. I lay in bed, night after night, and just couldn't sleep until 1 or 2am. I would wake my parents, and my dad would come in and explain that it didn't really matter. Lots of people, he said, had to.
I know why you are here. Your adorable puppy has just arrived yesterday and you couldn’t be more excited about dog parenthood. The day went quite smoothly with a bit of playtime, exercise and a lot of potty breaks.
But then bedtime arrived and your furry baby grew tiny horns and prepared itself to rip you off your well-deserved sleep.
Now you are sitting here exhausted with 0 hours of sleep and I know exactly how that feels. Even though it doesn’t look like it now, I promise that it will get better with these tricks below.
Why Won’t My Puppy Sleep at Night?
The first couple of nights are definitely not easy neither for you nor your puppy. But why is he crying and whining through the whole night? Isn’t he tired? Is something wrong with him? Does he hate his new home?
I want to tell you that no matter how scary his howling might be sounding this process is completely normal and common. When you bring home your new dog for the first time either one of these two things will happen:
Your puppy will be so tired from all the new impressions of people, sounds and smells that he will be fast asleep and quiet for the first night.
He will be so overwhelmed and anxious that he won’t be able to sleep for one second.
The first people might sound like the lucky ones but after the first night, they can also get affected by sudden whining because the dog is realizing that this might be a permanent situation.
Caring for a puppy has many similarities to caring for a newborn. Sleep deprivation and insomnia will be your worst enemies. But why are puppies crying so much at night?
Loneliness
Your puppy has spent the first few weeks of his life with his mother and littermates. One day he happily plays with his friends and before he knows it, he is being kidnapped by two strangers and put into a new home.
He can’t ask where the toilet is, doesn’t know the house rules and only sees strange faces. I think that it’s very understandable that your puppy is feeling a bit confused and anxious.
At night, he is being put into a crate beside the bed or even in another room. In an attempt to be saved, he calls for his pack, an instinctive behavior that is rooted in every canine. This calling can easily last for hours and can become louder and louder.
Too Young
Puppies should be 8 weeks old when being separated from their mother. The younger the puppy is the more difficult it will be to get him comfortable in his new home and the less likely he will be having a good night’s sleep.
Barcodepro 8 1. Make sure to only adopt a puppy from a reputational and responsible breeder that won’t give you a puppy earlier than 8 weeks of age. To find the perfect breeder you will have to ask the right questions: All 17 Questions that You Will Need to Ask Your Potential Breeder.
Not Crate Trained
A crate is a wonderful tool that will make many puppy training steps a lot easier including housebreaking and sleeping through the night. Dogs are den animals and feel very safe in dimmed and enclosed spaces.
But if your puppy has never been confined before, he will have a hard time learning the whole process within the first day.
How to Teach Your Puppy to Sleep Through the Night
Puppies are like newborns and they will require a certain amount of time to get adapted to the new environment and routine. This could take a couple of days or even weeks. With my Rottweiler puppy, we definitely had a hard first week.
But we stayed consistent with the tips and tricks below and one day she simply fell asleep and slept through the whole night. Be patient and enjoy the process no matter how difficult it is you will miss this time.
Crate Training
The first step we took was to crate train Amalia from day one. We figured that the crate will help us so much during the night and it definitely did. It will keep your dog from soiling itself while providing a safe and comfortable space.
For our puppy, we chose the AmazonBasics Double-Door Folding Metal Dog Crate with a divider.
This divider is crucial and will keep your puppy from pooping in one corner and then sleeping in another. So the crate will be able to grow with your dog gradually.
During the day we set up the crate in the living room so she can get accustomed to it. At night we would move the crate from the living room into the bedroom where she is still sleeping today (now she has a dog bed). Security spy 4 2 8 download free.
If you don’t want your dog to sleep in the same room as you then please do it at least for the first few nights. It will save you a lot of whining and barking and when you think about it, going from cuddling with your mom to staying alone in an unfamiliar room is quite shocking.
If you want to learn more about the right set up, crate introduction, training, and tips for the first night then head over to my article on 4 Steps to Crate Train Your Puppy. Dxo optics pro 10 4 3 download free.
Make It Cozy
You will want your puppy to feel incredibly cozy in his new bed. Soft blankets will keep him warm and are perfect for snuggling. But if you want to max out the coziness then try out the SmartPetLove Snuggle Puppy Behavioral Aid Toy.
