Why does an 8 month old baby sleep poorly at night and often wake up crying?

The first weeks of his life, the child is little awake. During the day he sleeps more than plays. This is the ideal state of affairs. Often babies have restless sleep, are capricious, do not sleep themselves and do not allow their parents to rest. Why does an eight-month-old baby sleep poorly?

It is impossible to give a definite answer to this question. There can be many reasons for this behavior of a little man. Most often this is due to some problems in physical or mental development. To help your child, you need to figure out what exactly is causing his poor sleep at night.

How important is sleep for a child?

Many different studies and scientific researches are devoted to the problem of sleep. Most of all, the processes that occur in a dream with small children are considered. The time that a baby spends sleeping has a significant impact on the formation of his higher nervous activity and on his overall health.

Good, sound sleep contributes to the normal course of many important processes:

• Final maturation of the brain. Scientists believe that after birth and up to three years of age, a person experiences the highest brain activity. The neural network is capable of actively forming precisely in a state of rest, that is, when the child is sleeping. Among other things, at this time there is an increase in interaction between both hemispheres of the brain;
• Development of memory and attention. Based on scientific research, it has been proven that, as a child, a person is able to perceive, remember and distribute a large flow of material. The time that a child spends in sleep is largely aimed at remembering the information received;
• "Growing up" of the baby. People say that a baby grows in its sleep. This is true, because the secretion of growth hormone is characteristic of night sleep. If this hormone is not enough, the child will not grow and develop in accordance with his age;
• Restore strength and energy. By eight months, the baby becomes very active, so he gets pretty tired during the day. Only a good night's sleep can help him renew his strength;
• Mental and emotional relaxation. A little man has been exposed to a certain amount of stress since his birth. This happens almost every day due to the fact that he is constantly faced with something new, hitherto unknown to him;
• Formation of mood. When a child has had a good night's sleep, he wakes up in a great mood, which pleases the people around him;
• Formation of immunity. When the body is weakened from restless, sleepless nights, it easily gives in to negative infections. The more the baby sleeps, the stronger he becomes, along with his immunity. The more restful a child's sleep, the stronger his health.

Adviсe

If parents are faced with the task of improving sleep for a child who has long outgrown diapers, then mom and dad will have to work hard. Firstly, the child will need to increase physical activity and significantly reduce the influx of new impressions (temporarily do not buy new toys, books or show new films). Sometimes it’s worth giving up daytime sleep in favor of nighttime sleep.

Parents of children who, as people say, have confused day and night should follow exactly the same tactics. Only a merciless daytime restriction of dreams will help transfer the child to a normal mode within a week, when he begins to rest at night.

If disturbances in night sleep are not eliminated even with systematic adherence to all the above recommendations, the child must be examined by a doctor.

Parents should take a closer look and observe the baby’s sleep pattern and the positions in which he still manages to fall asleep. If your baby sleeps with his head thrown back, this may be a sign of increased intracranial pressure. If your baby often shudders in his sleep, this may be either a manifestation of neurological problems or a deficiency of calcium and vitamin D.

If a child sleeps with his eyes slightly open, this may be a sign of increased nervous excitability. Sleep disturbances in a child very rarely require any kind of drug treatment; you should not give your baby tranquilizers and nootropic drugs. But sometimes you can use herbal preparations or decoctions of motherwort, valerian, and mint.

Sleeping on your stomach, which is the subject of so much debate on parenting forums on the Internet, is considered by Komarovsky to be a completely acceptable and even very useful option. For a child, this body position during rest is quite natural. There is no connection between sleeping on the stomach and sudden infant death syndrome, Komarovsky says.

Young children are very sensitive to weather conditions. Even if you follow all the recommendations, sometimes you can still have sleepless nights if the atmospheric pressure “jumps”, the weather changes sharply, or there is a strong thunderstorm outside the window.

How should a baby sleep at 8 months?

The way an adult sleeps is different from an eight-month-old baby's sleep. Under favorable conditions, the baby spends about 11 hours sleeping. But sleep is quite heterogeneous; it is called cyclical, because phases constantly change. We are talking about falling asleep, about the phase of superficial and deep sleep.

After the child is 6 months old, the period of the slow-fast phase is equal to one and a half hours. Over time, the deep phase becomes longer.

The slow phase is characterized by a slow heartbeat, deep breathing, the eyeballs are at rest, the facial muscles and fists are relaxed, and the child stops flinching.

