Reasons why a baby needs good sleep

Newborns spend around 70% of their time asleep, sleeping often, but in short periods. When they’re awake, they need feeding, changing and care which leaves parents exhausted. As this sleep routine is very different to parents’ sleep, many worry over whether their baby is sleeping well. So, it’s understandable that your child’s sleep can add to your worries, but it’s also important that you’re getting enough sleep yourself. In this post we’ll be focusing on babies’ sleep and the importance of good sleep for their development, along with some tips on how you can improve and encourage it.

Parents have always felt that sleep directly affects a child's mood and most would agree it's got a big impact on learning and behavior. But pediatric researchers' latest findings suggest that sleep is also essential to good health. When kids get the sleep they need, they may have a lower risk of becoming overweight and developing diabetes as well as fewer learning problems and attention issues. Sleep is as important as nutrition and exercise.

What is the recommended amount of sleep a child should get?

It varies based on age. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends:

In the first few weeks newborn babies may wake every 2-4 hours, but as their stomach gets bigger, they will take more in at each feed and only need to wake every 4-5 hours. It’s normal for your baby to have lots of night waking when they are young, but then they learn to self soothe and fall back to sleep on their own as they adjust to the world. From around 6 months, your baby could stop needing night feeds so may wake up less often and eventually sleep through the night.

What does sleep impact?

1. Growth

Babies double their birth weight by around 5 months and triple it by around 12 months. This is a lot of growth in such a short span of time and good sleep plays an important role in this. Growth hormone is primarily secreted during deep sleep. So not getting enough sleep can stunt their physical development. A study showed a link between increased bursts of sleep and growth spurts in body length, which showed that growth spurts both occur during sleep and are influenced by it – it is thought that this may be because of the release of somatotropin during sleep.

2. Negative effects on weight gain

It has also been found that short sleep duration can lead to childhood obesity. Daily sleep duration of less than 12 hours during infancy appears to be a risk factor for overweight and adiposity in preschool-aged children. So although good sleep helps them grow, less sleep can affect their weight in a negative way.

3. Mental development & learning

A baby may look peaceful when he's sleeping, but his brain is busy all night long. Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have shown that newborns actually learn in their sleep. Sleep aids learning in kids of all ages, and education experts are finding that naps have a particular magic.

Your baby’s brain roughly doubles in size in their first year. They develop rapidly and a lot of their learning is done while they sleep. A number of studies focused around sleep and mental development in infants and found correlations between normal sleep development and higher developmental scores and “higher motor activity and night waking negatively correlated with mental scores.

Just like older children and adults, sleep is critical when it comes to memory consolidation. Sleep allows infants to strengthen their memories and things they’ve learned while awake, prepares them for the processing and exploration of their environment and allows them to “process sensory stimuli. This processing of information that happens during sleep is important, especially in the first year, as this is when a child is completely new to the world and is learning all about their bodies and their environment.

4. Immune system

Sleep is important for our immune system at any age, but it is especially important for babies, as their immune systems are still immature and not as strong as adults. It takes time for immunity to develop, and sleep plays a role in this. If a baby is sleep deprived, they are more prone to disease and infection, and it can affect their recovery time. Being ill can also negatively impact their sleep, disrupting their sleep cycle and giving them less quality sleep overall

During sleep, children (and adults) also produce proteins known as cytokines, which the body relies on to fight infection, illness, and stress. Too little sleep appears to impact the number of cytokines on hand.

5. Sleep reduces injury risk.

Kids are clumsier and more impulsive when they don't get enough sleep, setting them up for accidents. One study of Chinese children found those who were short sleepers (i.e., fewer than nine hours per night for school-age children) were far more likely to have injuries that demanded medical attention. And 91 percent of kids who had two or more injuries in a 12-month period got fewer than nine hours of sleep per night.

6. Sleep increases kids' attention span.

Children who consistently sleep fewer than ten hours a night before age 3 are three times more likely to have hyperactivity and impulsivity problems by age 6. In other words, tired kids can be impulsive and distracted. For school-age kids, research has shown that adding as little as 27 minutes of extra sleep per night makes it easier for them to manage their moods and impulses so they can focus on schoolwork.

Tips on improving their sleep

How to build a better bed routine:

Encourage self-soothing. Try not to let your infant fall asleep while eating, and put her to bed when she's still awake. By 3 months, you should slow your response time when she wakes up crying at night. It’s important to keep your baby feeling safe and secure, but too much involvement may hinder their sleep. A reasonable level of emotional availability includes responding sensitively to your baby’s cues, using soothing bedtime routines, not initiating play or too much talking and not becoming impatient or irritable. As discussed previously, they will wake a lot in the night but won’t always need attention – if you hear them stir, don’t respond straight away as it’s likely they will fall back to sleep. If they continue making noises or crying then they may need feeding, changing or attention. Self soothing will help their sleep cycles to link, improving their sleep quality and in turn, improving their health and development. BE EMOTIONALLY AVAILABLE.

Establish a consistent bedtime routine.

For example: bath, feed, cuddle, story time, bed. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should be the same every night and you should try to get them down at the same time each night. This can help to get your child into a rhythm that will eventually allow them to sleep through the night. Children should have a consistent bedtime ritual by 3 months that lasts no more than 30 to 40 minutes, bath included. And for kids up to age 10, make sure bedtime is before 9 p.m. "Children who go to bed after 9 p.m. take longer to fall asleep, wake more often at night and get less sleep overall.

Add another bedtime story. You already know reading to kids helps them learn, but hearing storybooks is a great way for kids to head off to dreamland. "Of all activities, reading printed books appears to be most relaxing,

Create a comfortable sleep environment

To create a comfortable sleep environment, it’s important that your baby isn’t too hot or too cold. Other things that can create a comfortable environment are keeping it very quiet, or using white noise or lullabies to soothe your baby to sleep. Use these sounds only before bed to help condition your baby to learn the difference between night and day / sleep and awake time. You also do not want to have any fluorescent light around your baby before bedtime or during night feeds and changes, so a dim nightlight that’s free from blue light will reduce disturbances and help them to sleep better.

Try to maintain the same temperature and level of light in your child's room.

Put them into their cot when they’re drowsy but stil

Awake

Look out for signs of sleepiness, such as yawning, looking away, fussing or eye rubbing. If you put your baby in their cot before they fall asleep, they will begin to get used to falling asleep without you. In turn, this can mean that they will fall back to sleep after night wakings without too much of a disturbance

Keep activity to a minimum during night wakings

Don’t talk, play, turn on the light (use a dim nightlight to see) or use your phone while you wait for them to fall back to sleep. If you’re trying to soothe them, try stroking them in their crib instead of holding them or sing soft lullabies instead of upbeat sing-songs. If they’re hungry, make sure they are having full feeds to reduce the risk of them waking up due to hunger soon after.

Conclusion:

Each baby’s sleep pattern and cycle is different. Its best not to compare it with another baby. It may be difficult, but regardless of how your baby sleeps, as long as they are healthy and happy you shouldn’t worry if they’re sleeping differently to others. Always ask for help – parenthood can be a huge challenge and close friends and family are sure to be happy to be able to spend some time with your little bub.

We hope this has helped you to understand how important sleep is right from the very start of life. HAPPY PARENTING!