“Baby Sleep Problems Take Time”
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'Sleep when the baby sleeps.' 'My baby slept through the night at six weeks old.' 'My baby slept through the night at two weeks.' 'Mine did it at two hours.'

Baby sleep problems are so common that they've actually taken on a competitive air with some parents.

There's always one set of parents who says their baby sleep problems don't exist and another who can't seem to escape them.

A baby sleeps when it needs to and for most babies, that's most of the time. The average baby is awake less than 8 hours a day in the first few weeks of their lives.

So why is that so many parents of newborns are confronting baby sleep problems? It's hard because those eight hours of wakefulness are spread across the entire 24-hour spectrum.

Baby sleep problems begin for mothers when they conceive, because pregnancy demands a lot of rest and sometimes prevents it too.

After the baby is born, parents have to struggle with being woken up at odd hours to take care of a really demanding little individual who doesn't care what they were doing.

They want to be held, cuddled, fed, changed, burped and then put back to sleep. What a parent does on their own time doesn't concern the babies.

Because this is a typical problem, parents learn to adjust, usually by splitting the off-hours timetable between them.

Sometimes that doesn't work though and baby sleep problems can resume when illness, travel or even the clock changing takes place.

Pediatricians recommend developing a schedule for a baby and conditioning them out of their baby sleep problems.

For every child it's different and no matter what the books say about the 'average' child, maybe one in ten will fit the mold and do exactly what the directions say they will do.

Routines will help a great deal for baby sleep problems and for everything else, if it's growing pains, time change or just a different food being added to their diet, it takes some patience and time.

Baby sleep:

Newborn Babies daily sleep requirements:

0-2 months: 10.5-18.5 hours

Despite their small size, babies can wield tremendous power over their parents.

Some new parents will go to extreme lengths to get their baby to sleep, rocking them to sleep in their arms for hours or driving them around town until their eyelids finally flutter shut.

Bedtime doesn't have to make parents and their babies crazy.

A newborn’s sleep cycle is disorganized. In the first few weeks, you can expect your baby’s sleep to be distributed throughout the 24 hours, with each sleep period lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, and with frequent waking periods through the night. In about six weeks a more regular, defined sleep pattern should begin to emerge.

While sleeping, your baby may be very busy twitching, jerking, sucking, snuffling—even smiling. This is normal. Even with all this activity, your baby is actually getting a perfectly sound sleep.

When addressing difficulties that your child may be having with sleep, it is important to be aware of the general developmental progression of sleep behavior in kids. Newborns alternate between sleep and wakefulness every 3-4 hours, awakening often associated with hunger.

As the child grows this develops into what is called a "diurnal" pattern. This means there are progressively longer periods of wakefulness during the daytime as well as longer periods of sustained sleep at nighttime.

By about 12 weeks, an infant may sleep at night for periods up to 8 hours.

At 3-4 months, more than 70% of infants are sleeping for sustained periods of time at night. This is sometimes referred to as "settling in" and it occurs as the infant's brain matures.

If we look at EEG patterns (an EEG is an instrument that measures brain waves) we can see the patterns becoming increasingly organized into distinctive stages differentiating sleep from wakefulness.

An infant probably spends 16 hours of a 24-hour period asleep. This decreases to 12 hours in the second year of life, 10 hours by age 3, and to 9 hours from ages 8-12.

Remember that this varies according to the child. With some children, this kicks in quite early and with others it happens much later on. This is simply a variation in normal development.

While the development of the brain plays a very important role in the establishment of the sleep-wake cycle, learning and conditioning are equally important.

This is good news for parents because it means they can also play a role in enhancing and facilitating the development of their child's sleep behavior.

Just as parents pay attention to their children's general hygiene, they can also address their sleep hygiene.

This can help to establish life-long patterns of good sleep. It's much easier to prevent a sleep problem than to treat one.

Here are some guidelines on what to expect, from the time you bring your tightly swaddled bundle home to your baby’s third birthday.

Every living creature needs to sleep. It is the primary activity of the brain during early development.

Circadian rhythms, or the sleep-wake cycle, are regulated by light and dark and these rhythms take time to develop, resulting in the irregular sleep schedules of newborns.

The rhythms begin to develop at about six weeks, and by three to six months most infants have a regular sleep-wake cycle.

By the age of two, most children have spent more time asleep than awake and overall, a child will spend 40 percent of their childhood asleep.

Sleep is especially important for children as it directly impacts mental and physical development.

