What is the reason for the baby's light sleep

Unlike adults who fall into a deep sleep, many babies have light sleep, and typical manifestations include smiling, frowning, sucking, etc. Since many parents have no experience in raising children, they are still worried when their babies have light sleep, fearing that something is wrong. So, what is the reason for shallow sleep in babies? Let’s take a closer look at it below.

During the neonatal period, babies sleep for a long time, with light sleep and deep sleep each accounting for 50%. We often see babies smiling, frowning, sucking and other movements when they are asleep. This is the baby in the light sleep stage. The cycles from light sleep to deep sleep for infants are very short and frequent, and they have difficulty distinguishing between day and night, especially in the first month after birth. As the baby grows and his brain nerves develop, his total sleep time decreases accordingly, and he gradually develops a rhythm of sleeping long at night and taking naps during the day. The cycle from light sleep to deep sleep also lengthens accordingly, and the proportion of deep sleep time in total sleep time increases accordingly. Experts believe that children aged 12-24 months should sleep through the night and take 1-2 naps during the day.

Babies make various movements during light sleep, including opening their eyes, sucking, turning over, crying, and some even look up. As the baby grows older, his daytime activities increase, and during the light sleep period at night, in addition to limb movements, he will also talk in his sleep and cry at night. However, most of these movements are meaningless, and there is no light even when his eyes are open. Excluding physiological reasons, people can generally enter deep sleep after a few minutes. There were also many children who woke up and lay in the dark with their eyes open, silently, and fell asleep again after a while. Most babies can fall asleep quickly even after urinating or drinking water.

In fact, children and adults are the same. It’s just that babies don’t know that they have to lie in bed at night, and their self-control and restraint abilities are poor. After waking up, some of them whimper and look for their mothers; some cry and make a fuss; and some simply sit up.

The above is an introduction to the shallow sleep of infants. I hope it will be helpful to parents. As children grow up, various situations will occur. As parents, we must have a correct understanding of them, especially in the case of shallow sleep. There is no need to worry at all. Just take good care of your children and let them have a good sleep.