Baby sleeping long

Baby sleep: what to expect at 2-12 months

Baby sleep needs

Babies need sleep to grow and develop well. But babies’ sleep needs vary, just as the sleep needs of older children and adults do. Your baby might be doing well with more or less sleep than other babies the same age.

Your baby’s mood and wellbeing is often a good guide to whether your baby is getting enough sleep. If your baby is:

• wakeful and grizzly, they might need more sleep
• wakeful and contented, they’re probably getting enough sleep.

How baby sleep changes from 2 to 12 months

As they get older, babies:

• sleep less in the daytime
• are awake for longer between naps
• have longer night-time sleeps and wake less at night
• need less sleep overall.

2-3 months: what to expect from baby sleep

At this age, babies sleep on and off during the day and night. Most babies sleep for 14-17 hours in every 24 hours.

Young babies sleep in cycles that last 50-60 minutes. In young babies, each cycle is made up of active sleep and quiet sleep. Babies move around and grunt during active sleep, and sleep deeply during quiet sleep.

At the end of each cycle, babies wake up for a little while. They might grizzle or cry. They might need help to settle for the next sleep cycle.

At 2-3 months, babies start developing night and day sleep patterns. This means they tend to start sleeping more during the night.

Around 3 months: what to expect from baby sleep

Babies keep developing night and day sleep patterns.

Their sleep cycles consist of:

• light sleep, when baby wakes easily
• deep sleep, when baby is sound asleep and very still
• dream sleep, when baby is dreaming.

Sleep cycles also get longer, which might mean less waking and resettling during sleep. At this age, some babies might regularly be having longer sleeps at night – for example, 4-5 hours.

Most babies still sleep for 14-17 hours in every 24 hours.

3-6 months: what to expect from baby sleep

At this age, most babies sleep for 12-15 hours every 24 hours.

Babies might start moving towards a pattern of 2-3 daytime sleeps of up to two hours each.

And night-time sleeps get longer at this age. For example, some babies might be having long sleeps of six hours at night by the time they’re six months old.

But you can expect that your baby will still wake at least once each night.

6-12 months: what to expect from baby sleep

Babies sleep less as they get older. By the time your baby is one year old, baby will probably sleep for 11-14 hours every 24 hours.

Sleep during the night
From about six months, most babies have their longest sleeps at night.

Most babies are ready for bed between 6 pm and 10 pm. They usually take less than 40 minutes to get to sleep, but some babies take longer.

At this age, baby sleep cycles are closer to those of grown-up sleep – which means less waking at night. So your baby might not wake you during the night, or waking might happen less often.

But many babies do wake during the night and need an adult to settle them back to sleep. Some babies do this 3-4 times a night.

Sleep during the day
At this age, most babies are still having 2-3 daytime naps that last for between 30 minutes and 2 hours.

6-12 months: other developments that affect sleep

From around six months, babies develop many new abilities that can affect their sleep or make them more difficult to settle:

• Babies learn to keep themselves awake, especially if something interesting is happening, or they’re in a place with a lot of light and noise.
• Settling difficulties can happen at the same time as crawling. You might notice your baby’s sleep habits changing when baby starts moving around more.
• Babies learn that things exist, even when they’re out of sight. Now that your baby knows you exist when you leave the bedroom, baby might call or cry out for you.
• Separation anxiety is when babies get upset because you’re not around. It might mean your baby doesn’t want to go to sleep and wakes up more often in the night. As babies mature they gradually overcome this worry.

6-12 months: night-time feeding

From around six months of age, if your baby is developing well, it’s OK to think about night weaning and phasing out night feeds. But if you’re comfortable with feeding your baby during the night, there’s no hurry to phase out night feeds.

You can choose what works best for you and your baby.

A rollover feed is a late feed somewhere between 10 pm and midnight. Some parents find that rollover feeds help babies sleep longer towards morning. If this works for you and your baby, it’s fine to give baby a rollover feed.

Concerns about baby sleep

If you’re concerned about your baby’s sleep, it can be a good idea to track your baby’s sleep for a week or so. This can help you get a clear picture of what’s going on.

