7 mo old starting nighttime sleep in last nap of day

[sue]

My 7 month old has really never slept through the night.  He wakes every night between 2am and 4am.  He talks to himself for about an hour, cries for 15-20 minutes, then returns to sleep until morning.  He has a decent daytime routine.  Wakes between 6 and 6:30, naps from 9-10:30 and again at 2-4 with bedtime at 7.  He falls asleep on his own for his naps and bedtime.  He's always slept really deeply for his last nap of the day.  We always have to wake him from it and then we struggle to keep him awake until bedtime.  I've read a little bit recently about Biological rythms and I understand that there are temperature and hormonal changes that occur when we go to sleep and when we wake up.  I have a theory that he's going through his nighttime changes when he starts his second nap (2pm) and then, about 12 hours later (2am) he goes through his waking changes.

Does anyone have any advise on how I can adjust his clock?

Thanks for any help,
Sue

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Sue,

To be frank with you, I wouldn't make any changes in your current plan. Your son is sleeping, generally speaking, for a sufficient number of hours, and the hours are distributed OK between nap times and nighttime sleeping. The only 'glitch' is the amount of time he stays awake during the night. This is probably what occasions his late-in-the-day tiredness. But it's probably not a sufficient reason to make changes in the schedule. Rather, you might simply allow development to run its course, and my guess is that he will remain awake for a shorter period during the night as time goes by. I don't think there's a lot to be gained from trying to tinker with his schedule, since basically it's in good shape.