Why does a child sleep poorly at night at 1-2 years old?

Sleep is a physiological process that is natural for every healthy person. During the sleep process, the level of brain activity decreases to a minimum, as well as the reaction to the outside world.

Children's sleep is significantly different from that of adults. Why? There is a simple explanation for this: the baby has a completely different time rhythm, which will become “adult-like” only after entering adolescence.

Experts name some features of children's night sleep:

sleep norm (for a newborn - from 14 hours to 16 hours, for a one-year-old - from 10 to 12 hours, for a two-year-old - up to 10 hours);
early morning rise (regardless of the time of falling asleep in the evening);
body position during sleep (a newborn baby sleeps on his back, and as he grows up he can sleep on his side or stomach);
has two phases - superficial (the brain is in an excited state) and deep (the brain is resting);
specificity of children's temperament (with mild excitability, they quickly wake up and fall asleep for a long time).

All these features explain why the child does not sleep well at night: the brain’s adaptation mechanism is working to process and assimilate numerous new information. In addition, for a baby, sleep can also work as a mechanism for disconnecting from external problems: the child fell - cried - fell asleep.

Physiological reasons

Most often, a one-year-old child does not sleep well at night for physiological reasons, which are quite easy to detect and eliminate. This could be anything that makes him feel uncomfortable or prevents him from relaxing:

uncomfortable body position;
uncomfortable bed;
clothing that restricts movement;
physical fatigue;
nervous tension;
feeling hungry or overeating;
external stimuli: bright light, noise, smells;
unusual environment;
the presence of strangers;
violation of evening rituals.

Dealing with such reasons is quite simple. You just need to review and properly organize the child’s feeding and sleeping patterns, as well as provide him with a comfortable bed and clean, cool, moderately humid air in the room.

During this period of life, the child becomes very tired at the end of the day and it is very important that parents do not allow overtiredness, due to which the baby cannot fall asleep quickly. Some one-year-old children categorically protest against daytime sleep, and parents give in to them, believing that the baby will sleep better at night. This is a big mistake!

Every year, a child needs a full 7-8 hours of sleep at night and two daytime sleeps lasting about an hour and a half. Otherwise, the nervous system cannot cope with the heavy load on it, and the one-year-old child does not sleep well at night.

Try increasing your physical activity in the morning. Children who run around in the fresh air usually always sleep well during the day and rarely wake up at night.

Sleep optimization according to Komarovsky

Reflecting on the topic of poor sleep, a famous pediatrician is sure that most often the problem lies not in children, but in their parents. It is because of pedagogical errors and poor sleep hygiene that moms and dads themselves pay the price at night. What does the doctor mean?

Set your priorities

In order for a family to remain physiologically and mentally healthy, all its members need a good night's rest. Only well-rested parents can give their child and each other love, and this is most important for his development.

Follow the regime

It is not necessary to jump up with your baby at 6 am and run for a walk. Adjust your baby’s daily routine to suit yours, and then carry it out. If the family is used to going to bed at 11 and getting up by 9, also teach the baby.

How and with whom to sleep

Today, many parents choose to co-sleep with their baby. Komarovsky admits this decision, but does not believe that sleeping with his parents is beneficial for the baby.

The doctor is considering two options. In the first case, the child sleeps in his own crib, which is located in the parent's bedroom. After a year, the pediatrician recommends putting it in the nursery, but allows adults under 3 years of age to be in the room.

Control the amount of rest

At every age stage, children have daily sleep needs. For example, at 6 months it is 14.5 hours, and at 2 years only 13. If the baby rests too much during the day, it is not surprising that he wakes up at night.

Don’t be afraid to wake up your little one, advises Komarovsky! In his responses to letters to readers, the doctor sometimes even recommends giving up daytime sleep altogether if it interferes with nighttime rest.

Optimize feedings

What prevents mothers from getting enough sleep during the first 1-1.5 years of motherhood? Night feedings! Komarovsky speaks categorically about them.

It is recommended that newborns be put to the breast on demand; at 4 months it is possible once. After six months, children do not need night feedings. The pediatrician is sure that from this age you need to completely stop snacking, despite the baby’s dissatisfaction. He urges not to teach him to eat at every “squeak”, because overfeeding is the main cause of digestive problems.

The more parents support rocking, sucking and other ways of showing attention, the more often the baby requires it. To prevent a sleeping baby from being awakened by hunger, Komarovsky suggests feeding the baby something more satisfying before going to bed.

Activity during the day

For healthy sleep and proper development, children need to move and walk a lot. At night, limit emotional stress and adhere to your own bedtime ritual.

Air in the nursery

“Cool, damp air” - this phrase is repeated by the TV presenter in almost every program, regardless of its topic. However, not all parents follow this rule.

