Start explaining the difference between day and night

Some babies are owls (you may have noticed some hints of this during pregnancy). And while you want to turn off the light, the child may still be very active. For the first few days, you won't be able to do anything about it. But once your baby is about 2 weeks old, you can start teaching him to tell the difference between night and day.

When the child is alert and active during the day, play with him, turn on the lights in the house and in his room, do not try to reduce the usual daytime noises (sounds of the phone, TV or dishwasher). If he falls asleep while feeding, wake him up. Do not play with your child at night. When you enter his feeding room, dim the lights and noise, don't talk to him for too long. It won't be long before your baby starts to understand that night time is for sleep.

Give him a chance to fall asleep on his own

When your baby is 6 to 8 weeks old, start giving him a chance to fall asleep on his own. How? Put him to bed when he's sleepy but still awake, experts advise. They discourage motion sickness or feeding the baby before bed. “Parents think that if they start training a child too early, it will not work,” they say, “But this is not so. Babies develop sleep habits. If you rock your baby before bed every night for the first eight weeks, why should he expect anything different later?

What difficulties might arise?

By the time your baby is 2 or 3 months old, he may already be waking up at night more than he should and developing negative sleep associations.

Newborns must wake up at night for food, but some may accidentally wake themselves before they really need to feed. To avoid this, try swaddling your baby (wrap him snugly in a blanket) before putting him to bed at night.

Avoid unnecessary associations with sleep - your child should not depend on motion sickness, feeding in order to fall asleep. Put the baby to bed before he falls asleep and let him fall asleep on his own.

3 to 6 months

Typical sleep at this age

Congratulations! Now all your nightly rises every two or three hours are over (hopefully). By 3 or 4 months, most babies sleep 15 hours a day, 10 of them at night, and the rest of the time is divided between three naps (which will decrease to two when your baby is 6 months old).

At the beginning of this period, you may still get up once or twice a night for feedings, but by 6 months your baby will be able to sleep through the night. But it will depend on whether you develop healthy sleep habits in him.

How to develop healthy sleep habits?

Set a clear night and day sleep schedule and stick to it.

While your baby was a newborn, you could decide when to put him to bed during the night, watching for signs of sleepiness (rubbing his eyes, rubbing his ear, etc.). Now that he's a little older, you should set specific times for him to sleep at night and during the day.

In the evening, a good time for a child is between 19.00 and 20.30. Later, he will most likely be too tired and it will be difficult for him to fall asleep. Your child may not look tired late at night - on the contrary, he may seem very energetic. But believe me, this is a sure sign that it's time for the baby to sleep.

In the same way, you can set your nap time - schedule it for the same time every day, or feel free to put your baby to bed when you see that he is tired and needs to rest. Either approach is acceptable as long as the baby is getting enough sleep.

Start establishing a bedtime ritual

If you haven't already, it's time to start at 3-6 months of age. A bedtime ritual may include the following: give him a bath, play quiet games with him, read a bedtime story or two, sing a lullaby. Kiss him and say goodnight.

No matter what your family's ritual involves, you must do it in the same order, at the same time, every night. Children need consistency, and sleep is no exception.

Wake your child up in the morning

If your child often sleeps more than 10 hours at night, it is advisable to wake him up in the morning. Thus, you will help him restore the mode. Keeping a nightly sleep schedule may not seem difficult to you, but remember that your child should sleep on schedule and during the day. Waking up at the same time every morning will help.

What difficulties might arise?

The two problems of nocturnal awakenings and the development of negative sleep associations (when your baby becomes dependent on motion sickness or feeding as a prerequisite for falling asleep) affect both newborns and older children. But by about 3-6 months, another problem may arise - difficulty falling asleep.

If your child has difficulty falling asleep in the evening, first make sure that he does not stay up too late (as we mentioned, an overtired child has difficulty falling asleep). If this is not the case, then he may have developed one or more associations associated with sleep. Now is the time to get rid of them. The child must learn to fall asleep on his own, and not calmed down, thanks to your hands, chest, or dummy.

What tactics to get rid of associations to choose is up to you. The easiest option is to wait until the child “shouts out and falls asleep”, which is not suitable for everyone.