You can do this by drawing up a simple chart with columns for each day of the week. Divide the days into hourly blocks, and colour the intervals when your baby is asleep. Keep your chart for 5-7 days.

Once completed, the chart will tell you things like:

• when and how much sleep your baby is getting
• how many times your baby is waking during the night
• how long your baby is taking to settle after waking.

You can also record how you tried to resettle your baby and what worked or didn’t work.

Then you can compare the information in your chart with the general information about baby sleep needs above:

• How does your child compare to other babies the same age? If your baby is wakeful and grizzly and getting much less sleep than others, your baby might need more opportunities for sleep.
• How many times is your baby over six months old waking up during the night? If it’s 3-4 times a night or more, you might be feeling very tired. You might want to think about phasing out some of your baby’s sleep habits.

If you decide you need to see a professional for help with your baby’s sleep, take your chart with you.

If you’re concerned about your baby’s sleep, it’s a very good idea to see a child health professional for help. You could start by talking with your GP or child and family health nurse.

How baby sleep patterns affect grown-ups

Babies and grown-ups need sleep for wellbeing, but babies sleep differently from adults. Most parents of babies under six months of age get up in the night to feed and settle their babies. For many, this keeps going after six months.

Some parents are OK with getting up a lot at night as long as they have enough support and they can catch up on sleep at other times. For others, getting up in the night over the long term has a serious effect on them and their family lives.

The quality of your sleep can affect your health and your mood. Being exhausted can make it hard to give your baby positive attention during the day. And your relationship with your baby and the time and attention you give baby during the day can affect the quality and quantity of baby’s sleep.

So it’s important that you get some help if you’re not getting enough sleep. You could start by asking family or friends for help. And if you feel that lack of sleep is affecting you mentally or emotionally, it’s a very good idea to talk with your GP or another health professional.

There’s a strong link between baby sleep difficulties and symptoms of postnatal depression in women and postnatal depression in men. But the link isn’t there if parents of babies with sleep difficulties are getting enough sleep themselves.

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Sleep and Your 1- to 3-Month-Old (for Parents)

Just when you think that getting more shut-eye is a far-off dream, your baby will begin to sleep longer stretches at night. Baby's sleep cycle is getting closer to yours, and your little one may be feeding less often at night.

But don't assume you'll be hitting the snooze button just yet. At this stage, "sleeping through the night" is considered to be a stretch of only 5 or 6 hours.

How Long Will My Baby Sleep?

Because babies this age are more awake, alert, and aware of their surroundings during daylight hours, they're more likely to be tired at night and sleep. But the range of normal is still very wide.

Infants up to 3 months old should get 14–17 hours of sleep over a 24-hour period, says the National Sleep Foundation. Many will have settled into a daily sleep routine of 2-3 naps during the day, followed by a longer "sleeping through the night" stretch after a late-night feeding.

How Should Babies Sleep?

The American of Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends room-sharing without bed-sharing for at least the first 6 months or, ideally, until a baby's first birthday. This is when the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) is highest.

Room-sharing is when you place your baby's crib, portable crib, play yard, or bassinet in your own bedroom instead of in a separate room. This keeps baby nearby and helps with feeding, comforting, and monitoring baby at night.

While room-sharing is safe, putting your baby to sleep in bed with you is not. Bed-sharing increases the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related deaths.

Follow these recommendations for a safe sleep environment for your little one:

