With each new day, the life of children begins to become more active, the required amount of sleep per day decreases. Babies sleep almost the whole day, a seven-month-old baby 9 hours a day vigorously explores the world around him. During this period, not many children can fall asleep on their own; most require parental control. To understand when to put their babies to rest, parents need to know how much a 7 month old baby should sleep.
Sleep less by 7 months
Sleep duration at 7 months
According to statistics, sleep in children at seven months should last about 15 hours a day. Parents should remember that this is averaged data, and all children are unique. Therefore, sometimes boys or girls can get more or less sleep.
At night, babies at 7 months sleep for about 11-12 hours. Babies who have been artificially fed may wake up a couple of times during the night to refresh themselves. Those who are breastfeeding can wake up at this age almost every hour. That is why nursing mothers prefer to sleep with their children.
During the day, children sleep on average 3-3.5 hours. All waking hours include walking, feeding, playing, getting ready for bed, and falling asleep. Each time the activity should not exceed 3 hours.
At 7 months, there is a transition to daytime rest, now the child needs 2 naps for an hour or a little more. This transition takes place within a couple of weeks, for this, parents need not to drastically change the child's regime. For each baby, this is a period that runs in its own way, so children can sleep as much as they want.
Still, they try not to let children be active for more than 3 hours. If you do not follow these intervals, you can skip the moment when you need to go to bed, after which it will be much more difficult to put the child to sleep.
Children are put to bed at the first sign of fatigue
Day and night rest
Important! If a boy or girl has been taught to fall asleep with the breast, then he will not immediately wean, and will demand this ritual.
By how much a child sleeps at 7 months, parents can judge his healthy development. Daytime rest hours are less than nighttime, in general, children are 7 months old. sleep three times a day:
- A short morning rest - about an hour.
- Sleep continues a little longer after lunch.
- Sometimes there is a rest in the evening, about half an hour or a little more.
The seventh month of children's life is the time of transition to 2-day naps. The period goes by about two weeks. Parents shouldn't worry if their baby doesn't meet these deadlines. Dr. Komarovsky says that the process of switching to a new regime is important, because it promotes healthy development, teaches children to discipline and organization in the future. You should not do it abruptly, because sometimes children get used to the new regime only by the age of 9 months. This moment is always unique. However, the closer the sleep indicators are to average rates, the better development will be.
So, during the day, the baby sleeps 2-3 times, including a short morning and evening rest. Night is the time when he rests more and more and wakes up less and less. Normally, children sleep 10.5-12 hours. Sometimes they may never wake up all night for feeding, right up to the morning hours. This often happens in children who are able to fall asleep on their own and who are fed at least 5 times a day according to a routine. Even with the introduction of a clear regime, there is no guarantee that children can sleep all night, because everyone has a different sleep process.
Daytime rest includes morning and evening hours
To make it easier for parents to understand how much a 7-month-old child is sleeping, they can compare his sleep with the average data on the sleep rates of children of different ages.
Sleep rates at 7 months
| How many months / years | How much should sleep (in hours) | How many hours of sleep during the day | How many hours sleep at night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 month | 16-20 | 10 | 5-6 |
| Up to 3 months | 15-18 | 4,5-6 | 8-12 |
| Up to 6 months | 15-18 | 3-4,5 | 11-12 |
| Up to 8 months | 14,5-18 | 3-4 | 11-12 |
| Up to 9 months | 14-16 | 2,5-3 | 11-22 |
| Up to a year | 14-15 | 2,5-3 | 11-12 |
| Up to one and a half years | 13-14,5 | 1,5-2,5 | 11,5-12 |
| Up to 2 years | 13 | 1,5 | 11,5-12 |
| Up to 3 years | 12 | 1,25-1,5 | 10,75-11 |
Parents can use the data in this table to understand how much sleep their boy or girl should have. At the same time, they should know that these are average indicators of the norm, for each these data may differ slightly, both up and down.
In order not to stray from the average indicators of the norm, parents can make sure that the baby is awake for 3-4 hours in a row. In between, he is put to bed so that he gets used to the regime. If this period is missed, the baby may start crying, which will change the period of night sleep.
Features of sleep at this age
Note! Often in the seventh month, babies can be naughty and cry, which may be the result of lack of sleep. At this age, children begin to understand that they are capable of much: they try to get up, sit down, touch everything around and do not know what to do with themselves. It can also interfere with falling asleep, so parents calm the baby and distract his attention from extraneous things and sounds while laying down to rest.
