Newborn sleep - how long should a baby sleep? Organization of sleep and what you need to know about baby's sleep

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Often, after the birth of a baby, the new mother and father dream more than anything else of just getting some real sleep.
However, this problem can drag on much later than infancy. And if it is very difficult to control a newborn’s sleep, because... he has his own daily routine, then parents can easily help older children sleep better, while at the same time helping themselves sleep better. After all, you must admit that exhausted parents, always tired from lack of sleep, who sleep on the go and get irritated “out of the blue” are not the best educators.

The key to restful sleep

One of the most common myths about sleep is the myth that children DO NOT SLEEP at night. This is wrong. Children are not their own enemies and they want to sleep no less than we adults do. Of course, there are exceptions - children who hardly sleep or sleep very little, but even such children can be helped by applying the following tips. Before using them, make sure that the problem is sleep and that the child is not sick, hungry or thirsty.

To begin with, it is important to understand: a child’s night sleep begins in the morning.

If the day has been very busy, your baby may be quite agitated by the evening. Therefore, before “sending” him to sleep, he should be calmed down.

At the same time, even factors completely invisible to parents can influence the child’s condition.

If your home has a TV on as a constant background, pay attention to what TV programs serve as this background. Crime series are unlikely to have a good effect on a child’s nervous system. Even if these are just cartoons, the characters often scream in them, leading young viewers into an excited state. And between the cartoons they often show short, but very necessary news inserts that can unsettle even an adult. These frames can be deposited in the child’s subconscious and then emerge before bedtime - just at a time when he is not thinking about anything special. And a terrible picture of a speeding car from the news about an accident, shooting bearded guys from a military report or other “desserts” for the brain can stand before his eyes, frightening him and preventing him from falling asleep.

It also matters what mom and dad talk about with each other in the presence of the child. Children have a well-developed imagination, but due to a lack of life experience, analytical abilities and logic are not sufficiently developed. Therefore, often just one carelessly thrown frightening phrase or a terrible tone is enough for the child to start thinking about everything else before going to bed, imagining everything in the darkest colors. Too happy or positive news also has an exciting effect. Therefore, if you find out that your long-awaited aunt from San Francisco will soon visit you and bring you a lot of chocolate, you may not need to tell your child this right before bed.

Try to think about your child's sleep throughout the day and do everything in your power to ensure that your child arrives at bedtime calm and unexcited.

The best sleeping positions

Healthy sleeping positions have several options, but two are considered the main ones:

• lying on your back with your head turned to one side or the other to prevent curvature;
• on your side with your legs tucked in, allowing gases to escape naturally.

The position on the stomach is indicated for pathology of the hip joint and severe colic, but care must be taken that the child does not rest his face on the fabric to prevent asphyxia.

Night rituals

Starting from a very early age, when chaos in a child’s routine gives way to a constant routine, it makes sense to accompany bedtime with a ritual. A bedtime ritual is a series of simple, sequential steps designed to help you get your baby into the right frame of mind and get him to sleep when he needs it.

Start by putting your child to bed at a consistent time. Do this always.

Of course, there are various force majeure events in which the usual schedule deviates in one direction or another. But in general, the child’s bedtime should be constant. Some parents believe that putting their child to bed at 8:00 pm one night, 10:00 pm the next, or whenever the child wants to sleep is a good idea. No, that's not a good idea. Children need a routine, including for their inner peace. Therefore, two things must remain the same - bedtime and bedtime. If your baby falls asleep in his crib, he should fall asleep there every night. And not a day in the crib, a day in the salon, a day in mom’s arms.

Then we move on to the main phase, actually going to bed. Many parents think that it consists of only one phase - falling asleep. This is mistake. It consists of several parts preceding falling asleep itself, which are no less important. The ritual can be anything, for example, this:

• dinner;
• bath;
• book;
• dream.

In our family, this ritual worked like a charm. In this case, dinner should begin at the same time every day. This time should also be constant, like your bedtime.

Before dinner, which becomes a harbinger of sleep, we prepare the WHOLE house for bed:

• reduce the volume of the TV, or better yet, turn it off completely;
• dim the lights in the room;
• we finish all active, exciting games;
• We switch to lower tones in conversation.

This way, day after day, you prepare your baby for bed.

