To Create Babies’ Sleep Patterns
While you are preparing your baby, who has just joined your family, for life, you need to create order in some matters in order for you to survive. When it comes to order, the first thing that comes to mind of new mothers and unfortunately is the most challenging sleep. Even getting used to being a mother is hard enough, but if you have a baby who doesn’t sleep, your job is very difficult.
What is the difference between baby sleep and adult sleep?
Sleep duration changes with the development of babies. As they get older, their sleep time decreases. While an adult needs an average of 8 hours of sleep a day, a newborn baby can sleep up to 14-16 hours a day. In advanced ages, the duration of sleep decreases (average 6 hours) and the time spent in deep sleep is shortened. There is an increase in the number and duration of awakening reactions at night, and accordingly, the complaint of drowsiness during the day increases. In advanced ages, sleep-wake times become uncertain due to napping during the day. Another difference is that newborn babies wake up to feed every 2-3 hours after they go to sleep. As they get older, the waking intervals get longer. Adults do not wake up at night to feed.
When can we teach the difference between night and day?
Some babies do not like to sleep at night. In the early days, not much can be done; but after the second week you should start teaching him to distinguish between day and night. During the daytime, play with it and keep it busy as much as possible. Brighten the house and its room and do not try to reduce the usual everyday noises (phone, television or telephone noise). If he is going to sleep after feeding, try to keep him awake. At night, when you go to feed him, don’t play, turn down the lights and sounds of the room and don’t spend too much time next to him, don’t talk if possible.
How should sleep hours be in infants, children and adolescence?
Many of us do not get enough sleep to maintain optimal health. From infancy to old age, the need for sleep can vary; but the importance of getting enough sleep never changes. For this, it is important to know how much sleep we need at which stage of our lives. Why do we need sleep? Studies have shown that sleep is the period in which damage to cells, tissues and muscles that have been damaged during the day is repaired. It is the time when our decreased energy that we spend both physically and physically during the day is put back in its place.
Healthy Sleep Times of Babies
-In the newborn period, babies sleep a total of about 11-18 hours a day. There are also 3 or 4 naps during the day.
-In a 2-3 month period, he sleeps for 3-4 hours without interruption and wakes up to feed. Active sleep drops to 43%.
-By 3 months of age, 71% of babies sleep all night.
-At 4 months, nights are longer; They sleep shorter during the day.
-They wake up 1-2 times in a 5-6 hour sleep cycle in a 6-month period. After awakening, 1/3-1/2 of babies dive again on their own. They sleep a total of about 11-14 hours a day, and 84% of these babies can sleep all night long.
-90% of 10-month-old babies sleep all night, on average 10-13 hours a day.
-12-month-old babies sleep a total of about 10-13 hours a day.
-Between the ages of 18-21 months, the daytime sleep is in one go.
-Most of the children between 21-36 months need half an hour to 3 hours of noon sleep once a day.
-At 2 years old, they sleep 10-12 hours a day.
-Play-age children, on the other hand, sleep 12-14 hours a day. they sleep 1-3 times during the day; however, care should be taken that this does not happen in a period close to evening sleep.
-In the preschool period, they sleep between 11-13 hours at night, usually they do not sleep during the day.
-Children aged 5-12 sleep 11 hours a night.
-Recent studies have shown that adolescents need 10 hours of sleep per night. The average is 7-7.5 hours.
-In adults, the optimal sleep time is 8 hours. As age progresses, the duration of sleep, falling asleep and staying asleep varies.
What is the importance of night sleep in babies and children?
A perfect night’s sleep accelerates your baby’s mental development by allowing him to organize what he has learned throughout the day, replenish his energy stores and start the new day happy, fit and most importantly open to learning. Sleeping problems in babies will cause retardation in brain development and prevent healthy growth. Because the 0-3 age period is a very critical period for mental development and healthy growth. Because during this period, babies grow and develop very quickly. In the following periods, the growth and development rate decreases. The 0-3 age period is vital especially for brain development. Because 80% of brain development is completed in this period and the size of the brain reaches almost the size of adulthood. In addition, it is not possible to compensate for errors and omissions in this period. If the child was neglected in the 0-3 age period; If they did not sleep uninterruptedly and with good quality, did not eat healthy and were not well taken care of, these will cause retardation in brain development and it will not be possible to compensate for this in the future. For this reason, uninterrupted night sleep, especially REM sleep, has a very important role for the baby’s potential brain development.
When babies are born, they spend almost all their time in sleep, but as the months progress, the time they spend asleep decreases, and accordingly, while their daytime sleep decreases, nighttime sleep hours increase and nighttime sleep becomes regular. The only time babies can get uninterrupted and high quality REM sleep is at night. A large part of babies’ nighttime sleep is spent in REM (Rapid Eyes Movement) sleep, which is vital for brain development. This is also called active sleep. If the baby’s eyes flicker frequently, breathe rapidly, and make mouth movements or smile during sleep, this indicates that the baby is in REM sleep. REM sleep is a state between sleep and wakefulness and the baby is ready to wake up with external factors. REM sleep is necessary in order to strengthen the connections between neurons in the brain and to shape what is learned while awake. If the baby’s night sleep is constantly interrupted for various reasons and he does not get enough sleep, this may cause problems in the development of the baby. Because the baby, who cannot get enough sleep, wakes up restlessly, does not play, is indifferent to his surroundings, has difficulty concentrating on something, is incompatible and irritable towards those around him. This will hinder their learning and development by playing games.
Mothers should ensure that their babies have an uninterrupted and quality night sleep so that their babies can wake up happily, play long-term games, learn new things and process what they have learned into the brain in REM sleep.
Babies’ Night Sleep Is Just As Important As Feeding!
Uninterrupted night sleep is as important as nutrition for the healthy development of babies. Because babies really do grow up sleeping. During sleep, especially in the dark, the hormone melatonin is secreted. The secretion of this hormone has an important role in strengthening the immune system and also makes the pituitary gland secrete more growth hormone. During sleep, the baby’s non-working muscles are also working and energy stores are renewed. While babies sleep, their brains work and develop. The baby organizes the information learned during the game while awake and saves it in his brain. Thus, the connections between neurons in the brain are formed and strengthened. Sleep duration and quality are very important for all these developments to take place. A well-sleeped and rested baby starts the day more energetically by regularly recording the information it has stored before sleep. Thus, he is also willing to learn new things while awake and can play quality games.
We can summarize the relationship between play and night sleep as follows. In order to accelerate the mental development of the baby, playing in a stimulating environment while awake; In order to reinforce the information learned in the game, and thus to establish new connections between the neurons in the brain, and to strengthen the existing ones; They need quality and uninterrupted nighttime REM sleep. Play and night sleep affect and are affected by each other. If the baby’s night sleep is interrupted frequently and he cannot get enough sleep, the baby will wake up restless, be distracted quickly and will not have the opportunity to learn new things by playing for a long time. In the same way, even if the baby learns new things by playing games in a stimulating environment while awake, if the sleep is frequently interrupted that night, he will not have the opportunity to process the information he learned in the game in the brain and his learning will not be permanent, he will wake up the next day before he is ready to learn. Both play and uninterrupted sleep are essential for your baby’s mental development. Uninterrupted night sleep is a prerequisite for children to learn new things by playing games happily and healthily, and for their brain development. In short, a perfect night’s sleep reinforces what your baby has learned and prepares it to learn.