4 lessons how to sleep your baby!

Baby sleep is a complex issue for parents. Here are some helpful sleep lessons!

Parents often think that getting their baby to sleep all night is a huge success. In fact, new mothers who are exhausted from pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding are almost begging for this to happen. As relaxing as it is for parents, it doesn't often happen, especially in the first few months that nature has endowed babies with the instinct to wake up in the middle of the night as soon as they are hungry.

How does a baby fall asleep?

Usually the mother breastfeeds the baby and then walks, swings in a rocking chair or lullabies the baby and his eyes begin to close, but his eyelashes still play and breathing is irregular and he can even make sleep grimaces or even expressions. as if sucking something. The moment you go to put it in its crib to sleep it wakes up and cries. This is because the baby may not have slept soundly. If he wakes up, follow the sleep ritual from the beginning, but if you prolong it for 20 minutes, you will notice that as soon as the baby falls asleep, the grimaces stop and the breathing becomes more stable while his muscles relax completely. His hands are not clenched into fists, his legs and arms are heavy. This is the phase when the baby sleeps deeper and allows you to leave him in his crib without waking up so that you can rest too!

Sleep cycles

Babies have shorter sleep cycles than adults. If you watch what happens to a baby after he sleeps soundly, you will see that an hour after he falls asleep, he starts to shake, to make faces, his breathing changes, he tightens. In other words, he enters the phase of light sleep again, when he can wake up and start crying either because he is hungry or because he wants help to fall asleep again. If you do not wake up this phase will last a few minutes and then you will fall into a deep sleep again. In an adult, a sleep phase lasts an average of 90 minutes, while in an infant it lasts 50 to 60 minutes. So if you notice that your baby is sleeping lightly, put your hand on his back, sing to him or just make sure you are next to him if he is sleeping with you in bed. So you can help it not wake up.

Why don't they sleep through?

There is a serious explanation for why babies do not sleep so easily, so heavily but also so much but also why they wake up so easily. It may not be fair to parents who are really exhausted from infancy, but the reason is vital to a baby's development. Understanding the survival mechanism of infants by parents may help them more easily accept their baby's exhausting hours. So what is this mechanism? Waking up at night has tremendous benefits for babies. In their first months of life, their needs are high and many, however, their ability to express them is very low. Suppose a baby sleeps deeply most of the night. Then his basic needs would not be met. Newborns have a small stomach and breast milk is quickly digested. So if hunger did not wake them up then they would not eat and therefore their survival would be in danger. In addition, if the baby's nose was closed and he was not breathing, if it was cold and you needed to cover it and he was immersed in such a deep sleep that he did not wake up to cry and inform you then he would really be in danger. In other words, babies are designed to wake up. In fact, research on infant sleep indicates that an active and light sleep is protective for babies in the case of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Therefore, parents need to understand that the way babies sleep is closely intertwined with their survival.

Light sleep is beneficial!

Light sleep, the REM phase, helps a baby sleep in the development of the infant's brain. Sleep researchers believe that babies sleep and wake up smarter. What does this mean; That light sleep helps brain development because then the blood flow to the brain almost doubles. At the same time the body produces proteins that help in the formation of nerve cells and therefore the neurons of the brain. Learning during active sleep is also favored as the brain uses sleep time to process information that is needed when the baby is awake but also to eliminate the useless. Babies are also more likely to sleep lightly because only in the REM phase can their brain continue to function and develop. It is noticeable that premature babies sleep mainly lightly just to speed up their brain development!

When it will sleep normally?

Sleep maturity is achieved as the baby grows. Parents justifiably expect those days when they will not wake up at night as their baby will sleep peacefully but will have to be patient. The age at which sleep habits take shape varies from baby to baby. Some learn easily and get used to sleeping without any special tricks, but others are a little harder to sleep! During the first three months of life, babies rarely sleep and should not sleep for more than 4 consecutive hours without eating. In total at this age they sleep 14 to 18 hours a day. After three months and up to 6, they usually have an hour of sleep, so they stay awake more during the day and less at night. Between 3 and 6 months they usually wake up once or twice a night as the period of deep sleep lasts longer. This is the period of maturity in infant sleep.

But again, even then, babies still wake up at night, even after 6 months. This is because colic, colds and teething can be bothersome, and can be quite painful for babies. Between the first and second year, infants now sleep normally, although the causes that can wake them up at night are not eliminated, such as nightmares that can wake up an adult.

Nocturnal awakenings are quite exhausting for parents and can even disrupt their relationship with their baby and with each other. This does not need to be done. A good communication between partners for the distribution of awakenings will help the parents to rest the same until the baby's schedule is stabilized!

Lesson 1

Babies need "company" to sleep! In other words, a baby is not going to sleep on its own just by putting it in the crib. Just as adults need a relaxing process to get them to sleep, babies need to feel safe and relaxed with the help of their parents. Of course, every baby relaxes in a different way: others just want a shake, some to walk while you sleep, and so on. The scientific explanation is that while adults, as soon as they fall asleep, first enter the base of deep sleep, babies in the first months of life first enter the phase of a light sleep and after 20 minutes or more they begin to fall into a deeper sleep than which do not wake up so easily. As babies get older, they fall asleep more easily and the duration of light sleep decreases. The bet for parents is to learn to read their baby, that is, to recognize the signs that say that now the baby is sleeping soundly and therefore if you put it in the crib it will not wake up.

Lesson 2

Some babies need help to fall asleep again. Indeed, some babies are anxious enough, or if we want to interpret it in psychological terms, insecure enough to fall asleep on their own or not wake up in the phase of light sleep. In other words, mom and dad need to lullaby, breastfeed or rock them to go back to sleep. Others seem to be able to wake up on their own as soon as they wake up. Observing each baby's habits can help parents create such an environment to eliminate the factors that will wake them up or keep them awake for a long time until they finally fall into a deep sleep. Study your baby and find out what is relieving him. Make sure as much as possible to be surrounded by noises that make him feel insecure and do not worry, but also make sure to offer him what helps him sleep more easily. But avoid offering him a variety of stimuli around his crib so as not to arouse his excitement that instead of putting him to sleep, he will wake him up!

Lesson 3

Encouraging a baby to sleep soundly during the first few months of life may not be good for his growth and survival. That's why parents, despite being vulnerable and perhaps exhausted from their baby's hours, should not be tempted to say that a baby who sleeps a lot at night is good or good for them but look for alternative ways to rest or not. they run out of energy looking for ways to get more sleep for their baby during the first few months of life.

Lesson 4

It is important to remember that a baby's sleeping habits are more a reflection of the baby's character than a parent's attempt to teach him how to sleep. It's also a good idea to keep a small basket while listening to other parents applaud how good their baby is in their sleep or that they sleep for many hours thanks to the system they apply. So don't blame yourself unfairly. On the contrary, you can be sure that your baby by waking up at night has good communication with you for his needs, covers them and therefore grows normally.