When do Babies Sleep Through the Night

Contents:

• When do Babies Start Sleep Through the Night
• The Importance of a Baby’s Sleep and its Peculiarities
• Babies Divided in Groups According to the Type of Their Sleep, Peculiarities of the Groups
• What do You do if a Newborn Baby Can’t Sleep Well Through the Night?
• How do You Gradually Teach Your Baby to Sleep Well Through the Night Without Waking Up?

When do Babies Start Sleep Through the Night

The sleep of a newborn baby is light. Due to the peculiarities of physiological processes inside his/her organism, a baby can sleep a lot but he/she will wake up very often. All parents without exception can’t help waiting for the time when their baby will sleep through the night and stop being active during this time of a day. According to the results of researches, the process during which a baby gets accustomed to sleeping at night without waking up (in order to eat or play) is one of the factors proving that he/she develops the way he/she should.

In the majority of cases, a baby gets accustomed to sleeping during the nighttime in a natural way. Even if he/she wakes up very often during the first months of his life (because of any kind of noise), everything will get right by the time he/she turns 8-12 months old. There are cases when babies simply get confused in differentiating between the daytime and nighttime. In such like cases, there is a need of certain readjustment to make him/her sleep when all the babies should sleep. Parents are able to help their baby readjust by themselves. It’s not necessary to ask doctors for help.

The Importance of a Baby’s Sleep and its Peculiarities

Every person needs to have a good night’s, non-REM’s sleep. It’s especially important for a baby to have such like sleep during the first year of his/her life because this is the time when his/her nervous system is developing and forming. If the sleeping schedule is inconsistent, it may result in apathy and hypererethism. Only those kids who rest well when sleeping are able to perceive the world around them and react to external irritants adequately. Such like babies have a good appetite, grow fast and are intellectually gifted.

The following factors have an impact on the quality of a baby’s sleep:

• Type of feeding. If you breastfeed your baby, he/she should wake up regularly each several hours so that to get a new portion of milk. If this doesn’t happen and your baby sleeps well through the night at the age of 2-3 months old, the amount of milk produced by the mammal glands decreases. In case of bottle feeding, you won’t have such like problems.
• The peculiarities of the environment a baby grows in. If your baby will sleep all the day under one and the same conditions, he/she may confuse the daytime and the nighttime. As a rule, such like babies sleep all through the daytime while being extremely active during the nighttime. You may avoid such like problem if you won’t close the window blinds during the daytime and will air the room well. You don’t need to turn the light on during the nighttime. Settle your baby off to sleep in a dark and warm room.
• Background sounds. It doesn’t matter when you start to help your baby get accustomed to sleeping well through the night. The thing is that there should always be a normal level of noise. If there will be stony silence during the time your baby sleeps, it will have a negative effect on him/her. The fact is that your baby will consider even the slightest noise or murmur to be a strong external irritant. Parents are recommended to turn luscious music on and talk quietly. Remember you shouldn’t be whispering.

During the first months of a baby’s life he/she is able to sleep without waking up for not more than 1 hour. Only by the time he/she turns 6 months old, this amount of time will start to increase gradually and your baby will react to external irritants less.

Babies Divided in Groups According to the Type of Their Sleep, Peculiarities of the Groups

Doctors divide newborn babies in several groups based on the peculiarities of their sleep. This helps them to define the cause of a problem (if it exists) and say at what age parents should start to help their baby to readjust the way he/she sleeps.

• Newborn babies that almost don’t sleep during the nighttime. In the very beginning of a baby’s life, there may be the following causes: problems with digestion, gases and cramps. Later on, teething may lead to such like problem as well. Babies may simply see no difference between day and night. In some cases, the daytime and the nighttime “switch places” in his/her mind. Apart from the hypererethism there gradually occur other problems that don’t let a baby sleep well through the night.
• A baby sleeps through the night but wakes up very often. As a rule, he/she wakes up during the nighttime not only because he/she wants to eat. In this case, a baby is not suffering from hypererethism. Still, there may be muscle hypertonia. Such like newborn babies can’t always control body movements. If a muscle contracts, a baby will move with his/her hand or leg and wake up as a result.
• Newborn babies that wake up 1-2 times during the nighttime in order to eat. This is the best variant. While a baby is growing gradually, the size of his/her stomach increases as well. That’s why the number of times he/she needs to eat decreases. If you start feeding him/her with supplementary food or start bottle feeding him/her, a baby will sleep well all through the night without waking up.
• Babies that sleep well through the night starting from the very early age. This may be caused by excessive feeding, slow metabolism or individual peculiarities of a baby’s organism. It’s not very good since, most often, it may be a sign of wrong diet of your baby that may lead to obesity.

Once you find out what group your baby belongs to, you may start to gradually help your baby to readjust.

What do You do if a Newborn Baby Can’t Sleep Well Through the Night?

In order to help your baby to readjust and stop being active during the nighttime, you need to follow certain rules during the daytime:

• Talk and play with your baby more during the daytime. Prevent the situations when a baby becomes excited too much.
• Even if your baby falls asleep during the daytime, the room he/she sleeps in shouldn’t be dark.
• Parents are recommended to make a bath for their baby with the decoction of chamomile or bidens. This will help a baby to calm down. The temperature of the water shouldn’t be higher than 37-38 °C. Under such conditions, your baby will get cold very fast. In an attempt to warm up, he/she will start to actively move with his/her extremities. As a result, he/she will get tired and his/her muscles will relax/ Consequently, he/she’ll sleep well.
• You need to stop playing active games with your baby before settling him/her off to sleep. You’d better turn luscious music on. Gradually, a baby will get used to falling asleep when he/she hears it.

In some cases, especially if a baby has muscle hypertonia, swaddling helps. Babies don’t react to the movements they make and sleep better.

How do You Gradually Teach Your Baby to Sleep Well Through the Night Without Waking Up?

If a baby wakes up from time to time during the night, you need to define the reason for it. There may be the following reasons: he/she needs the diaper to be changed, he/she lies in an uncomfortable position or there is a physiological discomfort. As a rule, if you get rid of all these factors, your baby will sleep well. Besides, it’s good if you air the room and keep its temperature under control.

Some mothers start to bottle feeding their babies in an attempt to help him/her readjust and sleep well through the night. It helps well. However, sometimes, it may result in a baby being capricious and having nervous breakdowns. You need to remember that it doesn’t matter when you decide to start bottle feeding your baby.

The main thing here is that it should be a good replacement of mother’s milk:

• infant formula milk or giving milk to your baby for night;
• fruit or vegetable puree, different kinds of soup or porridge during the daytime;
• baby’s tea before sleep or after your baby wakes up.

If nothing from what’s mentioned above works and your baby keeps waking up and being capricious, it may mean that there are other reasons for him/her to do it apart hunger.

Video: Should babies sleep through the night?