The presence of a mother at this age is mandatory
The developmental period from 7-7.5 months is rather calm. At this time, the baby already understands that sometimes some objects must be nearby. The simplest example for him is his closeness to his mother. He knows that mom can be both close and away, that he will not like it. From here comes the fear that mom might go and leave him. Such fears can have an impact on the restful sleep of the baby, and therefore on his development.
To prevent this, mothers try to choose places for play so that the baby can always see where she is. They also always tell him where they are going and what they are doing, in case of childish tantrums, they do not rush to calm him down (this can only strengthen such a reaction), but calmly explain that mom is nearby. So that the baby is not afraid to fall asleep, the mother is also next to him and explains where she will be when the baby wakes up, so that he is not afraid to be alone in the room.
In addition to this important developmental moment, it is also important to pay attention to other features that affect the sleep of children at 7 months:
- During this period, rest at night lasts from 7 hours in a row. If the baby sleeps longer, it means that he is able to fall asleep on his own.
- In autumn and winter, with the arrival of cold weather, the body of children begins to rebuild, and because of the internal processes of thermoregulation, the baby can sleep longer than usual. In order for the regime to remain normal, parents try to maintain the desired temperature in the house.
- If before the baby fell asleep quickly during daytime walks, now he will get tired much more slowly. He will be interested in everything that happens around him.
- Children begin to learn not only the world around them, but also themselves. New skills can unknowingly manifest during sleep, so parents monitor the safety of their children during rest. They can crawl or sit down.
The kid has become more active, which means that it is more difficult to put him to sleep during the day
Causes of sleep problems
Any caring mother understands that this age is a very important moment in development. With each new month, the duration of sleep will change, so you need to make sure that the child has enough rest, and at the same time he does not stay awake for too long. It is not enough to monitor only how much a child should sleep at 7 months a day; it is also important to pay attention to the reasons that affect the quality of rest or hinder it. All of them are divided into two groups: those that prevent the baby from falling asleep, and those that make him sleep anxiously.
Reasons that interfere with sleep:
- Unformed regime of the day. Small children, unlike adults, still do not know how to go to bed on their own, and even more so to understand when it is time to do it. In the absence of a regimen, they will not learn to do it on their own, so parents should understand the importance of introducing it. If the baby has gone too far or has been awake for a long time, he will be capricious and have difficulty falling asleep. Then the parents try to calm the little one and put him to bed, the next time they prepare to put him to bed when the first signs of fatigue appear.
- Developed habits that make the baby fall asleep. For example, he is used to falling asleep on his hands or from motion sickness. Gradually, it is necessary to wean boys and girls from such rituals so that it is easier and faster for them to fall asleep themselves in the future.
- Something can interfere with the baby's sleep, distract noise, light. The windows are closed, the curtains are drawn. Sometimes the lack of oxygen interferes with sleep, so it is advised to ventilate the space before going to bed. If the air in the room is too warm or dry, the mucous membrane in the nose will dry out and it will be difficult for the baby to breathe.
- Sometimes moms expect their babies to get more sleep in the morning if they get them to bed later. In fact, children will only fall asleep worse.
Causes of anxious sleep:
- The cause may be pain - teething or tummy worries. These symptoms may make sleep more disturbing, and the baby may wake up and cry frequently.
- Uncomfortable clothing - tight, tight seams or restricting movement - can cause dissatisfaction and anxiety.
- Often the reason can be an emotional component, when children have experienced too vivid emotions in a large number during the day, or they are worried about something. Resentment or lack of attention also affects sleep quality. This also includes the fear of distance from mom. Children are very close to mothers and can adopt their emotional mood.
Sleep problems can affect healthy development
Additional Information. From 3 months of age, an internal biological rhythm begins to form, and the child may subsequently turn out to be a "lark" or "owl". If the regime created by the parents does not coincide with the internal biological cycle of the baby, then it may be moody.
In other cases, sleep problems can arise from pathological health problems. For example, abnormal crying can be difficult to relieve by any means, unlike normal crying. If parents believe that their child has pathological reasons for unhealthy sleep, it is better for them to seek the help of a doctor.
So, parents monitor how much a child should sleep at 7 months, for which they introduce a regime or a smooth transition to daytime rest. At night, the rest should gradually become continuous, during the day the baby is laid 2-3 times (including morning and evening). They try not to let them be active for more than 3 hours in a row, and also monitor all the conditions for comfortable sleep.