Useful tips for parents

Many pediatricians recommend that babies sleep separately from their parents. In this way, an accurate feeding schedule is maintained, adults receive quality rest, and the child is provided with suitable hygienic conditions.

Rocking a newborn is recognized as a useful exercise for the baby’s vestibular system and is recommended by neurologists for quality sleep and accelerated development. In addition, monotonous movements play a role in distracting pain during colic, and children are more likely to relax.

To harden and prevent colds, experts advise providing the baby with sleep in the fresh air, so he falls asleep faster and sleeps more soundly. The place and time should be chosen according to weather conditions and season.

I do not want to sleep!

Most likely, if you are reading this article, your child does not want to fall asleep and is resisting this in every possible way. You put the baby in the crib, covered him with a blanket, and kissed his forehead. And then the most interesting thing begins: the child begins to jump up, scream, run, cry, wants to drink and asks to go to the toilet, and preferably at the same time. At this stage, you should understand that your child is having a hard time falling asleep and you should help him. He doesn't fall asleep because he doesn't know how, and he needs to be taught.

The first and basic rule. If you don't learn it, you won't be able to teach your baby to sleep.

Do not yell at your child or get angry with him under any circumstances.

Drink herbal tea, turn on Vivaldi's concerto in A minor in your headphones, hug your cat - most importantly, calm down.

Then proceed to the second stage. Prepare yourself mentally that you will have to approach the child several times. Perhaps five. Perhaps ten. Perhaps fifteen. This evening and all subsequent evenings when you teach your child to sleep, there is nothing more you can do. So don’t plan anything other than to collapse exhaustedly on your bed.

Say good night to your child and leave the room. He will get up and run after you. Pick him up and bring him back to bed. If the child does not want to stay in his bed and tries to get out of it, you need to put him back without any conversation. Not right away, otherwise it resembles a fun game of “try and put me down!” Wait half a minute, put the baby back and cover him with a blanket. You should not ask him to lie flat and not move. Let him sit, fidget, or even stand on his head, the main thing is that he does not leave the bed.

Your task at this stage is to keep the child within the bed. These are the boundaries now. You performed the ritual - read, ate, drank, spent time together. Now it's time to sleep. If you believe in the concept of bedtime, it will become your religion and soon your child's religion. If you think “bedtime” is an unnecessary abstract concept, your child will too.

“I don’t want to sleep!” the child may say. No problem at all. Tell him: “You don’t have to sleep, but you stay in bed.” Moreover, there is no need to insist that the child “sleep” and “fall asleep,” otherwise these things turn into a stumbling block. Replace this concept with “rest” and use this word. It is much softer and you don’t have to force yourself to fall asleep.

So, the baby is in the crib. But not for long. He will get up and go out. Each time this happens, you will gently guide him back to bed. Don't get angry and don't shout. You can quietly say “good night” to your child.

Now comes the hard part for parents. The child begins to show dissatisfaction - scream, be indignant and cry. This is where most parents give up. However, you can work effectively with a child’s screaming and crying without making the child feel bad. I'll tell you how.

Help your baby calm down. Hug him, hold him to your chest, tell him you love him. Hold him for a while, then put him back to bed and leave the room. If your child doesn't come out, give him a minute to get used to the idea of ​​going to bed. Then go in and hug him again. If he gets up and leaves the room, bring him back to his crib.

This ritual must be performed calmly, lovingly and at the same time firmly. If you firmly believe in the benefits of nighttime sleep and that both adults and children need a good night's sleep, your child will believe it too.

At some point you will feel like you want to give up - pick up the child in your arms, carry him to you. You can do this, but remember: in a day you will have to start all over again.

Sleep training can take anywhere from a few days to 2-3 weeks.

Features of a newborn's sleep

The rhythm of a newborn's sleep is not much different from the rhythm of a fetus' sleep. He does not have a “night” in our understanding. Following the “traditions” of the prenatal period, in the first 3-4 months of life, the baby can wake up several times a night. Only in some people a period of continuous night sleep is established from the first weeks of life, however, even in this case it does not exceed 5-6 hours, and on average is 2.5-3 hours.