This amazing toy imitates a real heartbeat to take away any stress and anxiety. Having this plush toy might save you from sleepless nights and it will comfort your puppy like nothing else.
Mental & Physical Exercise
If you want your puppy to sleep through the night then make sure that his energy is drained. Exercise consists of physical activity and mental stimulation. A young puppy doesn’t need much physical exercise and spends most of his day sleeping and exploring.
Sniffing and going on adventures is very exhausting for a puppy and will ensure a good night’s sleep. For some mental exercise, I can recommend a stuffed Puppy Kong or the Outward Hound Puzzle Dog Toy.
Just like us humans, dogs are diurnal animals which means that they are the most active during daytime. In the evening, your puppy will take a few naps and when bedtime arrives, he will be wide awake.
Schedule 20 minutes playtime in your evening to get out that physical energy. This will also help your puppy to fully relieve himself right before he gets into the crate.
Recommended Reading: How to Exercise Your Puppy
Bedtime is Quiet time
Once you enter the bedroom keep it quiet. Teach your puppy that the crate is a place of rest rather than a play hub. Don’t play a rough game of tug-of-war right before bedtime because it might push up your puppy with adrenaline.
Minimize the amount of talking and only interact with your puppy in a calm manner. This relaxed energy will help your dog to sleep better at night and take a lot of anxiety away.
Potty Breaks
Young puppies cannot go through a whole 8 hour night without potty breaks. You can start with one or two potty breaks during the night to determine your dog’s needs. When picking your puppy up to go outside, don’t talk and don’t make eye contact.
Nighttime potty breaks are serious business and won’t allow for any play sessions or baby talk. You will want your puppy to stay tired so he can go right back to sleep immediately.
Recommended Reading: How to House Train Your Puppy
Evening Routine
There are a lot of steps to take into consideration so creating an evening schedule will help a lot. Dogs thrive for routines and it helps them to feel relaxed and confident in their new environment.
Mealtime, playtimes and potty breaks should be around the same time every day. Your puppy will quickly pick up on cues that indicate bedtime. For example, I clean my face and brush my teeth right before bedtime every day and my dog always goes into the bedroom on these two cues.
When your puppy knows that bedtime is just around the corner, he will get sleepy and ready for the night. The more consistent you are with your routine the quicker your dog will adapt.
Expectations
I know that it’s hard to not get mad at your puppy for screaming throughout the whole night. But if you set your expectations right, you will be much more relaxed and positive during the process.
This should be a time of happiness and excitement while some people even consider giving away their puppy because of it.
Approach your puppy with kindness and understanding and you will definitely be rewarded. Getting angry and yelling at your dog will only make the situation worse. Always remember that it will get better and some parts are just harder than others.
Recommended Reading: 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Getting a Puppy
Should I Leave My Puppy to Cry at Night?
It’s not easy to determine whether or not your puppy’s crying is serious but after a few days, you will learn to differentiate. Most of the times your puppy will cry at night to get your attention.
If you are sure that his natural needs are met then don’t respond to his crying at all. Do not scold him or make any noises. Even negative attention is a form of attention and reward for your dog. Eventually, he will learn that the crying does nothing and will get back to sleep.
I made the mistake and took my puppy to sleep on the couch with me because this was the only place where she would be quiet. Don’t do this. It will quickly become a habit and your puppy will demand to sleep with you every night.
How to Stop Puppy Whining at Night
I have talked about this a lot in my other posts and the tips I have mentioned above will definitely help with the whining at night. But some puppies are just so persistent that they never seem to get exhausted.
That’s when I found a video on Youtube and I don’t know this guy but he has saved me from a lot of sleepless nights. If you stay persistent with this trick, I will guarantee you that your puppy will stop whining at night.
Nosleep 1 1 – Prevent Computer Sleep Through The Night Mode
I hope that these tips will help your puppy sleep through the night. If you have any additional questions or suggestions, leave them in the comments below!
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Nosleep 1 1 – Prevent Computer Sleep Through The Night Sweats
Probably one of the main reasons that babies who don’t sleep through the night are such a big issue is that parents don’t have realistic expectations of the sleep patterns of babies. Babies were designed to wake up often at night to feed and cuddle, and keep in mind that many adults wake during the night, too. If our expectations for babies were not so different from our babies’ expectations for themselves, much of this “problem” might disappear.
Following is information on studies that have been done on the typical sleep patterns of babies and young children.
