Experience on baby's sleep problems

1. Why does my baby always have a restless sleep?

My baby always has a restless sleep. Every time I finally got her to fall asleep and put her down, she woke up again. She would also wake up and cry a few times in the middle of the night. I know this isn't uncommon in babies, but what can I do?

Babies always have a reason for everything they do. Sleeping during the day, sleeping for only a few hours a day, waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning, all of these are necessary for the physical and mental development of babies. To combat these seemingly strange sleeping habits, you first have to differentiate between a deep sleeping baby and a light sleeper.

Before understanding this distinction, let's think about the characteristics of adult sleep. When you just fall asleep, the activity of the brain centers slows down and you enter a period of sleep where your eyes do not move rapidly. People call this a deep sleep state. At this time, your whole body is calm, your breathing is shallow, your muscles are relaxed, and you sleep deeply.

After an hour and a half of non-rapid eye movement sleep, your brain begins to become clear. You go from a deep sleep state to a light sleep state, which is a period of sleep in which your eyes move rapidly. During this stage, you may dream, turn over or throw off the covers, and you may get up to go to the toilet or drink water. Light sleep and deep sleep alternate every few hours, with an average of 6 hours of deep sleep and 2 hours of light sleep.

Baby sleep is different from adult sleep. Adults usually begin by entering a period of sleep in which the eyes do not move rapidly, that is, deep sleep. Babies, on the other hand, enter a period of rapid eye movement first, and then enter a deep sleep state about 20 minutes later. That's why if you put your baby down too early, she's more likely to wake up. Many parents have told me: I dare not put my child down until she falls asleep.

As children get older, they learn to transition from light sleep to deep sleep more quickly. Even then, you need to identify what stage of sleep your baby is in so you know when is the best time to move your child. For example, wait until she's asleep before you remove her from your bed or from her car seat to her crib. Some nights you may rock her, feed her, or move her around to get her to sleep and, although her eyes are closed, her eyelids are still fluttering, her breathing is erratic, and her arms and legs are spread out. At this time, she may be frightened, twitching, and grinning from time to time. At this time, she is still in a light sleep and will wake up if you put her down.

If you extend the bedtime ritual by 20 minutes, the grimaces and twitches stop, the breathing becomes even, the muscles relax, the clenched fingers unfurl, and the limbs hang loosely in a state of deep sleep that Martha and I call quad limp. At this point, you know the child has finally fallen asleep, and you can put her down with confidence and sneak away.

During the night, children alternate between periods of deep sleep and light sleep more frequently than adults. When your child is in a light sleep phase, she may wake up if she is hungry, has a wet diaper, or hears a noise. If she doesn't wake up, she will fall into a deep sleep in about 10 minutes, and then fall into a light sleep an hour later and may wake up again.

This cycle of alternating activity occurs throughout the night just as it does when you sleep, but babies have the natural tendency to fall into a lighter state of sleep more often than you do. Most children need to be coaxed to sleep rather than falling asleep as soon as they are put down, which means they need care. As a sleep routine develops, you'll find that over the months your baby's daytime sleep will automatically shorten and nighttime sleep will lengthen.

2. What does it mean to sleep through the night?

Our pediatrician keeps using the term sleeping through the night and I hate to sound stupid but I have to ask what exactly that means, does it mean 8 hours? Or 5 hours?

Sleeping through the night means different things to different babies and parents. The amount of uninterrupted sleep that occurs varies greatly between babies. In sleep studies, sleeping through the night is defined as five consecutive hours of sleep, at least for babies a few months old. For most babies, it is completely unrealistic to expect them to sleep from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am. For a baby under 6 months old to sleep for more than 5 hours continuously at night is more of a luxury than a right. In the beginning, you will find that it is always other people's children who sleep through the night. There is a wide range of ages at which babies are able to sleep through the night, and this difference is usually a reflection of the baby's temperament rather than your nighttime parenting skills.

Most children start sleeping longer at night by the time they are four or five months old. A sleep study that investigated a large number of young children showed that 70% of 3-month-old babies could sleep for 5 consecutive hours; 13% of 6-month-old babies could sleep for 5 consecutive hours; and only 10% of 1-year-old babies could sleep for 5 consecutive hours.

3. No one method works!

I will be back to work in two weeks and my child has yet to develop a regular nighttime sleep routine. What can I do to make her do this? I want the baby and I to get some rest.

It's important to consider that the time and energy you put into getting your child to sleep is a long-term investment, and you can help your child develop sleep habits by following these tips.

Try different sleeping styles

Babies have different sleeping habits, and each family member has different needs and lifestyles, so you may need to try different methods to find a sleeping pattern that meets the needs of your child and the rest of the family. As long as you and your baby are getting enough sleep, your nighttime parenting method is working for you; if not, you may want to try something else. Be prepared: As your child grows, her needs will change and one sleeping pattern may lose its effectiveness.