18-20 degrees and at least 50% humidity - the doctor recommends not skimping on a thermometer and a humidifier for the children's bedroom and strictly monitoring the performance of these devices. Ventilate the room well before going to bed. From birth, teach your baby to sleep with the window open at any time of the year.

Bathing

Long water treatments in a spacious parent bath are good for health and help you sleep soundly. “Being pretty tired and having eaten a lot, any little one sleeps soundly,” the pediatrician is sure.

The right bed

You can learn more about what a baby’s sleeping place should be like in the article “With or without a pillow - how should a small child sleep?”

Don't skimp on diapers

Today you don’t have to get up several times in the middle of the night to change diapers. But only a high-quality diaper can preserve children’s and parents’ sleep, so if you want to get enough sleep, buy products only from trusted manufacturers.

The time when babies wake up in the middle of the night passes very quickly. Someone adheres to strict upbringing and does not allow the toddler to exhaust him from night to night. Others agree to rocking and feeding, as long as the child does not cry. But in the end, all these “costs” of motherhood are remembered with a smile and sadness, because children are small only once.

Pathological causes

A sick child will always be capricious and sleep very poorly. Even an adult has a hard time falling asleep when he has health problems. What can we say about a one-year-old child who doesn’t even really understand what exactly is bothering him. A baby at this age cannot show his mother where it hurts, so she herself has to figure out what pathological reasons may be preventing the child from sleeping.

The easiest way to identify a cold or acute respiratory infection. They are usually accompanied by fever and other signs of respiratory illness: runny nose, sneezing, difficulty breathing. By the age of one year, the mother already knows how to cope with such problems on her own with the help of folk remedies and children's medications.

But the reason why a one-year-old child sleeps poorly and cries a lot at night may be more serious diseases:

dysbacteriosis – causes a constant feeling of discomfort in the stomach;
gases or constipation - there is a feeling of heaviness and pain in the abdomen;
intestinal colic - in some babies it occurs even after a year and can be very painful;
ear pain is the most severe after teeth, the child usually shakes his head or tilts it to one side;
teething - by this age it has not yet ended, there may be pain and severe itching in the gums;
allergies - may be accompanied by severe itching, swelling of the mucous membranes, difficulty breathing;
intestinal infection - most often accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, the child quickly weakens and refuses to eat;
viral infection - chicken pox, measles, rubella, whooping cough and other childhood diseases, which can be recognized by their characteristic symptoms;
acute appendicitis - accompanied by a sharp increase in temperature, vomiting and pain in the right hypochondrium.

In some cases, your child may need emergency medical attention. Therefore, it is not always worth waiting until the morning. If you see that the baby cannot fall asleep and do not understand what is happening to him, and his condition is worsening before our eyes, call a doctor immediately.

In some situations (such as appendicitis, severe allergies and some infections), minutes can make all the difference.

If the baby feels relatively well, but still has difficulty falling asleep, and you suspect that something is wrong with him, go to the pediatrician and ask to schedule an examination. In most cases, even blood and urine tests are enough to determine whether a medical condition is causing your sleep problems.

Why do you need professional help if your child doesn’t sleep well at night?

In addition to the reasons listed above for poor sleep at night, children may also experience medical problems. The help of a specialist is needed if the child slept peacefully at night, felt comfortable, and suddenly became restless and practically stopped resting at night. But during the day, sleep is strong and healthy, lasting from 4 hours to 8 hours.

Such symptoms of confusion between wakefulness and rest modes should alert parents. Both mom and dad are required to understand why this is happening to their baby. Therefore, they first need to consult a pediatrician. The doctor will tell you how to set up a daily routine for your child so that nighttime sleep becomes normal.

Psychological reasons

The main psychological reason why a year-old child does not sleep well at night is psycho-emotional overload. Every day the baby receives a huge number of new impressions, which his nervous system still finds difficult to cope with. A mother’s important task is to correctly dose emotional stress so as not to miss the moment when the child is overtired or overexcited.

The processes of inhibition in the child’s psyche proceed much more slowly than its excitation. That is why a child who is delighted or upset about something remains impressed by what is happening for a long time. This means that if something extraordinary happens in the evening, it will be difficult for the baby to fall asleep quickly.

Try to learn all new skills and abilities in the first half of the day. At this time, it is better to postpone all active entertainment, visits to the doctor, and visits to strangers’ homes. This will give the child another half a day to “digest” new impressions and unwind emotionally. This is especially true for hyperactive and easily excitable children.

The second half of the day, and especially the evening, should be as familiar and predictable as possible for the baby. This creates a feeling of stability and security in what is happening, which is especially important at this age.

If you don’t yet have a nightly bedtime ritual, now is the time to think about and implement one. In the future, this will help to avoid situations when the baby does not want to go to bed due to whims and manifestations of his own character.