References

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• Magalhaes MGS., Teixeira JB., Santos AMB., Clímaco DCS., Silva TNS., Lima AMJ. Construct validity and reproducibility of the six-minute step test in subjects with obstructive sleep apnea treated with continuous positive airway pressure. // J Bras Pneumol - 2020 - Vol46 - N3 - p.e20180422; PMID:32321033
• Zhou K., Wang W., Zhao W., Li L., Zhang M., Guo P., Zhou C., Li M., An J., Li J., Li X. Benefits of a WeChat-based multimodal nursing program on early rehabilitation in postoperative women with breast cancer: A clinical randomized controlled trial. // Int J Nurs Stud - 2020 - Vol106 - NNULL - p.103565; PMID:32272281
• Noguchi T., Kashiwagi K., Fukuda K. The effectiveness of stabilization appliance therapy among patients with myalgia. // Clin Exp Dent Res - 2020 - Vol6 - N2 - p.244-253; PMID:32250573
• Rizio AA., Bhor M., Lin X., McCausland KL., White MK., Paulose J., Nandal S., Halloway RI., Bronté-Hall L. The relationship between frequency and severity of vaso-occlusive crises and health-related quality of life and work productivity in adults with sickle cell disease. // Qual Life Res - 2020 - Vol29 - N6 - p.1533-1547; PMID:31933113
• Behrendt D., Ebert DD., Spiegelhalder K., Lehr D. Efficacy of a Self-Help Web-Based Recovery Training in Improving Sleep in Workers: Randomized Controlled Trial in the General Working Population. // J Med Internet Res - 2020 - Vol22 - N1 - p.e13346; PMID:31909725
• Davis KA., Edgar-Zarate CL., Bonilla-Velez J., Atkinson TN., Tulunay-Ugur OE., Agarwal A. Using Didactics and Simulation to Enhance Comfort, Knowledge, and Skills of Nonsurgical Trainees Caring for Patients With Tracheostomy and Laryngectomy. // Simul Healthc - 2019 - Vol14 - N6 - p.384-390; PMID:31804423
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Article | How much sleep do healthy babies get?

Popular wisdom says: "In any incomprehensible situation, go to bed" and "Morning is wiser than evening." These proverbs were born only when observing babies. Indeed, sleep solves many problems for them. He slept a little longer - and everything is fine with him, he got stronger, grew up and wakes up in a good mood. Why is that?

Why sleep is so important

Sleep is not just a time of rest when nothing happens to us. This is a whole complex of mechanisms invisible to the eye, the work of which goes according to a certain scenario. Sleep should be treated with respect and attention. Sleep time should never be sacrificed. Sleep deficiency in an adult causes a 45% decline in working capacity, and chronic sleep deprivation can lead to depression, overeating, behavioral changes, irritability, and reduced immunity.

If you don't get enough sleep, your mood will be bad and your child will have to deal with a lethargic and irritable mother. Sleep deprivation is one of the main problems of young parents. A newborn does not always sleep "baby sleep" all night, which means that they themselves cannot sleep. On the one hand, all modern parents already know that in the first year of a child's life they will not sleep much. On the other hand, there are things you can do for your own health and for the health of your baby. Namely, try to improve his sleep, especially at night. How to do it?

Hours of sleep and wakefulness

It is not in vain that the baby spends almost all his time in sleep. It is at this moment that it grows and develops: in the first 2 hours after falling asleep, growth hormone is actively produced. Quality sleep protects the psyche from overwork, strengthens the immune system. It is known that children with improved sleep get sick 30% less. Children's sleep is so important that it will easily overtake all other worries and affairs in the list of priorities. Elena Muradova, a certified consultant on children's and family sleep, suggests such a distribution of the phases of wakefulness and sleep by months.

The table is based on observations of the sleep of healthy infants. It's an average, but it's easy to get an idea of ​​how kids sleep most of the time. Of course, these are not strict norms, but a guideline for parents.

Rhythm of life

Despite the fact that opinions about feeding and sleeping strictly by the clock have long and irrevocably been divided, and habits and way of life in each family are individual, the regimen is still useful to everyone. Both children and parents. The regime is not like a rigid schedule, but like a logical alternation of different phases. It is noticed that the child prefers the predictability of repeating cycles. Thus, biorhythms are easier to establish, which will ensure a healthy rhythm of life, comfortable for both the child and all family members.

If you want to fine-tune the daily routine, the best way to do this is to observe and perhaps record how the child behaves during the day. And here there is one secret - to catch the moment, which experts call "window to sleep". During this period of time, the baby is just starting to get tired, but is still in a good mood. As soon as you see that the child's natural activity is waning, you urgently need to leave everything and try to put the baby to sleep.

