Newborns sleep much more than adults. Their brain is actively developing, so it takes a long time for it to regain its strength. Gradually, less and less time is spent on sleep, and the baby has the opportunity to play and explore the world. This activity is so interesting that if there is no sleep schedule, the child will be overexcited and will not be able to fall asleep. In order for the baby to be healthy and full of strength, you need to know the sleeping and waking patterns of the newborn by month and strictly follow it.
Now let's look at this in more detail.
Sleep phases in a baby 1-3 months old
During the period of life from the first to the third month, the infant's sleep phases become more and more reminiscent of the sleep pattern (its frequency over a full day) of adults. The baby grows up individually. Moreover, the latter does not depend on the child’s age: changes are noted both in the second month of the baby’s life and at the end of the third.
The duration of children's sleep phases changes as follows: the proportion of the paradoxical (fast, accompanied by eye movements) period decreases and the percentage of the orthodox (slow) period increases. This is due to the ongoing development of the brain.
In addition, at this age, children experience a change in their sleep patterns. Now it begins with a slow phase, which turns into a fast one. Both cycles last 40-50 minutes. Then the child wakes up. This is a physiological feature of the child’s body, since the baby regularly needs to assess his condition: is he comfortable, does he want to eat, is the diaper dry.
If there are no irritating factors, then the baby falls asleep again. On average this takes one to ten minutes. If something is disturbing, the baby gives an accessible signal - crying or sobbing.
Peculiarities of the dream course of a baby aged 1-3 months:
- after falling asleep, the baby immediately goes into the slow phase;
- the passage of the paradoxical period is accompanied by increased activity - movements of the legs and arms are noted;
- between cycle changes - the passage of both phases - the baby wakes up;
- deep slow period, during which the child sleeps soundly and does not react to any external stimuli;
- reducing the total amount of time spent on rest;
- ability to distinguish between day and night.
Some important facts and practical advice for young parents
To ensure that a night's rest for the baby and his parents brings restoration of strength and is a pleasure for all participants in the process, there are simple rules. By following them, adults will make their lives much easier and solve those small problems that get in the way of healthy sleep. The worldly wisdom of previous generations, together with medical facts, rush to the aid of all those in need:
- A breastfed baby sleeps in short intervals and wakes up periodically, since mother's milk is absorbed faster than formula.
- The hot air in the room overheats the baby, thirst appears, which interferes with proper sleep.
- If the baby feels discomfort in a separate crib, the optimal solution is to place the baby next to the mother.
- It is in your best interest to have consistent times for resting, walking, getting up, and eating every day. This helps create a healthy (and comfortable!) daily routine.
- Ventilate your home more often, especially in the evening. The air temperature should not overheat the body while falling asleep. Such conditions will prolong natural and healthy sleep.
- If you are breastfeeding, you need to carefully monitor your diet. For healthy sleep for toddlers, the following are contraindicated: marshmallows, hot sauces, exotic foods, citrus fruits. The drinking regime will also have to be reconsidered: exclude coffee, strong tea, carbonated drinks with food coloring.
- Be sure to feed your baby before bed. The advice is obvious - feeling hungry can prevent you from falling asleep. But there are some nuances here: eating up to 3 months of life is calming, but when the child reaches this age, it is better to reschedule feeding 2 hours before bedtime.
- You should not wake up a sleeping baby to feed. It is necessary to give him the opportunity to independently regulate the time of sleep and wakefulness. It is advisable to wait until the baby wakes up on his own. It will be much more difficult to get used to the change of day and night if adults interfere too much with the formation of biological factors. This joke contains an undeniable grain of truth: at night you need to feed your baby in silence, in dim lighting.
Sleep phases in a child under one year old
Starting from the third month, the period of wakefulness increases, and the baby’s sleep phases become more and more similar to the pattern of an adult. The main difference is the duration of the cycles. For a baby up to one year old, the period takes 45-50 minutes.
Table of the duration of the REM sleep phase in children under one year old by month:
| Baby's age | Fast phase share (%) |
| 0-4 weeks | 70-75 |
| 1-3 months | 45-50 |
| 4-5 months | 37-40 |
| 6-12 months | 35-40 |
More often, children in the first months of life wake up during the fast phase, which significantly exceeds the duration of the slow phase. For this reason, infants sleep intermittently and for short periods of time.
How to provide a newborn with quality rest?