The sleep of a newborn differs significantly from the sleep of an adult. The sleep of both an adult and a child consists of phases: the beginning of sleep (the period of falling asleep), shallow sleep, deep sleep, which, in turn, can alternate up to 4-6 times, and final awakening. For example, in a newborn, the phase of deep slow sleep does not begin immediately after falling asleep, but only after 20-30 minutes. The duration of deep sleep lasts no more than one hour, then gives way to rapid shallow sleep, during which the baby can make movements, flinch, change facial expressions... In newborns, deep sleep cycles are much shorter, and shallow sleep cycles, on the contrary, are longer, so their sleep is longer. slightly more than adults. Because of this, they are able to easily awaken, especially when they experience various sensations of any discomfort, the most significant of which is hunger. As they grow older, periods of deep sleep usually lengthen, and periods of shallow sleep shorten, continuing to alternate during the night up to 4-6 times. The duration of the cycles that make up normal sleep increases with age, from 50-55 minutes in infants to 1.5 hours in adults.

In an adult, a state of deep sleep follows immediately after falling asleep, while the eyeballs do not move, the body is motionless, breathing is even and deep, and the muscles are relaxed. After about an hour and a half, brain activity increases again, but instead of awakening, light (superficial) sleep sets in, in which the whites of the eyes make involuntary movements under closed eyelids. The brain centers are in an active state. Many people have dreams during this phase of sleep, some make sounds and even utter words or monologues, toss and turn, adjust the blanket, and then fall back into deep sleep. This alternation of periods of light and deep sleep occurs every few hours, resulting in an adult spending about 6 hours per night in deep sleep and about two in light sleep.

In a newborn, on the contrary, at first, after falling asleep, sleep can be easily interrupted by the slightest noise or touch. Therefore, if you, having lulled the baby to sleep, want to go about your business, wait until you see that his facial muscles have relaxed, his fists have unclenched and the baby has finally fallen into a deep sleep.

Proper alternation of sleep and wakefulness is very important. It must be followed from the first month of life, as this will promote physical health in general and strengthen the nervous system, which, in turn, will immediately affect the further development of the baby in a positive way. At the same time, it makes no sense to artificially accustom a newborn to a specific sleep rhythm - give him the opportunity to enter his own mode and simply adapt to it.

There are a variety of standards for how much sleep infants should sleep, which can range from 10.5 to 23 hours a day.

Nature specifically “prescribed” such a long sleep for newborns, because it is very important for their proper development and even growth, contributing to the maturation of the brain. It is during sleep that energy is accumulated, including for the functioning of the central nervous system. In addition, the brain must not only have time to accumulate sufficient energy, but also rest so that maturation proceeds without problems.

Why are they crying?

Newborn children are called “callers” or “signalers”: when they wake up, they scream, “calling” their parents to come to them and help solve problems that the babies themselves, due to their absolute helplessness, cannot yet cope with. A little later they will learn to calm themselves down. And parents should know in advance about the sleeping habits of newborns and be patient. During sleep, newborns experience physiological night crying, when the baby cackles, but does not wake up. There's nothing wrong with that. In such cases, don’t worry, just go up to the baby, check if everything is okay, touch him, adjust the blanket. If nothing serious is found, it is not worth taking active measures in this case, so as not to further cultivate the baby’s need for increased attention to the endless participation of parents in calming down.

The establishment of long night sleep in a child (consolidation) will occur after approximately 2-3 years. It is believed that the success of this depends on the maturation of the so-called circadian (circadian) regulation system, which is determined by the synthesis of a special substance produced by the pineal gland of the brain, and this occurs only at night. This is melatonin - a systematizer of the human internal clock. The maturation of certain functional structures of the brain responsible for sleep is also important. For example, due to the underdevelopment of such factors and structures, for 32-week premature babies there is especially no difference between daytime and nighttime. An actigram (sleep study) shows that by about 2 months the baby begins to distinguish between daytime activity and nighttime activity, although this is not yet very noticeable - at least not as parents would like.

You behave badly - I'll send you to bed!

Are you familiar with this threat?

Meanwhile, phrases like “Don’t disturb me, or you’ll go to bed early!” or “Stop pinching your brother or I'll put you to bed” should disappear from your vocabulary forever.

Remember: babies love to sleep! Sleep is a great opportunity to restore strength in order to test the strength and endurance of your parents the next day. Therefore, it is extremely important that the right attitude towards sleep is developed in the family.

