Basic Sleep Facts
Having sleep problems with your precious little one? Hearing myths about babies sleeping through the night by six months, babies are suppose to drop all their night feeds, babies should be able to self-soothe to sleep? All mothers, regardless whether you are a new mother or an experienced one, have this issue. Many parents are often sleep deprived, especially when the little ones do not fall asleep easily, and have several night wakings. So, have you already figure out, or still wondering if your baby is having some sort of sleep association?
Let us learn some basic sleep facts.
How Do We Sleep?
You must be laughing at this question, and answering to yourself, "of course, we sleep through the night!" Right? Wrong! During the night, we move through a series of sleep cycles, up and down, just like waves. We transit from light sleep to deep sleep to dreaming throughout the night. In between these cycles and in our sleep, we may kick or straighten our blankets, fluff a pillow, or roll over, but generally we fall right back into our sleep.
Our sleep is regulated by our internal body clock, or what we call the 'biological clock'. This clock is set at a 24hr day which we need to continuously reset it, and can be achieved with our sleep-wake routines and exposure to light and darkness. It has specific times of the day when we maintain our wake and sleep time. That is also the main reason of jet lags. If we go against the clock - sleep when it is suppose to be our wake time, and vice versa, our biological clock would be disrupted, and requires reset.
The human biological clock has a natural afternoon drop in alertness, followed by a period of wakefulness that last till the evening. These patterns would change as life stages do. So, a baby's pattern is different from an adult, and an adult different from an elderly.
How Do Babies Sleep?
Babies are not borned with an adult's biological clock. Their sleep-wake cycles are spread throughout the day and night, and slowly settling into a pattern of defined naps and night time sleep.
A baby's biological clock starts maturing at six to nine weeks of age, but would not set in until four to five months. At about nine to ten months, their sleep would be consolidated to wake up and go to sleep at around the same time everyday, so that they go to sleep for a longer span at night.
Babies also have sleep cycles like adults do. The only difference is that, babies spend more time in light sleep, and they have more brief awakenings in between the sleep cycles. So, why then do babies sleep like a baby?
Firstly, for developmental. When babies are sleeping, their brain is actually busy manufacturing brain cells for growth and development. Secondly, is for survival - discomfort, hunger, pain, wetness.
What is a Baby's Sleep Problem?
Do not feel guilty or miserable if your baby does not sleep throughout the night at one year old. This is perfectly normal and is all right. Really! During the first year of life, a baby wakes up frequently during the night. It is your perception of how a baby should be sleeping, and remember, every baby is unique!
How Much Sleep?
Bear in mind, all babies are different. Please do not compare yours with other babies and feel guilty after that. After all, every mother is a good mother. Majority of the babies have similar sleep needs. However, if a baby does not get the amount of sleep he requires, he may be overtired, thus affecting the nap and sleep time. He may also resist sleep, and not realising that sleep is actually what they need.
Here is an average hours of day time naps and sleep time for babies.
1 Month: 3 naps of 6-7 hours, night sleep of 8-10 hours, total 15-16 hours
3 Months: 3 naps of 5-6 hours, night sleep of 10-11 hours, total 15 hours
6 Months: 2 naps of 3-4 hours, night sleep of 10-11 hours, total 14-15 hours
9 Months: 2 naps of 2.5-4 hours, night sleep of 11-12 hours, total 14 hours
12 Months: 1-2 naps of 2-3 hours, night sleep of 11.5-12hours, total 13-14 hours
2 Years: 1 nap of 1-2 hours, night sleep of 11-12 hours, total 13 hours
3 Years: 1 nap of 1-1.5 hours, night sleep of 11 hours, total 12 hours
4 Years: 0 naps, night sleep of 11.5 hours, total 11.5 hours
5 Years: 0 naps, night sleep of 11 hours, total 11 hours
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To be Continued... look out for next posting on Night time Feeding.