There are two alternating types or states of sleep:

Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) or “quiet” sleep. During the deep states of NREM sleep, blood supply to the muscles is increased, energy is restored, tissue growth and repair occur, and important hormones are released for growth and development.

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) or “active” sleep. During REM sleep, our brains are active and dreaming occurs. Our bodies become immobile, breathing and heart rates are irregular.

Babies spend 50 percent of their time in each of these states and the sleep cycle is about 50 minutes. At about six months of age, REM sleep comprises about 30 percent of sleep. By the time children reach preschool age, the sleep cycle is about every 90 minutes.

For newborns, sleep during the early months occurs around the clock and the sleep-wake cycle interacts with the need to be fed, changed and nurtured.

Newborns sleep a total of 10.5 to 18 hours a day on an irregular schedule with periods of one to three hours spent awake.

The sleep period may last a few minutes to several hours. During sleep, they are often active, twitching their arms and legs, smiling, sucking and generally appearing restless.

Newborns express their need to sleep in different ways. Some fuss, cry, rub their eyes or indicate this need with individual gestures. It is best to put babies to bed when they are sleepy, but not asleep.

They are more likely to fall asleep quickly and eventually learn how to get themselves to sleep. Newborns can be encouraged to sleep less during the day by exposing them to light and noise, and by playing more with them in the daytime. As evening approaches, the environment can be quieter and dimmer with less activity.

GO WITH THE FLOW

The first few weeks of your baby’s life are all about adjustment—for your baby and for you.

It’s simply too soon to expect structured sleep patterns, so it makes sense to take your cues from your baby. Do what works for your baby now, and before long you’ll have the beginnings of a sleep routine.

Every child is different. Your baby’s sleep habits will be different from your friend’s baby, or from an older sibling at the same age.

Build your routines and rhythms around your baby’s sleep needs and patterns. Once you’re familiar with your own baby’s sleep patterns, you can begin establishing regular routines to help your baby—and the whole family—get to sleep and sleep well.

Learn your baby’s signs of being sleepy. Many babies become fussy or cry when they get tired, but others will rub their eyes, pull on their ears, or even stare off into space. Put your baby down for bedtime or a nap when your baby first lets you know he or she is tired.

Follow your baby’s cues. Your newborn may prefer to be rocked or fed to sleep. This is fine for the first few weeks or months. By three months, however, begin to establish good sleep habits.

Always put your baby down to sleep on his or her back. A baby should sleep on a firm mattress, with no fluffy or loose bedding.

After the first few weeks, start to actively encourage nighttime sleep if your baby is awake a lot at night and sleeps much of the day. Do this by making sure the bedroom is dark or dim and cutting down on nighttime play

Have realistic goals about sleep. Your baby will not be able to sleep for long stretches at a time for the first few months.

Make sleep a family priority. It’s usual to be sleep-deprived with a newborn.

But no one benefits if you’re crying from exhaustion while the baby’s crying to be calmed. Tell your spouse (or a friend who’s offered) when you need a break.

And, tempting as it is to use naptimes to get things done, you’ll be able to cope better if you nap when your baby does.

Take the first steps toward a bedtime routine.
The important thing is that it’s built around things that both you and your baby enjoy.
Your newborn’s bedtime routine could include:
Taking a bath
Getting a massage
Changing into pajamas
Rocking and cuddling
Sharing a song
Or whatever works best for you and your baby

Sleep Tips for Newborns

• Observe baby’s sleep patterns and identify signs of sleepiness.
• Put baby in the crib when drowsy, not asleep.
• Place baby to sleep on his/her back with face and head clear of blankets and other soft items.
• Encourage nighttime sleep.

Infants daily sleep requirements:

2-12 months: 14-15 hours

A 3- or 4-month-old is taking three to four naps a day, and a 12-month-old is typically taking two naps a day.

One of the problems answering that question is the definition of “sleeping through the night.”

The original definition in 1957 was a baby who sleeps from midnight to 5 a.m. is sleeping through the night.

Gradually, over the first few months, your baby will begin to develop a more predictable pattern. Between 2 and 4 months, you will notice a regular rhythm of sleepiness and alertness throughout the day.

Between 3 and 6 months most babies begin to sleep for longer stretches at night. In the first year, babies naturally cut down their daily naps from 3 or 4 a day to 1 or 2 a day.

Note that developmental milestones, such as rolling over and pulling up to stand, can temporarily upset sleep

So if you're looking for 12 hours straight, they will be at least 6 months of age until they can sleep for that long without a nighttime feeding.