Don't threaten your child's sleep! In this case, he will begin to perceive it (as well as everything connected with it) as a punishment, and he will not even want to lie in the hated bed at night. Sleep, bed, bedroom should evoke only positive emotions in the child and seem like something pleasant and desirable.

Rules for putting a newborn to sleep

Pediatricians advise following the rules when putting a baby to bed:

• The child's room should be clean with access to fresh air. When sleeping, curtain the windows and avoid bright night lights.
• The room should be warm and the humidity should not exceed 70 percent.
• During the first months, the baby should be placed to sleep on a fairly hard surface. The composition of the mattress should be made of natural elements.
• A sleeping bag prolongs sleep.

“Olya is already sleeping...”

From a certain age, when your child goes to kindergarten, he often repeats the actions of other children. You can take advantage of this when preparing him for bed.

“Olya from kindergarten is already asleep. She ate, brushed her teeth, lay down in her crib and fell asleep. All the children from the kindergarten are already lying in their beds and sleeping. And mom and dad go to bed too.” At the same time, it would be nice to yawn sweetly. I think you can do this with ease!

By the way, a message about mom and dad’s plans has a good effect on children, since they often think that when they fall asleep, they miss the most interesting things. “As soon as I fall asleep,” the child thinks, “mom and dad put on cone-shaped hats, turn on the music and start dancing. Maybe even jumping on the sofas! And all this - without me! I can’t miss this!”

Dimmed light and silence in the apartment will help the child immerse himself in the atmosphere of sleep and convince him that everyone at home is going to follow his example.

Causes of excess sleep

Parents can be happy that the newborn sleeps a lot and behaves calmly. But eating should not be allowed, because this can lead to lactation disorders and malnutrition. Possible factors for prolonged sleep include:

• stress after a long labor with the use of drugs;
• improper latching on the breast, which tires the baby;
• time after vaccination;
• recovery period after illness;
• indicator of possible illness.

Scary bedtime stories

When reading a book to a child for bedtime or singing a lullaby, we often do not pay attention to what exactly is said in the fairy tale or song. We sing a lullaby and are no longer surprised that if you lie on the edge, “a little gray top will come and bite you on the side.” We read “Fly-Tsokotukha” to the child and expressively describe the dramatic events unfolding in the fairy tale: “Suddenly some old man Spider dragged our Fly into a corner...”. Or a fairy tale that takes place in a dark, dark forest, where at some stage one of the characters dies, even if it is a negative character. Excellent support for a child's nervous system! What do you think of the scarecrow with Babayka, who comes to “naughty” children at night? Try to sleep here!

What I mean is that you also need to choose a bedtime story carefully and try to ensure that it under no circumstances contains frightening plots or pictures.

If your baby confuses day with night

For healthy development, the baby sleeps the prescribed number of hours at night and during the day, but it happens that he seems to confuse the time of day. The reasons why this happens can be different:

• Difficulties with night sleep occur when the child has poor and restless daytime sleep - often wakes up. He does not have time to rest, becomes overexcited and sleeps more restlessly at night.
• A good rest for children is possible in comfortable conditions. If the baby has wet diapers, clothes that are too hot, or dry air in the room - all this can affect anxiety. This shifts the night's rest hours.
• Lack of fresh air can make it difficult to sleep. Before going to bed, try to ventilate the room.
• A walk outside tires the baby in a timely manner and helps him fall asleep more soundly. In winter, frost promotes deep sleep; in summer, children get tired of the heat faster.
• The cause of anxiety may lie in abdominal pain.

To ensure that the baby sleeps soundly at night, the mother anticipates possible discomfort

How to improve your sleep

In order for children to develop according to their age, they need rest. Parents can anticipate problems with falling asleep and sound sleep in advance.

Children often get used to sleeping with their mother and feel fear without her presence. Rest in a crib will be calmer. Here the baby feels comfortable. To organize a relaxing holiday, the mother tries to satisfy all the baby’s needs before bedtime.

When the baby is put to bed, the parents stay close and talk to him. He falls asleep more calmly when he feels the closeness of his parents. Parents can leave when they are sure that the baby is fast asleep and leave the door open. If he starts screaming and crying, they react immediately.

From birth to one year, children's sleep period changes smoothly every couple of months. Parents are guided by the time norm given above, but this is not a mandatory number of hours; it may differ for everyone. The gradual introduction of the regime allows you to transfer the child first to night rest, then evens out the daily regime.