Signs of fatigue

1. Baby rubs eyes;
2. yawns;
3. naughty;
4. his mood deteriorates;
5. loses interest in the environment;
6. turns away;
7. becomes less mobile;
8. tugging at the ear.

If you do not catch these signs and skip the first stage of drowsiness, then overexcitation may occur, the baby will begin to act up, cry, not breastfeed, refuse to fall asleep. At the moment of danger, an ancient mechanism is activated that prevents sleep: the adrenal glands release hormones into the blood, and at this moment a "second wind" opens. In this state, it is very difficult to put the baby to sleep! Of course, fatigue will take its toll, and the baby will fall asleep, but perhaps already with hysteria and tears. So it is important to catch the moment before the “window to sleep” closes.

A helpful ritual

Children love it when things happen in sequence, and always in the same order. So they are calmer and they feel safe. This directly applies to the main infant activity - sleep. You need to develop a clear bedding ritual and always stick to it. Dim the lights in the room where the baby will sleep, avoid harsh sounds. A good sleep is where it is quiet, dark, comfortable temperature, and the air is fresh.

Already by 3 months you can develop a sleep-wake cycle that is comfortable for you and your baby. With age, the number of episodes of daytime sleep decreases and the main sleep occurs at night. Usually it is 5 hours without waking up for night feedings.

Parent traps

Should a child be rocked? Is it possible to teach a child to fall asleep on his own? How long should the laying ritual last? There are no "correct" answers to such questions. Everyone needs a bedtime ritual, but what exactly it will be depends only on you. What you accustom yourself and your child to will happen day after day.

When your baby is 6-8 weeks old, start giving him a chance to fall asleep on his own. How? Put him to bed when he's sleepy but still awake, experts advise.

The bedtime ritual marks the beginning of sleep, introduces the baby into it, relaxes, fills it with love. Sleep experts advise against rocking or feeding your baby before bed. Parents think that if they start training the child too early, it will not work. But this is not so. Babies develop sleep habits. If you rock your baby before bed every night for the first 8 weeks, why should he expect anything else later?

It is important that the child falls asleep where he will sleep. His consciousness remembers the circumstances of falling asleep, and if he suddenly wakes up by accident, he will not understand where he found himself. Anxiety will awaken him completely, and you will have to start all over again. Such associations associated with sleep begin to form in a child from 4 months.

There is another mistake that inexperienced parents make: they think that if they put the child to bed later, he will not wake up too early in the morning. At first glance, this is a good idea - teenagers, for example, when they go to bed late, the next day they sleep until noon! Unfortunately, this does not work with young children. The biological clock is a powerful force that wakes young children up at the same time every morning, no matter what time they fall asleep in the evening. Parents who put their child to bed late will get a tired and lethargic baby with signs of apparent lack of sleep the next day. Do not neglect the regime! The child must sleep through the hours of the night assigned to him.

What determines a child's sleep

Once again, we emphasize that the norms of children's sleep are indicative and each child needs his own number of hours of sleep. What does it depend on?

Genetic features or hereditary predisposition. All people are divided into long-sleepers and short-sleepers. Those who get enough sleep for 8-10 hours of sleep are long-sleepers, while those who need 6-7 hours of sleep are short-sleepers. This feature is passed on to your baby. But not only genetics affects the need for sleep.

Activity while awake. When you work harder, you need more sleep to recover. If a child has received too many new experiences during the day, then he will sleep longer. If the child spent the day calmly, then, most likely, less sleep is needed.

State of health. When unwell, children sleep more and recover in sleep.

Sleep conditions. It has been proven that at a lower temperature, in darkness and with sufficient oxygen, sleep is better.

Sleep preparation can be energizing or relaxing. Choose the right evening ritual.

IMPORTANT: Children under 5 years of age usually do better if they live on an early schedule, according to the body's biological clock.

And this means that the child should go to bed early and get up early. Then the children wake up fully asleep and in a good mood.

Wake up sleepyhead

Most often, parents sound the alarm when the baby does not sleep or sleeps poorly. But if the child sleeps a lot, parents are usually happy and rarely ask for help. But in vain: a baby under 1 month old who sleeps too long can suffer from dehydration and lose weight. If a baby older than 1 month sleeps more than usual, you need to observe him for a week and not rush to conclusions. If too much sleep is observed for 7 days or more, you should contact a neurologist to check the functioning of the nervous system.

If you can't manage your baby's sleep on your own, contact a sleep consultant.

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