By six months of age, nighttime feedings are usually not necessary and many infants sleep through the night; 70-80 percent will do so by nine months of age.

Infants typically sleep 9-12 hours during the night and take 30 minute to two-hour naps, one to four times a day – fewer as they reach age one.

When infants are put to bed drowsy but not asleep, they are more likely to become “self-soothers” which enables them to fall asleep independently at bedtime and put themselves back to sleep during the night.

Those who have become accustomed to parental assistance at bedtime often become “signalers” and cry for their parents to help them return to sleep during the night.

Social and developmental issues can also affect sleep. Secure infants who are attached to their caregiver may have less sleep problems, but some may also be reluctant to give up this engagement for sleep.

During the second half of the year, infants may also experience separation anxiety. Illness and increased motor development may also disrupt sleep.

For all children, adolescents and adults, you want a bedroom that's cool, quiet, dark and comfortable.

All babies should sleep on a firm surface. There should be very little bedding in their crib, so that there's no concern about suffocation.

And, of course, all babies should be put down on their backs to sleep to decrease the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

A consistent sleep schedule with set nap times and a set bedtime is going to set their internal clock and make it so they fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. A typical baby bedtime is between 7:30 and 8:30 at night.

One of the key things in getting a baby to have good sleep habits is a bedtime routine.

You want that bedtime routine to be 20 to 30 minutes long and include about two to three activities, which are exactly the same every single night.

A typical bedtime routine may include taking a bath, massaging the baby, reading, singing lullabies.

You want activities that are soft and soothing. Now, if your baby hates taking a bath or can't sit still for books, you want to do that at a different part of the day.

One of the most important things that you want to do as a parent is figure out the sign your baby gives when he or she is sleepy.

Does she rub her eyes? Does she pull her ears? Does she twirl her hair? One baby I knew used to stare off into space.

The mom thought the baby was bored so she would sort of do antics, but, really, that was a sign for the baby that he wanted to go to sleep.

The moment your baby gives you that sign, that's your window of opportunity.

You want to go right away and put them down for their nap or for bedtime.

All babies naturally awaken between three and six times throughout the night.

As they change from one sleep stage to another, they're going to have a normal arousal. The question is whether or not a baby can fall back to sleep on their own.

A baby who can fall asleep on their own at bedtime is a baby who's going to fall right back to sleep when they waken during the night.

The National Sleep Foundation data from the Sleep in America poll found that 46 percent of children are being put down awake in their cribs rather than asleep.

So the majority of children are being put down asleep. But children who are put down awake fall asleep faster and sleep, on average, one hour more at night.

A baby who's rocked to sleep, nursed to sleep, driven in the car to sleep, pushed in a stroller to fall asleep at bedtime is going to need that exact same thing to fall back asleep at 1:00, 3:00 and 5:00 every time they naturally awaken.

If a parent has a baby who's having a difficult time falling asleep or staying asleep, they may choose to do what we often refer to as sleep training. So you do your bedtime routine, you put your baby down awake in their crib and then leave the room.

At that point, you want to check on your child. How often you check is going to depend upon your tolerance as a parent and your baby's temperament.

For some babies, it makes them more upset to check on them than not to check on them.

Every time you go in to check on your child, you want to go in for just a minute or two, be really calm, let them know everything is OK and leave.

It's best not to pick them up, but, if you need to, that's OK, as long as you put them back down.

The first night, they will often fuss (that's our nice way of saying they may be upset) for 30 to 45 minutes.

The second night is going to get worse, because it's sort of "last night was a fluke, tonight I really mean it."

By third night, you're going to see dramatic improvement and, if you stick with it for a week, what you're going to find is a baby who falls asleep very quickly at bedtime and will start sleeping through the night.

The most important thing parents should do when they start sleep training is consistency. If they're consistent, they are going to see a major improvement.

When there are two parents in the household, sleep training always takes some negotiation. You both need to come up with a plan that you're going to stick to.

If there is one parent who can't tolerate any crying by their child, you may want to send them out to the store or to a friend's house, so you can help the baby get over the hump.

The other thing that's important for parents to realize is that they're doing this for the benefit of their baby.

Some parents feel as if they're being selfish. You have to realize that a baby waking three times a night is going to feel as awful the next day as a parent waking three times per night. Also, having a parent who's well rested is going to have huge benefits for babies.