Harrison Y. The relationship between daytime exposure to light and night-time sleep in 6-12-week-old infants. J Sleep Res. 2004 Dec;13(4):345-52.
Abstract: This project investigated the relationship between exposure to light and 24-h patterns of sleep and crying in young, healthy, full-term babies living at home and following a normal domestic routine. Measures included an ankle worn activity monitor, an external light monitor and the Barr Baby Day Diary in which parents recorded periods of sleep, crying, feeding and other behaviours at 5-min intervals throughout the 24-h period. Fifty-six babies (26 males and 30 females) were monitored across three consecutive days at 6, 9 and 12 weeks of age. There was an early evening peak in crying which was associated with reduced sleep at 6 weeks. Across the trials there was a gradual shift towards a greater proportion of sleep occurring at night. Sleeping well at 6 weeks was a good indication of more night-time sleep at 9 and 12 weeks. Babies who slept well at night were exposed to significantly more light in the early afternoon period. These data suggest that light in the normal domestic setting influences the development of the circadian system.
Goodlin-Jones BL, et al. Night waking, sleep-wake organization, and self-soothing in the first year of life. J Dev Behav Pediatr 2001 Aug;22(4):226-33
Abstract: Few objective data are available regarding infants’ night waking behaviors and the development of self-soothing during the first year of life. This cross-sectional study examined 80 infants in one of four age groups (3, 6, 9, or 12 mo) for four nights by using videosomnography to code nighttime awakenings and parent-child interactions. A large degree of variability was observed in parents’ putting the infant to bed awake or asleep and in responding to vocalizations after nighttime awakenings. Most infants woke during the night at all ages observed. Younger infants tended to require parental intervention at night to return to sleep, whereas older infants exhibited a greater proportion of self-soothing after nighttime awakenings. However, even in the 12-month-old group, 50% of infants typically required parental intervention to get back to sleep after waking. Results emphasize the individual and contextual factors that effect the development of self-soothing behavior during the first year of life.
Scher A. Attachment and sleep: a study of night waking in 12-month-old infants. Dev Psychobiol 2001 May;38(4):274-85.
Abstract: Sleep regulation was examined from a mother-child relational perspective. Although the link between sleep and attachment has been previously discussed, empirical support is rather limited. This report, which is a part of a longitudinal investigation of sleep in infancy, examines the association between the child’s sleep pattern and mother-infant attachment in 94 mother-infant dyads. At 12 months each dyad participated in the Strange Situation procedure; 77% were securely attached. Mothers’ description of the infant’s fussiness was not found to predict the attachment pattern, but was associated with the sleep habits. It was found that 55% of the secure and 60% of the ambivalent children were described as night wakers. To a sub-group of 37 infants, a sleep monitor (actigraph) was provided for two nights’ recordings. The frequency of the objective awakenings was higher than what mothers reported but similar for the secure and insecure infants. The findings confirm that night waking at the end of the first year is a common developmental phenomenon. Among this group of non-risk infants, sleep characteristics were only marginally associated with the quality of the child’s attachment relationship.
Sadler S. Sleep: what is normal at six months? Prof Care Mother Child 1994 Aug-Sep;4(6):166-7.
In this study, part of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ALSPAC), researchers surveyed the parents of 640 babies. Some of the results:
Only 16% slept through the night at six months old — 84% were not sleeping through the night at 6 months
17% woke more than once per night, ranging from twice to eight times
5% woke once every night
9% woke most nights
50% woke occasionally
16% of six-month-olds had no regular sleeping pattern
Armstrong KL, Quinn RA & Dadds MR. The sleep patterns of normal children. Medical Journal of Australia 1994 Aug 1;161(3):202-6.
The above study is the definitive work on sleeping habits of (Australian) children to 38 months. The researchers surveyed 3269 parents, with a 96.5% response rate, over a one week period. The parents had to report on their child’s sleeping habits over the past 24 hours, plus answer a few questions related to their perceptions of their child’s sleep behavior.
What did they find?
There is a wide range of normal childhood sleep behavior.
Circadian rhythm is not well established until four months of age.
Daytime sleep becomes less regular with increasing age, the most marked reduction in length occurs around 3 months of age. However, a surprising 11% under 3 months of age don’t have a daytime sleep every day.
Frequent night waking that disturbs parents is common from 4-12 months (12.7% disturb their parents 3 or more times every night).
Night time settling requires more parental input from 18 months.
Nearly a third of parents have a significant problem with their child’s sleep behavior.