• Always place your baby on their back to sleep, not on the stomach or side. The rate of SIDS has gone way down since the AAP began recommending this in 1992.
• Use a firm, flat sleep surface. Cover the mattress with a sheet that fits snugly.
• Do not put anything else in the crib or bassinet. Keep plush toys, pillows, blankets, unfitted sheets, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, and bumper pads out of your baby's sleep area.
• To avoid overheating, dress your baby for the room temperature and don't overbundle. Don't cover your baby's head while they're sleeping. Watch for signs of overheating, such as sweating or feeling hot to the touch.
• Keep your baby away from smokers. Secondhand smoke increases the risk of SIDS.
• Offer a pacifier to your baby at sleep time, but don’t force it. If the pacifier falls out during sleep, you don’t have to replace it. If you're breastfeeding, wait until breastfeeding is firmly established.
• Watch out for other hazards, such as items with cords, ties, or ribbons that can wrap around a baby's neck, and objects with any kind of sharp edge or corner. Look around for things that your baby can touch from a seated or standing position in the crib. Hanging mobiles, wall hangings, pictures, draperies, and window blind cords could be harmful if they are within a baby's reach.
• Don’t let your baby fall asleep on a product that isn’t specifically designed for sleeping babies, such as a sitting device (like a car seat), a feeding pillow (like the Boppy pillow), or an infant lounger (like the Dock-a-Tot, Podster, and Bummzie).
• Don’t use products or devices that claim to lower the risk of SIDS, such as sleep positioners (like wedges or incliners) or monitors that can detect a baby’s heart rate and breathing pattern. No known products can actually do this.
• Don’t use weighted blankets, sleepers, or swaddles on or around your baby.
• Make sure that all sleep surfaces and products you use to help your baby sleep have been approved by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and meet federal safety standards.

Helping Your Baby Sleep

If you haven't already, start a bedtime routine that will be familiar and relaxing for your baby. Bathing, reading, and singing can soothe babies and signal an end to the day. Some babies like to be swaddled (wrapped in a light blanket). This is OK until they start to roll (typically, when they're 3 to 4 months old). Be consistent and your baby will soon associate these steps with sleeping.

If you rock your baby to sleep before bedtime, your little one may expect to be rocked to sleep after nighttime awakenings. Instead, try putting your baby into a crib or bassinet while drowsy but still awake. This way your baby will learn to fall asleep on their own.

Some babies squirm, whine, and even cry a little before falling back to sleep on their own. Unless you think that your baby is hungry or ill, see what happens if you leave your baby alone for a few minutes — they might settle down.

If your baby wakes during the period that you want them to sleep, keep activity to a minimum. Try to keep the lights low and resist the urge to play with or talk to your baby. Change or feed your baby and then return your little one to the crib or bassinet.

If your baby is waking early for a morning feeding, some small changes may allow a slight shift in schedule. You might try waking your baby for the late-night feeding at a time that suits your sleep schedule:

• For instance, if your baby sleeps after a 7 p.m. feeding and wakes up at 2 a.m. to eat, try waking the baby to feed at 11 p.m. Then, put your little one down to sleep until an early-morning feeding at 5 a. m. or 6 a.m.

It may take a few nights to establish this routine, but being consistent will improve your chances of success.

When Should I Call the Doctor?

Some infants at this age will start sleeping through the night, but there is a wide range of normal. If you have questions about your baby's sleep, talk with your doctor.

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. pulls 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.

By the age of 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 stimulating 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. Children's sleep experts will analyze your regimen, sleep conditions and fall asleep and give all the necessary recommendations. The main criterion of the norm is always the good health of the baby, smiles and cheerfulness.

Sources:

Family Tree Parent Club

Project “Sleep, baby. Sleep Education

Baby Sleep Center for Children's Sleep and Development

Online School of Motherhood and Childhood Happy Mom

Fees des bebes

0 to 6 months

0 to 3 months

Typical sleep at this age

At this age, a newborn sleeps quite a lot - approximately 17 to 18 hours a day during the first few weeks and 15 hours a day by three months.

Children almost never sleep more than three or four hours at a time, day or night. This means that you will not be able to sleep for many hours in a row either. You will have to get up at night to feed and change your baby; during the day you will play with it. While some babies sleep through the night as early as 8 weeks old, many babies don't get that far until they are 5 or 6 months old. You will help your child achieve this result sooner by instilling good sleep habits in him from the very beginning.

How to develop healthy sleep habits?

Here's what you can do at this age to help your baby develop proper sleep habits:

Study your baby's signs of fatigue. If you don't put him to bed longer than this time, he will be overtired and won't be able to sleep well. Watch until you notice that the child is becoming sleepy. Does he rub his eyes, tug at his ear, do faint dark circles appear under his eyes? If you observe these or any other signs of drowsiness, send him straight to the crib. Soon you will become so familiar with your baby's daily rhythms and behaviors that you will develop a sixth sense and instinctively know when he is ready for bed.