That is, in this case we can talk about sound sleep.

In the active phase, the eyeballs constantly move, breathing is intermittent, frequent changes in facial expressions are common, legs and arms often twitch.

The active phase is that period of sleep when everything that happens around easily wakes up the child. If at such a moment you try to put the baby in his crib, then most often there will be an awakening. Therefore, there is no need to rush. Let the baby sleep soundly and only then shift him.

Why does an 8 month old baby sleep poorly at night?

There are many reasons for a child's restless sleep. Unfortunately, there are even some that can only be gotten rid of with the use of medications. Doctors tried to group all the factors into specific groups:

• Physiology and body characteristics characteristic of a particular baby;
• Emotional problems;
• Neurology.

The baby constantly cries and does not sleep. You can find out what to do in our article. Why the baby doesn't sleep during the day, read here.

How to put a newborn to sleep, read the link

Causes of a child's restless sleep:

• The stages of sleep in children occur differently. For some, the fast phase lasts longer than the slow phase. The baby shudders in his sleep. How often this happens depends entirely on the characteristics of the child himself. If the baby is easily excitable, then his sleep is less restful than that of other children. The baby requires constant attention and help from parents;
• Acquiring new skills. With age, the baby becomes more active. By 6-8 months, he increasingly tries to demonstrate independent motor activity, and sometimes this happens precisely in his sleep. The emotional surge from new sensations continues at night. Therefore, parents should not worry, as soon as these skills are no longer something new for the child, sleep will improve;
• Too active motor and emotional activity during the day. Sometimes, complaining that the baby has begun to sleep poorly at night, parents do not think about such a simple reason as overexcitation. If a child plays too much all day without rest, is in a constantly excited state under the impression of various events, then he will have difficulty falling asleep, and the night's sleep itself will be intermittent, with whims and crying. Since a baby at eight months old cannot yet independently limit his emotions, parents should monitor this;
• The appearance of teeth. By eight months, the baby should have central and lateral incisors. These teeth are cut with particularly painful sensations. Therefore, it is not surprising that the child’s sleep during this period is very restless;
• Painful sensations in the tummy. When the baby turns six months old, mothers begin to give him various complementary foods. If during this period you do not follow all the recommendations of pediatricians, then the baby may have digestive problems. And this threatens painful manifestations in the child’s tummy during sleep;
• Failure to maintain comfortable sleeping conditions. To create favorable conditions for a night's sleep, first of all, you need to take care of comfortable clothes that will not cause any discomfort. Parents also need to monitor the temperature and humidity in the room where the baby sleeps. Temperatures considered comfortable for a child are 18-20℃, and humidity is no more than 60%;
• Feelings of hunger. Failure to comply with a basic diet can lead to a child feeling hungry at night, causing him to wake up often and cry. Breast milk is absorbed quite quickly, which cannot be said about various cereals and artificial mixtures;
• Insomnia (insomnia). This sleep disorder is due to the fact that the baby is not able to fall asleep on his own. If children do not have such problems, then, often waking up at night, they change their body position, get comfortable and fall asleep again. In this case, this does not happen. Children suffering from insomnia can no longer fall asleep on their own, since their parents have accustomed them to constant motion sickness with or without reason. Most often, this situation occurs during the transition of the active phase of sleep to the slow phase. And sometimes just 2-3 hours after the child falls asleep;
• Problems of a somatic and neurological nature. Fortunately, a baby's restless sleep is rarely associated with any diseases. Serious causes that lead to sleep disturbances include: increased intracranial pressure, allergic manifestations, tumors in the brain, infections, disorders in the development of internal organs, etc. If a child’s sleep is constantly disturbed, you should think about the reasons for the baby’s condition. It is best to consult a doctor and, if necessary, undergo the recommended course of treatment.

From all of the above, we can conclude that there are many factors leading to sleep disturbance. Most of them can be changed by following all the rules and advice from experts.

When waking up at night is a reason to go to the doctor

There are some situations when an infant wakes up at night almost every hour. Such signs may indicate the onset of a neurological disease and should not be left without the attention of a doctor.