When you have created good conditions for your child to sleep, follow a daily routine, the baby is healthy and active, but problems with sleep continue, then it’s time to seek help from specialists. Sometimes a child does not sleep well at night, shudders, often wakes up, or jumps out of the crib due to neurological disorders, which only a child psychologist can identify. But if there are no serious pathologies, try the methods of quickly going to bed, proven by many mothers.

Expert advice

The well-known doctor Evgeniy Komarovsky, in addition to the recommendations listed above, advises getting high-quality diapers. Why? The baby will not wake up every time, feeling a puddle under him, and the mother will get rid of the need to get up every hour to change diapers.

If your baby sleeps separately from you in his crib, be sure to approach him when called. Why? He will learn to trust you, and will be sure that you are always nearby, so when he sees you half asleep, he will calmly fall asleep again. Remember about a relaxing massage before bed; it can be done both before bathing and after.

For children aged one to two years, psychologists offer an evening motivational game “Put the doll to bed.” While playing it, the baby himself realizes the importance of the process and wants to experience it for himself: he asks mom or dad to rock him too and sing a lullaby.

In any case, the process of falling asleep in a baby should not cause psychological stress. By forcibly putting your child down, you will end up with what you want to get rid of: the child sleeps poorly and restlessly at night.

How to put your baby to bed quickly

In order to quickly and without tears put a one-year-old child to sleep, you need to create the most comfortable conditions for him to rest and properly organize the procedure for getting ready for bed. There are several secrets to help you do this:

end all noisy and active games at least 1.5-2 hours before bedtime - after 19.00 only quiet entertainment is acceptable;
Do not watch too funny or scary cartoons with your child before bed - the child’s excited nervous system will take a long time to calm down;
be sure to ventilate the room before going to bed - this will slightly lower the air temperature and provide the baby with an additional portion of oxygen;
observe evening rituals - consistent, repeated nightly procedures calm the baby and set him up for rest;
A glass of warm milk drunk in bed perfectly relaxes, gives a feeling of pleasant satiety and helps you fall asleep quickly;
talk to your children before bed - this will allow the child to feel closer contact with his mother, and you will understand in time if something is bothering him;
provide tactile contact - a child beginning to become independent needs maternal affection even more;
dim the lights - soft lighting creates a feeling of comfort and coziness, relaxes the baby;
eliminate external irritants - there should be no loud music or sharp sounds in the apartment, and there should be no place for pets in the children's bedroom;
a bath with herbs - a decoction of valerian, lavender, motherwort - will help the baby fall asleep faster and provide deeper sleep.

A few words about the pacifier, which many parents are already trying to wean their child off by the age of one year. Night is not the time for such experiments. And not all children are able to part with their pacifier once and for all. Sucking calms the baby, gives him a feeling of security, and helps him switch off faster. Especially if you already feed him mostly from a spoon.

Most pediatricians agree that it is better to wean your baby off the pacifier gradually. During the daytime, distract with games and conversations. A child who has played enough usually falls asleep during the day without a pacifier. But if he is very capricious in the evening, allow him this little weakness.

With age, he himself will abandon it. But at one year it is better to give your baby a pacifier than to let him scream until he is stupefied and fall into a restless sleep.

When should you see a doctor?

In most cases, poor sleep is not associated with any diseases of the nervous system. Organizing a daily routine and meeting the child’s basic needs can eliminate sleep problems. But there are situations in which sleep disturbances are associated with pathological processes in the brain.

In what cases should you see a doctor?

The child does not sleep well, despite all the measures taken.
The baby has serious somatic diseases that can cause poor sleep (heart disease, lung disease, digestive tract disease).
The child has or has had neurological problems in the past.
Sleep disturbances are accompanied by sleepwalking.
The baby is bothered by frequent nightmares.
When waking up, the baby does not react to others and constantly cries.
Sleep disturbances are accompanied by twitching of the limbs or convulsions.
There is marked weakness throughout the day.

If any of these symptoms are detected, you should be examined by a neurologist.

Causes of poor sleep in babies under six months old

As a child gets older, the factors that can affect his sleep also change.
A newborn baby sleeps most of the day, waking up every three quarters of an hour due to natural needs. In general, a month-old baby is awake only 4 hours a day. Subsequently, the baby's sleep time decreases. So, a four-month-old baby sleeps on average 16 hours and still does not distinguish day from night. Then, with each week, the time spent awake increases until the child completely switches to an adult sleep pattern. In a healthy baby, awakening is caused by the following factors:

Hunger. Usually the baby wakes up to drink its mother's milk.
Discomfort due to high or low air temperature. It is optimal if the temperature in the nursery is 19–22 degrees Celsius.
Movements of your own arms and legs if the baby sleeps unswaddled.
Trouble breathing through the nose due to dry air.
Uncomfortable clothes, harsh sounds, bright lights.
Feeling of anxiety due to the absence of mother nearby.
Wet diapers. If the diaper is uncomfortable, chafes or leaks, the baby becomes uncomfortable.