In addition to general tips related to bedtime routine and preparation, there are certain nuances that deserve special attention, such as:
- air humidity . Airing before going to bed, of course, helps, but at night the air can become dry again. Such an atmosphere leads to anxiety in the child and systematic interruptions of normal sleep. Therefore, the air in the room should be humidified. An alternative is to buy a special humidifier or install a container of water near the battery;
- bed . To ensure your baby has deep sleep, it is advisable to purchase an orthopedic mattress. It is characterized by sufficient rigidity, strength and the ability to hold the baby’s body in the required position. Very young children should place a very thin pillow under their head. It is also important to choose a blanket that is not heavy and only made from natural fabric;
- sleeping area . Usually, parents go to all sorts of tricks to decorate their child’s sleeping place (they buy a canopy, tulle, taffeta). However, Dr. Komarovsky recommends not using such design attributes that perfectly collect dust, which interferes with the supply of the required volume of oxygen to the newborn during sleep;
- lighting . During the daytime, it is sometimes difficult for parents to put their baby to sleep “thanks” to the bright daylight. Curtains made of thick fabric will help here. And some children cannot sleep in complete darkness, so you can place lamps around the perimeter of the room that emit a soft, muted light;
- habit . It is advisable that the child perform the same actions before going to bed. For example, I brushed my teeth, listened to a bedtime story or a lullaby. This daily ritual will, over time, pre-set him up for sleep;
- busy day. Throughout the day, the baby should be as active as possible, so during this time you need to organize his leisure time. In the evening, it is advisable to walk in a forested area so that the child’s lungs are filled with fresh oxygen. During the day - active games, in the evening - more measured.
For newborns, it is recommended to purchase a special orthopedic mattress
Healthy, adequate sleep plays a vital role in the development and formation of the baby. Night sleep allows the body and all its internal systems to fully rest. The baby gains strength, grows, and his memory improves.
If he sleeps poorly and is lethargic during the day, then this condition should not go unnoticed by the parents, whose task is to react quickly and correctly. Sometimes the reason for poor sleep lies not in the rest-wake pattern, but in the sleeping place of a child who is simply uncomfortable sleeping.
Features of sleep in children
The stages of sleep in an infant develop differently: the deep phase occurs first, then the superficial phase. During the first months of life, sleep cycles are not sufficiently expressed: they are of uneven duration and shorter. Moreover, the difference between the phases of a one-month and one-year-old child is significant.
During the first ten months after birth, the baby is able to sleep for 20-40 minutes. This cannot be considered normal, but such a duration of rest is not recognized as a pathology, provided that the baby sleeps more peacefully at night.
An adult's sleep has four phases, but an infant's sleep has two phases. In the first 12 months of a child's life, there is a typical alternation between deep and superficial. During the first part of the cycle, the boy or girl completely relaxes; in the second, as a result of increased brain activity, they toss and turn and move their arms and legs. If during this period you pick up the baby in your arms to move it, or start talking too loudly, then awakening cannot be avoided.
The calm phase lasts at least 60% of the total duration of rest, the remaining time is allocated to the superficial phase.
Over the course of two to three hours, during which the baby goes into the arms of Morpheus, the phases change each other every 20-30 minutes.
While the child is very young, the duration of the periods will be as follows:
- up to 6 months – 50 minutes (half an hour – deep and 20 – superficial, restless);
- 6-24 months – 70 minutes.
As the child grows up, other phases characteristic of adults are added to his two phases.
It is important to remember that no matter how deeply the baby sleeps, the deep phase gives way to a quick, restless one, so any rustle can wake him up. To prevent the onset of a premature period of wakefulness, it is necessary:
- create silence, preventing street noise from entering the room, turn off or muffle the sound of a working TV;
- remove bright room lighting; use a dim nightlight at night;
- During the day, it is advisable to close the windows with thick curtains to prevent access to bright sunlight.
The total duration of rest during the day depends on the age of the baby.
- In the first two weeks of birth, the newborn sleeps 20-22 hours, waking up every 3-4 hours to feed.
- In the following weeks, the duration of rest is reduced to 16-18 hours. Now, during the waking period, the baby not only eats, but also explores the world around him.
- By the end of the third month, the baby sleeps 15-16 hours.
- From the third to the sixth months, the period of night rest decreases to 8-10 hours, but its total time (together with daytime sleep) is 15 hours.
