Understanding Sleep Patterns of a Baby and How to help them fall asleep

Newborns sleep 16 hours a day, with their sleep not having a fixed schedule and being in bouts of 2, 3 and 4 hours throughout the day and night. Babies generally need less of sleep as they grow up and would sleep in bigger chinks at night; however each baby is different with some maturing earlier than others.

During sleep all of us alternate between dream sleep and quiet sleep; with Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) or “quiet” sleep helping to increase blood supply to the muscles, restoring energy, helping in tissue growth and repair and releasing hormones for growth and development, and Rapid Eye Movement (REM) or “active” sleep when the brain is active and dreaming occurs helping the body to become immobile, and our breathing and heart to become irregular.

The cycle between babies and adults are different, with it occurring between 40 minutes to two hours in adults and 50-60 minutes in children. So a baby wakes up every hour and would also wake you up. It is best to understand here that your baby can sleep through the night when you show him/her how to do it.

It is true that babies getting up early in the morning could disturb us and lead to a confused mental state throughout the following day as it is during this phase of active sleep we organize our thoughts and make sense of our lives.  This requires going to bed early to have enough sleep and to teach your baby to get himself/herself back to sleep so that he doesn’t need to wake you each time he wakes.

Tips to put newborns to sleep: 

You would find that newborns express their need to sleep by fussing, crying, rubbing their eyes and indicate this need through individual gestures. It is best to put the baby on the bed when he/she is sleepy and not asleep, thereby helping the baby to sleep quickly and to eventually learn to sleep all by themselves.

If the newborn falls to sleep during a feed, it would help to arouse him/her a bit before putting one on the cot; the baby would then experience his/her drifting to sleep separate from you.

Cultivating the habit in a newborn to sleep more at night involves exposing him/her to the light and sound and playing more with them during the daytime. As the evening approaches, create a quieter and dimmer atmosphere with less activity. Creating an atmosphere conducive to sleep helps the baby to drift off to longer sleep.

Induce good sleep in your newborn by making him/her sleep on his/her back with face and head clear of blankets and other soft items.

You will find eventually that the baby would not associate falling asleep with another feed; he/she will feel drowsy and would take lying down in the cot as a clue for sleeping. Even if he/she needs a feed at night, he/she will not need you to go every hour to him/her.

Finally you would feel great having encouraged your baby to sleep by himself/herself and to have become a self-soother.  

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