So, you cannot ignore such symptoms in the following cases:

• A child breathes evenly during sleep, but periodically his breathing may be delayed and seem to stop . At the same time, the child wakes up and bursts into tears. This condition characterizes the onset of a disease such as apnea. If left unattended by doctors, the child may simply stop breathing in his sleep and die. According to statistics, sudden neonatal death syndrome occurs in 15% due to the development of apnea.
• The child sleeps very restlessly . He turns around all the time in his sleep, crawls from one side of the crib to the other, and turns his head a lot. If such signs accompany a child's sleep, then the child has increased intracranial pressure. Because of it, the baby can often wake up at night, both under the age of one year and at an older age. Intracranial pressure in children can have other negative consequences: stuttering, restlessness, absent-mindedness, headaches and other consequences.
• If in a dream a baby hits his head on a pillow, on the sides of the bed , or scatters soft toys in the crib, then this may indicate the onset of the development of epilepsy. In this case, you should immediately show the child to the doctor.

Parents should understand that if a child over the age of 8 months often wakes up at night, then this is not a good sign and he deserves to see a specialist. In addition, promptly seeing a doctor and receiving appropriate treatment will help prevent the onset of many serious diseases of the nervous system.

What to do if your 8 month old baby doesn't sleep well at night

Parents need to try to ensure that the baby does not suffer from lack of sleep. This can be achieved by performing certain actions:

• Getting rid of overexcitation. To prevent the baby’s nervous system from suffering, a favorable atmosphere must be created around him. Spend more time outdoors. Before going to bed, it would be nice for him to take a bath with the addition of herbs with a calming effect. It could be chamomile or valerian;
• A well-fed baby means a restful sleep. Observation of the behavior of infants showed that the child sleeps worse when he is hungry. To prevent such situations from arising, feed him well two hours before bedtime. Give him the breast just before putting him to bed. Thus, the baby will not only be satisfied, but will also become calmer, thanks to endorphins. It is desirable that breast milk be richer in fat. To do this, a woman needs to monitor her diet and eat well;
• The kid hasn't had enough of playing. It often happens that at night, after waking up and having had a little refreshment, the child begins active play activities. To prevent this from happening again, move your bedtime in the evening to a later date;
• Normal temperature. When there is a baby in the family, a favorable climate must be created not only psychologically, but also thermally. The air temperature should not exceed 22℃ and humidity 40%. Make sure that your baby does not get too cold or overheat. Both of these points are undesirable. When a baby has heat rash, problem areas need to be treated with a special ointment;
• Anesthesia. The baby's whims at night may occur due to any painful sensations. It could be teeth or tummy. In this situation, the child needs help. As a last resort, he is given painkillers. But this should be done only if the cause of the pain is clear;
• Mother's peace of mind. We have already mentioned several times that the baby has a very close connection with the mother. Therefore, a woman should monitor her emotional state. All your nerves and irritations sooner or later begin to affect your baby. The same goes for insomnia. No matter how difficult it is, the child should not feel it. Always be kind to him, smile more often, try to restrain your negative emotions. Thanks to your efforts, your baby will sleep soundly and for a long time.

Recommendations from experts

Sometimes a baby's night awakenings can be purely physiological and have nothing to do with the onset of serious diseases. If a child often wakes up at night, then parents should immediately seek advice from a pediatric neurologist.

Pediatric doctors recommend that young parents try to adhere to the correct daily routine from the very birth of their baby. If from the first days of life both mother and her baby live according to a certain schedule, then both will benefit from this. Mom will have more time to do in a day, the child will get used to falling asleep, waking up, and eating on time. Even his walks will be on schedule. Children who follow a daily routine develop better and get sick less.

If night awakenings are associated with any fears of the child, let him understand that he is always safe with you. Create a favorable psychological atmosphere at home so that the baby feels comfortable and comfortable. It is also necessary to improve the child’s nutrition, because at 8 months he already begins to actively become acquainted with more adult dishes, because... he is already being introduced to complementary foods.

When creating a menu for feeding your baby, think through the dishes in such a way that he does not go to bed hungry, and the evening meal is enough so that the baby does not have to wake up at night to eat more. After all, if a child does not get enough sleep, then he feels bad all day, and the whole family is constantly tired.

There are also situations when a child simply confuses day and night. During the day he sleeps a lot and soundly, and at night he is most active. And even if he goes to bed, his sleep is superficial and the child wakes up at the slightest noise. If this happens, then you need to try, if possible, not to let your baby sleep a lot during the day so that his biological clock adjusts to the desired mode.