- From the sixth to the ninth month of life, the baby's daily sleep duration decreases to 12 hours. In addition to night rest, during the day he needs a short “quiet hour”: in the morning and after lunch.
- After reaching nine months, children rest for 10-11 hours, several of which occur per day. The regime is maintained until 1 year of age
Daytime nap
The duration of a newborn's daytime sleep should ideally be 9 hours. At night, the baby sleeps 10-11 hours and wakes up only to feed. These are average standards, since the baby may not sleep at all during the day, but at the same time not wake up at night to feed.
The infant's daytime rest is segmental. As the baby grows, the need for it decreases: at four months he sleeps three or four times; at six months of age, morning, lunch and evening rest are enough.
By the age of one and a half years, babies sleep no more than once during the day. At this stage, having overcome the rapid phase of sleep, the child can go into deep sleep and sleep for quite a long time.
Biological rhythms
A baby's sleep, like all vital processes taking place in a baby's body, is subject to a certain cyclicity. It is called “biological rhythms”.
Taking into account the current course of biorhythms, which are established at the stage of intrauterine development, it is possible to build a daily routine that is as comfortable as possible for the baby.
The recommendations will be as follows:
- The moment of waking up and falling asleep should be timed at a certain time.
- Sunlight is largely responsible for coordinating biorhythms. Therefore, in winter, when the sun rises late, you need to turn on the light in the room to wake up. In summer, on the contrary, close the curtains so that the rays do not wake up the baby.
This will help “tune” biological rhythms and reduce the active phase of sleep in newborns in relation to the deep one.
Dreams of infants
What are you dreaming about, baby? An interesting question that every adult would like to know the answer to. Today, opinions on this topic are very diverse. Some researchers believe that infants do not dream due to the minimal amount of information received from the outside world. Others claim the opposite and even give examples of plots. It turns out that babies dream about their mother’s breasts - the most important and important thing in this period of life.
It is important to know! Experts assure that in the first days of a newborn, dreams are rich in various color spots, the palette of which depends on the mother’s mood and the emotional situation in the house. But in general, it is believed that the plots of visions at this age are of a positive nature.
Another interesting fact was revealed by scientists from Columbia and Stanford universities as a result of their research. Newborns' dreams begin immediately after falling asleep, unlike adults, who dream only some time after falling asleep.
If your baby doesn't sleep well
If he talks about how to prolong sleep (sleep phases) in infants, you need to figure out what is interfering with sleep.
Causes of sleep disorders in children:
- If the baby does not sleep enough during the daytime, then by the evening he becomes very tired. Excitement interferes with full sleep at night.
- Incomplete satisfaction of needs. In the first 1 month of life, the baby may not respond to some discomfort, but as he grows up, he will wake up at night due to hunger, heat, and too warm clothes.
- Sometimes a child does not sleep well at night if the room temperature is too high. In order for the baby to sleep well, the room must be regularly ventilated.
- Intestinal colic also becomes a hindrance.
Sleep duration is constantly changing, in particular in newborns changes occur every 2 weeks. This must be taken into account. In addition, children develop in an individual rhythm, this also applies to the child’s pattern. But if there are deviations from the average indicators, the baby should be shown to a pediatrician.
How much should a baby sleep in the eleventh week of life?
Sleep patterns in children aged 11 weeks at night and during the day
A child’s sleep schedule at this age remains almost unchanged. A baby should sleep 16-17 hours a day.
He has been “walking” a little longer than usual, and may sleep less during the day. In addition, 4 naps a day are maintained. It is necessary so that the child has the strength for active games.
Sleep phases and duration in infants aged 11 weeks
In children of this age, daytime sleep is divided into 4 periods. Babies sleep 2 times in the morning for 2-3 hours and 2 times in the afternoon for 30-40 minutes. Please note that the nighttime routine for 11-week-old children does not change, it is 10 hours. You can also feed once a night.
Why does a baby at 11 weeks of age sleep poorly during the day or at night: reasons
The cause of sleep disturbance can be overwork. The baby can overwork himself lying on his stomach, holding his head. Overfatigue will also appear due to muscle tension, because a child at this age will try to crawl to toys and turn on his side.
Poor sleep can also be caused by hunger, a stuffy room, a hard mattress, an uncomfortable pillow, heat, cold, night tremors or illness.