Create a bedtime routine that works for both you and your Infant.

From 6 weeks to 3 months, start creating a familiar sequence of calming events that unfolds night after night and clearly says, “It’s time to settle down and go to sleep.”

Now that your baby’s sleep patterns are becoming more organized, it’s time for a bedtime routine that will fit in with your family’s needs as well as your baby’s needs.

Keep the sequence of events basically consistent even with caregivers or when away from home. It can also be helpful to have parents take turns putting their baby to bed.

Learn your infant’s signs of being sleepy. Many babies become fussy or cry when they get tired, but others will rub their eyes, pull on their ears, or even stare off into space. Put your baby down for bedtime or a nap when your baby first lets you know he or she is tired.

Start developing a bedtime routine. Make sure your routine is not too long or too impractical to stick to. Rock your baby to sleep at 6 months, and you may end up doing the same when the baby wakes in the night—as all babies do for short periods—or even when your little one turns two.

Set a regular sleep schedule for your baby. Settle on regular naptimes and a bedtime that allow your baby to get all the sleep he or she needs. Contrary to what you may think, cutting down on naps won’t help at night. It can be a recipe for overtiredness and a worse night’s sleep. But you’ll also want to avoid naps too close to bedtime.

Give your infant soothing surroundings. Keep the bedroom dark, cool and quiet. And make sure lights and environment, are the same at bedtime as they will be throughout the night.

Wind down your routine where you want your baby to sleep. The last part of the routine should happen in the room where your baby sleeps.

Put your infant to bed drowsy but awake. This may teach your baby to soothe himself or herself to sleep, as well as to go back to sleep in the night on his or her own, with little if any intervention from you.

Make sleep a family priority. Remember, you need sleep, too. If friends and family have offered help, take them up on the offer. Resist as much as you can treating your baby’s naptime as your chore time. Take a nap when your baby does.

Avoid making bedtime feedings a permanent fixture. They rarely help either how long or how well your baby sleeps. And after 6 months nighttime feedings are rarely necessary. Move a bottle or nursing time earlier in the evening, to avoid the association between eating and sleeping.

Create a consistent bedtime routine you and your infant enjoy, this could include: • Develop regular daytime and bedtime schedules
• Create a consistent and enjoyable bedtime routine.
• Establish a regular “sleep friendly” environment.
• Encourage baby to fall asleep independently and to become a “self-soother.”
• Develop Taking a bath routine
• Getting a massage routine
• Changing into pajamas routine
• Hearing a story routine
• Sharing a song routine
Or whatever works best for you and your infant

Is It Possible to Reduce Your Sleep by 3 Hours, and Have More Energy in Your Life than When You Slept 8 Hours or Longer?

What Would It Be Like to Have 27 Hours in Your Day Instead of 24?

There’s actually a method to optimize your body’s inner sleep system to sleep less, and have more energy in your life than when you slept LONGER. Sleep expert Kacper Postawski spills the beans in his fascinating new ebook “Powerful Sleep.”

While most people think sleep is just “sleep,” it is actually a complex and fascinating system which you can OPTIMIZE in order to sleep less, and create an abundance of energy in your life.

In this fascinating new eBook, Kacper Postawski shares with you:

* The four most important elements which your inner sleep clock relies on to determine when to sleep, how long you sleep, and how energizing your sleep is. Discovering these principles will allow you to gain a firm understanding of how to gain control over your sleep and daily energy level.

* How to optimize your Inner Sleep Clock so that it's possible for you to reduce your sleep by up to 3 hours, and increase the quality, and power of your sleep (If you don't do this, you will do more damage to your body than good by sleeping less.)

* What really happens to your body while you sleep? While most people think sleep is just "sleep", your body is busier when you're sleeping than when you're awake. The inner sleep system is a complex mechanism which is affected by many things you do on a daily basis. (Most of them you're not aware of). This is a key understanding to optimizing your sleep.

“Powerful Sleep - Secrets of the Inner Sleep Clock” can show you how to reduce your sleep by up to 3 hours, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by sleeping LESS! Not more. This system dispels the “8 hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know. Go to: www.PowerfulSleep.com to find out more about Powerful Sleep Aids.

Get your free copy of Optimum Health Lifetime Sleep Cycles with sleep aid tips for all ages and a Bonus Section on how to prevent kids sleep problems as well.
Sleep Cycles Free self help Book

A - Z Dream Meanings: How to interpret your dreams when you finally do get to sleep!
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