[Blog]Ep 2. Why Your Baby Is Waking Every 2 Hours

Ft. Rinie Gupta (Pediatric Sleep Consultant)

Apr 21, 2025

Sleep. The elusive, dreamlike state that seems to vanish the moment a baby enters the picture. If you’re a parent who's caught in the relentless loop of two-hourly wakeups, this blog is here to unpack the “why” behind your baby's night wakings, and what you can actually do about it.

In this episode of The Modern Indian Parent podcast, hosts Rinie Gupta and Sanchita Daswani address one of the most pressing concerns faced by new parents: the challenge of frequent night wakings in infants. Within many Indian households, sleepless nights are often normalized as an unavoidable part of early parenthood. Parents are frequently told to “enjoy sleep while they can,” as if exhaustion is a given. Moreover, night wakings are often attributed to hunger, teething, or developmental phases without deeper examination.

Are All Night Wakings Due to Hunger?

Sanchita kicks off the discussion with a burning question: Are babies waking every two hours because they’re hungry?

Rinie breaks it down clearly:

Newborns (0–6 weeks): Yes, their tummies are tiny and they do need to feed frequently. This is biological and expected.
Older babies (3–4 months and beyond): Not so much. Their stomach capacity increases, they feed more efficiently, and they can go longer without eating.

Rinie gives an example of a 9-month-old waking every two hours: “Is it hunger? No. Most likely not.” If a baby latches for only 3–4 minutes or takes just an ounce from the bottle before going back to sleep, it probably wasn’t hunger that woke them in the first place.

Sanchita also points out that many parents assume starting solids will fix night wakings. But as she says, “Starting solids is not going to be the answer.”

The Real Reason Babies Wake Frequently

So, if not hunger, what is it?

Rinie explains that frequent night wakings are often tied to external sleep associations. In clinical terms, this is sometimes called Sleep Onset Association Disorder. Sleep Onset Association Disorder means that your baby has become dependent on something external to fall asleep, whether that’s nursing, rocking, a pacifier, or being held.

Rinie shares her own experience with her daughter, who went from waking three times a night to nearly every hour during the four-month sleep regression. Why? Because she was being bottle-fed or rocked to sleep and needed the same to get back to sleep each time she woke.

Here’s the science behind it: babies (and adults) sleep in cycles. For babies, each cycle lasts about 45–60 minutes. At the end of each cycle, there’s a brief moment of waking. Adults roll over and fall back asleep. But babies who rely on external help to sleep can’t do this independently- they wake up fully and cry out for that same help again.

As Sanchita puts it: “They haven’t learned how to go back to sleep on their own.” And that, more than anything else, is the core reason behind frequent night wakings.

Is Nursing to Sleep a Bad Habit?

This is where it gets nuanced and reassuring.

Rinie is clear: “Is nursing to sleep a bad habit? Hell no. Is rocking to sleep a bad habit? No.”

She emphasizes that a sleep association is only a problem if it’s a problem for you.

If your baby nurses to sleep and sleeps well through the night, great.
But if you’re up every hour, feeling sore, and trapped in a dark room all day, then it might be time to reconsider the pattern.

Sanchita echoes this: Many parents don’t realize how exhausting it is until months later, when it’s affecting their mental and physical health.

Does Teething Cause Night Wakings?

As Rinie points out candidly, “Teething is the scapegoat for everything.” And it’s easy to see why. From around four months onward, any change in a baby’s behavior, especially disrupted sleep is often attributed to teething.

According to Rinie, while teething is certainly a real and sometimes painful milestone, it is unlikely to be the cause of prolonged sleep disturbances. The discomfort associated with teething typically occurs only during the period when a tooth is actively cutting through the gums. During this time, you may observe visible signs like swollen gums or small white dots beneath the gum surface. This phase usually lasts no more than two to seven days.

If your baby has been waking frequently at night for weeks or even months, and there are still no new teeth to show for it, it is very likely that teething is not the reason. She also emphasizes that teething-related pain is manageable. Tools like teething rings, cold fruit pits, or even appropriate pain relief (when necessary and under guidance) can help soothe a baby during this temporary phase. Sanchita adds that when it comes to food refusal during teething, offering cool, soothing options like ripe fruit or using fruit nibblers can ease discomfort and support feeding.

Ultimately, both Rinie and Sanchita agree that while teething may cause short-term changes in sleep or appetite, it should not be used as a long-term explanation for ongoing night wakings. If your baby’s sleep disruptions have lasted beyond a week and are not accompanied by visible signs of teething, it’s time to consider other underlying causes.

Impact of Sleep Regressions on Sleep

Sleep regressions are actually progressions — signs your baby is developing a new skill. Crawling, walking, talking, developing object permanence. All of these milestones can temporarily disrupt sleep.

One common misconception is that regressions happen at fixed ages- four months, six months, eight months, and so on. Rinie clarifies that aside from the four-month regression, which involves a real restructuring of sleep cycles, most other regressions are not tied to specific ages but rather to when each individual baby reaches a new milestone. Some may experience the eight-month regression at six months, others at ten.

So, how long do these regressions last? According to Rinie, typically no more than one to two weeks, just the time it takes for the baby to master the new skill. If your baby’s sleep continues to be disrupted beyond that, it’s likely not the regression itself but the habits that formed during that period that have now become associations(more rocking, feeding, pacifiers, or co-sleeping).

In short, while sleep regressions are very real and understandably challenging, they shouldn’t be causing months of poor sleep. The key is recognizing the temporary nature of regressions and being mindful of the patterns we may unknowingly reinforce during these phases.

Solution to Two Hourly Night Wakings

Rinie recommends considering sleep training, which is a structured approach that helps your baby learn to fall asleep independently, without needing external sleep props. It’s not about letting your baby “cry it out,” but rather about gently teaching them a new way to sleep.

Here’s what sleep training can help with:

Breaking the cycle of constant night wakings
Reducing dependency on feeding, rocking, or pacifiers to fall asleep
Creating a consistent, predictable bedtime routine
Helping both baby and parents get longer stretches of restful sleep

As Rinie explains, “Sleep training is not the only option, but it is an option — one that can truly transform nights for families.” If you’re feeling trapped in a pattern that no longer serves your child or yourself, there is a way forward.