In addition to natural causes, an infant often wakes up and cries when sick. This may include intestinal colic (usually resolves by the age of three months), vitamin D deficiency, colds with sore throat, nasal congestion, and fever. In this case, the baby should be shown to a pediatrician so that he can prescribe appropriate treatment. For example, breathing problems may be a consequence of narrow nasal passages. If the problem does not resolve on its own, surgery will be required.

We also recommend reading the articles:
Colic in newborns: causes and remedies
Rickets in infants: signs, treatment and prevention

We should not forget that at certain periods healthy babies experience so-called sleep regressions. They are most clearly expressed in six-week-old, four-month-old and six-month-old babies. Children become more capricious, require motion sickness, and more frequent breastfeeding. During these periods of crisis, mothers need to be patient and spend more time with their beloved child.

Useful tips from Dr. Komarovsky

This rather popular doctor also gives some advice. What to do if your child has trouble falling asleep at night?

It is very important to set priorities. A healthy and happy toddler is, of course, very important. But cheerful and well-rested parents are the key to a good mood for the little one. You shouldn’t completely adjust your regime to your child; you should show him that he is not the head of the family. Create a regime that would suit absolutely any family member.

Another useful tip - no sleeping in a shared bed! The child must have his own bed with an orthopedic mattress. It is worth excluding all kinds of feather beds and bulky pillows. Monitor the temperature. During sleep, you should use only high-quality, proven diapers; the child should not be wet.

Remember also that extra daytime sleep is the reason why children are capricious at night. The more and more active you move during the day, the more soundly your baby will sleep.

Parents' mistakes

If your child has trouble falling asleep at night, then look in this section for the most common mistakes parents make. Perhaps you repeat them too? If this is the case, then try to eliminate them, and problems with your baby falling asleep will never arise again.

Many parents believe that putting their baby to bed later will help him sleep better. This is a very big mistake. The optimal time to go to bed is nine o'clock in the evening. As mentioned earlier, you cannot allow yourself to become overtired, otherwise everything will turn out completely differently. Pediatricians even advise keeping a special diary in which to note the baby’s sleep time every day.

Another big mistake is sleeping while moving. If a child gets used to falling asleep this way from childhood, he will demand it in the future. Try to rock the baby to sleep, and then give him the opportunity to fall asleep in the crib on his own.

Never put your child to bed with lights, music, or the TV on. And remember: there is no universal ritual for putting a baby to bed. Try to find your own approach.

Breast babies

Now let’s look at the question: “Why does a child have difficulty falling asleep at night in a month and up to a year?” The causes of sleep disturbance at this age are very numerous - from the onset of illness to an abundance of impressions. A fairly common occurrence is poor sleep in infants as a result of the baby’s poor daily routine. For example, if he sleeps for a very long time during the day. We remind you once again that it is quite easy to confuse day with night, but returning to normal mode causes some difficulties.

Poor sleep may be caused by:

cold;
heat;
hunger;
overfeeding and so on.

Perhaps, up to 4 months, the child has trouble falling asleep at night due to intestinal colic. And at an older age, the cause may be an unpleasant sensation from teething.

In addition, poor sleep can be one of the symptoms of a serious illness - rickets, encephalopathy, and so on. In any case, it is worth restoring children's sleep. After all, its deficiency is very dangerous. This causes an imbalance in many organs and systems; in addition, there is a lack of enzymes and hormones (after all, their production occurs precisely during sleep). Based on what has been said, we can draw a small conclusion: normalizing sleep is the primary task of all parents, the health of your baby depends on it.

How to deal with the problem?

Once you have found out why your child has trouble falling asleep at night, you should think about a possible solution to the problem. Let us immediately draw your attention to the fact that preparing for a night’s sleep for children is a whole ritual. It is very important that the baby gets enough sleep, especially at night. There are many ways to prepare your baby for sleep. It is also very important that the system, which has already been developed, does not fail. Otherwise, the baby may confuse day with night, and it will be extremely difficult to return to normal.

So, in the evening we begin preparations. We create an atmosphere of peace, as if everything around is falling asleep: turn off the bright lights, all conversations should be muffled. Parents should also spend relaxing sessions with their child in the bath. A light massage would be a good substitute. Before bed, read a story to your child or sing a lullaby. Many mothers prefer motion sickness, but this is not the best option. If your child is used to falling asleep while moving, then without rocking you will no longer be able to put him to sleep. In addition, babies get used to holding hands very quickly and do not want to sleep in their cradle. Try rocking the baby to sleep, and then transfer it to the crib.