Sleeping through the night: 71.4% did this on at least one occasion by 3 months of age, but many of these relapse into more frequent waking in the 4 to 12 month period. It is not until after 24 months that regular night waking (requiring attention) becomes much less common.
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Although this study did not address breastfeeding, it is relevant because a lack of understanding of “normal” sleep patterns can lead to supplementing, early solids, belief there is not enough milk, etc. The authors claim it also leads to misdiagnosis of gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) and overuse of sedative medication. A worrying 31% of 25-38 month-old children were disciplined (mostly smacking) to get them to settle. 27% of parents let their children cry, 11% at less than one month.
Scher A. A longitudinal study of night waking in the first year. Child Care Health Dev 1991 Sep-Oct;17(5):295-302.
Abstract: A longitudinal study of the development of sleep patterns addressed the issue of continuity and change in night waking in the course of the first year. Mothers of 118 infants, who took part in a follow-up study of normal babies, completed a sleep questionnaire at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Regular night waking was a common characteristic throughout the first year:
% babies waking at night
46%
39%
58%
55%
The number of awakenings per night was a function of age. Following a decline in the number of interruptions from 3 to 6 months, an increase in night waking at age 9 months was recorded. Although the methodology does not lend itself to an objective validation of the changes in sleep-wake states, nor is it suitable for causal explanations, it is, nevertheless, important to note this profile. The increase in night waking towards the end of the first year coincides with significant socio-emotional advances which characterize this developmental stage.
Wooding AR, Boyd J, Geddis DC. Sleep patterns of New Zealand infants during the first 12 months of life. J Paediatr Child Health. 1990 Apr;26(2):85-8.,
Abstract: The sleeping patterns of 874 infants aged 1-12 months were recorded by parents over a 6 day period. The most striking feature of the results was the wide range in total hours slept by infants of the same age, for example, the average total sleeping time per 24 h period for 4 month old infants was 14.8 h with a range of 11.0-19.3 h. Furthermore, over the 6 day period, individual infants showed wide variations in their sleeping times with a range as great as 12 h. Despite these wide variations, several clear trends emerged: from 1 to 8 months, a decrease with age of the average number of hours slept per 24 h period; and from 8 to 12 months, and a continuing shift towards a dominance of night over day sleep. The frequency of night wakings was, on average, 77%, a finding that contrasted sharply with parental perception of frequency of night waking; the transition from bassinet/carrycot to cot was most common between 3 and 4 months of age; 25% of babies slept with the light on, 9% used a dummy, and 37% sucked their fingers; first-born infants woke significantly less often at night than those with one or more sibling. These results provide an important comparative data set on the sleep patterns of infants.
Elias MF, Nicolson NA, Bora C, Johnston J. Sleep/wake patterns of breast-fed infants in the first 2 years of life. Pediatrics. 1986 Mar;77(3):322-9.
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Abstract: Published norms for infant sleep/wake patterns during the first 2 years of life include an increase in length of maximum sleep bout from four to five to eight to ten hours by 4 months but little decrease in total sleep in 24 hours from 13 to 15 hours. Thirty-two breast-fed infants were followed for 2 years and data collected on 24-hour patterns of nursing and sleep. Infants who were breast-fed into the second year did not develop sleep/wake patterns in conformance with the norms. Instead of having long unbroken night sleep, they continued to sleep in short bouts with frequent wakings. Their total sleep in 24 hours was less than that of weaned infants. This pattern was most pronounced in infants who both nursed and shared a bed with the mother, common practices in many nonwestern cultures. The sleep/wake development accepted as the physiologic norm may be attributable to the early weaning and separated sleeping practiced in western culture. As prolonged breast-feeding becomes more popular in our society, the norms of sleep/wake patterns in infancy will have to be revised.
More information
Sleeping through the night (this website)
Nursing to Sleep and Other Comfort Nursing (this website)
The Family Bed (this website)
Gerard CM, Harris KA, Thach BT. Spontaneous Arousals in Supine Infants While Swaddled and Unswaddled During Rapid Eye Movement and Quiet Sleep. Pediatrics 2002; 110: e70. “Swaddling… resulted in shorter arousal duration during REM sleep and more REM sleep…. a safe form of swaddling that allows hip flexion/abduction and chest wall excursion may help parents keep their infants in the supine sleep position and thereby prevent the sudden infant death syndrome risks associated with the prone sleep position.”