By Jen Varela
Have you been asked this question: How is your baby sleeping? This is my least favorite question because it puts the parent in a position to evaluate or validate their parenting skills based on their child’s sleep. The reality is that your baby’s sleep habits may have everything to do with brain development and how the brain organizes sleep cycles and awake windows. I think the perfect answer to that question is: “They are sleeping like a baby!”
What does it mean to sleep like a baby?
The first thing to consider is how much sleep your little one is getting. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) recommends that infants age 4 to 11 months sleep for 12 to 15 hours in a 24-hour period, while toddlers age 1 to 2 years old get 11 to 14 hours of sleep during that same time frame. The NSF has a very informative chart listing recommended hours of sleep for children and adults at its website, which can be a helpful resource for parents.
As your baby grows month by month, the amount of sleep they will need in a 24-hour period will decrease, along with the number of naps they will have in the day. One of the most challenging times for parents is when their infants are between 4 and 5 months in age: The length of a nap will range from 20 minutes to two hours, and the number of naps in the day could be anywhere between three and five.
Although the NSF doesn’t categorize sleep as day sleep or night sleep, the time of day when the nap happens and the combined total hours of sleep during naps do affect night sleep. The myth “if your baby skips a nap, then he will be tired and sleep better at night” might sound logical, but the reality is that the placement and quantity of day sleep can affect the number of night awakenings and create early rising patterns.
So how do you know when your baby should nap? Using the 12-hour clock to schedule naps for your little one might be effective; however, focusing on how long your little one is awake between naps, and especially between the last nap and bedtime, is where the magic happens. When a baby is awake too long, cortisol is released in the system, which gives your little one a “second wind” and suppresses the sleep pressure. Once the cortisol has dissipated, you will have a second opportunity to get your child to sleep. There is a direct link to spending too much time awake before bedtime and an increase in night awakenings.
Here is a general guideline to the number of naps you can expect your child to take, based on age:
4-5 months - 3-4 naps
6-8 months - 3 naps
9-12 months - 2 naps
Just as the total amount of sleep needed in a 24-hour period will decrease with age, the amount of time your baby can be awake between naps will increase.
Here are recommended ranges of awake time between naps, by age:
4-5 months - 90-minutes
6-8 months - 1 ½ to 2 hours
9-10 months - 2-3 hours
11-12 months - 3-4 hours
There is also another HUGE factor affecting your baby’s sleep. Sleep “regressions” are really “progressions” related to developmental milestones and major lifestyle shifts called world view changes. Developmental milestones will be sleep disruptors, as children spend more time in active Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. According to researcher Nathaniel Kleitman , “REM dreaming allows us to process daytime emotional experiences and transfer recent memories into longer-term storage.” On the other hand, the purpose of quiet, non-REM sleep is to allow the mind and body to rest and recharge.
The biggest sleep disruptors related to developmental milestones and world view changes:
World view changes: Moving, travel, parents going back to work, new caregiver or daycare
Developmental milestones:
4-6 months – A big developmental burst occurs between 4 and 5 months and many babies go through a sleep regression during this time.
Finds toes
Vision increases
“Personality” shows up
6-9 months
Rolls over in both directions
Sits momentarily without support
Crawling begins
9-11 months
Pulls self to standing
Cruises the furniture
12 months
Takes a few steps
During times when it is clear that your little one is waking at night because of a developmental leap, the very best thing you can do is protect their sleep. Helping your child get back to sleep and keeping the night awake time to a minimum will help keep the “sleep tank” full. Once they are not working on that new developmental milestone, the night awakening frequency will decrease. It is the same concept for teething and sickness—protect their sleep and get them back to sleep as soon as possible. (I also have other sleep tips to help your baby during sickness. )
Babies will have the largest amount of brain growth in their lifetimes during the first eight months of life. Sleep is a large part of that growth, and when your little one gets the necessary amount of sleep it improves the quality of sleep for the whole family. I promise that sleep is in your future, even if your baby’s sleep habits seem to always be changing. It won’t always be like this.
Top Tips:
Be mindful of the amount of time awake, especially before bedtime.
Avoid sleep deprivation; you want to keep the “sleep tank” full, making sure your little one is getting enough sleep in 24 hours. Note: Even 20 minutes more a day can make a difference.
Develop a bedtime routine that you do in the same fashion and order each night, with wind-down activities such as a massage, song, or book.
Ask your doctor when:
You notice your baby snores loudly and persistently.
Total sleep time is less than 9 hours in a 24-hour period.
You are considering night weaning.
For almost a decade, Jen Varela, a Certified Gentle Sleep Coach®, co-author of “Loved to Sleep”, and the founder of Sugar Night Night, has been helping families teach their babies and toddlers to sleep through the night while keeping tears to a minimum.
As a pediatric sleep consultant, Jen focuses on the needs of each family’s unique sleep goals whether they are a co-sleeping family, room share with their child or the child is in their own room. She is located in San Diego, California and provides video coaching nationwide. She offers one-one-one sleep coaching services and workshops for 4 ½ month old’s to 5 years old, education and sleep shaping information for parents with infants under 4 ½ months.
www.sugarnightnight.com
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenvarela/