The newborn sleeps almost all the time. Time passes, and the six-month-old baby is more and more awake. How much should a baby sleep at 6 months?
Sleeping baby
How much does a half-year-old child sleep
Sleep is very important for babies. If for an adult it is just a way to restore strength, then for a small child it is one of the foundations of proper development. After birth, the baby can sleep 18-20 hours a day, this is absolutely normal. The older she gets, the more the activity time increases.
The average amount of sleep in six months is about 14 hours. Of these, about 10-12 hours is taken by rest at night. It is believed that in the sixth to seventh month, the baby can sleep for 7 hours in a row. There are children who, waking up at an inopportune hour, turn over on their side and fall asleep further. This plays into the hands of parents, as their child gives them a rest for the whole night. There is no continuous sleep for more than 7 hours in a row at this age.
Baby sleeps at night
In theory, a baby can sleep for so long without awakening. This is a skill that can be learned from this age. In practice, few people fit this theory. At 6 months, the baby is still very dependent on food, therefore he wakes up every 3-4 hours for feeding. Under no circumstances should one try to forcefully curtail these awakenings.
There are children who need less sleep. This usually depends on the character. Sanguine and choleric people wake up more often at night, sleep less during the day, and generally have fewer hours of rest. It is not dangerous if the baby feels good.
Be careful! If the baby wakes up too often at night, is capricious, eats poorly and loses weight, you need to visit a pediatrician. Perhaps the child is tormented by growing teeth, maybe the cause of poor sleep is some other, more widespread.
Sleep rates of a half-year-old baby
A normally developing child, like an adult, has sleep phases:
- The first dream, immediately after falling asleep, heavy, deep. Mom can note that at this time there is an opportunity to leave the room, even make a little noise - the child sleeps without reacting to it.
Deep dream
- After about half an hour or a little later, the transition to another phase of sleep, superficial, begins. The child “emerges” from a state close to oblivion and sees dreams (a person dreams of something during the entire rest period, but only remembers that it will fall into the REM sleep phase). The sounds of the environment at this moment are intricately woven into them, loud or harsh can wake up the baby.
These two phases replace each other throughout the rest period. One such shift constitutes a cycle.
Important! If a mother finds out that her child wakes up day and night after 30-40 minutes from falling asleep, you should consult a neurologist. This means that the mechanism of sleep has not yet been established, and during the transition from primary deep sleep to fast, superficial crumb wakes up. This is not a pathology at six months from birth, but you need to see a doctor. He will give advice on how to properly teach a little person to independently move from one phase to another.
The next norm for proper sleep is the division into daytime and nighttime rest periods. At six months, the baby must sleep during the day. An adult does not need such a rest - he gets tired more difficult. For a child, even just looking around for a long time is tiresome. A young, fragile psyche is more difficult to cope with an abundance of impressions, but the baby is still mastering the movements of his own body. For the parent, this is the same as lifting a heavy barbell for three hours in a row. So sleep in the daytime for a baby is very important. Its norm is a rather vague concept, but what it should be is a fact.
Daytime sleep
Rest during the day is needed. What should it be? How much should a 6 month old baby sleep in a day?
The general norm for sleep in the daytime at six months, approved by pediatricians and neurologists, is from 2 to 6 hours, divided by 2-4 times. Usually babies sleep three times, each time for an hour and a half. Moreover, the middle daytime sleep is longer, morning and evening sleep are short. Rest for more than 6 hours during the day is highly discouraged, as it directly affects the night's sleep.
Daytime sleep at home in the crib
Children at such a tender age have one interesting tendency. The fewer times they sleep, the longer the dreams. So, if a newborn baby can sleep a lot for 40 minutes, a six-month-old usually reduces the number of dreams, increasing their duration. By the age of one and a half, the baby will sleep once, but 2, or even all 3 hours.
There is no clear framework when a child should have, for example, two dreams. When planning the day, you need to focus on the baby. So, if he favorably accepts the reduction of one rest break during the day, and is not overexcited by the night, then he is ready to update the regime. When, with two daytime dreams, the child is capricious, eats poorly, and, as the mothers say, "walks around" to the crown of the head, then with the transfer of time and live on with a schedule of three daytime naps.
In the ideal case, the baby does not care where exactly he falls asleep, if in a familiar environment. With six-month-old babies, you can still go for a walk outside for sleep, while it is light, to combine fresh air, rocking the stroller for a better rest. You can put to sleep at home.
Sleeping in a stroller
Attention! A one-time refusal of a child from one daytime sleep does not mean that he needs to be removed. It is necessary to think about the correction of the regime if such a tendency persists for several days in a row without external reasons.
Night sleep
Rest at night is the foundation of child development. It is during the phases of deep sleep in the dark that the body produces growth hormones. Children with disorders of the rest regime are usually seen immediately - they are smaller and weaker, therefore, parents need to monitor the child very closely in this regard.
A 6 month old baby usually needs about 10-12 hours to sleep at night. This time is divided, as in adults, into cycles. The total length of one such cycle is shorter - from an hour to an hour and a half. An adult, going through a change of cycles, does not wake up, but the child has not yet mastered this skill. Usually, the transition from shallow sleep to deep sleep goes smoothly, but when transforming in the other direction, the baby wakes up, feels fear or hunger and crying speaks of discomfort to the parents.
The kid woke up at night
What are sleep phases and how are they useful:
- Deep sleep is the time to clear the brain. Decay products are actively removed from it, the brain processes signals received from internal organs. By the way, during this period, a person dreams too, but they are not remembered.
Deep sleep phase
- Superficial sleep is a phase in which consciousness is partially involved. The brain starts processing "digital" data, that is, emotions, impressions, sensations. At this time, the eyeballs are actively moving. In babies, due to the still fragile psyche, movements of the limbs can be observed, which can cause a wake-up call. External sounds can also wake up, since at this time the brain processes both accumulated and incoming information. Since sleep scientists and neurologists unanimously declare the benefits of this phase of sleep for brain development, measures must be taken to prevent the baby from waking up.
Interesting fact. Some of the sounds heard by a person in REM sleep, as it were, are embedded in the dream that he is currently seeing. People of all ages experience this. This phenomenon is a clear illustration of the benefits of this phase of sleep - the brain learns to adapt to external conditions.
Sleep rate table
If you average the norms of children's sleep, you get such a table.
Children's sleep table
| Time of dreams | Number of dreams | Duration | Awakenings | Total sleep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In the afternoon | 2 to 4 | From 2 to 4 hours (up to 6 is allowed) | No | About 14 hours |
| At night | 1 | 10-12 hours | 0-2 |
Parents should remember that these are averages. There is an individual rate that is easy to calculate. To do this, you need to write down the total duration of children's rest in five days, then summarize the results and divide by 5. The number of hours of sleep that is required for a particular child is obtained, it is worth focusing on this amount. For the purity of the experiment, the test should be carried out only if the child is healthy, and not during the vaccination period.
Important! It is not necessary to adjust the baby to the average rate. If parents are tormented by doubts and suspicions about the duration of their crumbs' sleep, you need to contact a neurologist for advice.
Why does the child not sleep
Healthy sound sleep is a habit, a skill. For the baby to develop it, parents must help him. For this, a set of rules has been created, taking into account the notes of Dr. Komarovsky:
- Sleep should proceed according to the regimen. It is set by the parents, and it must be followed. If it should start at 21.00, then strictly at this time, they extinguish the light and begin laying down.
- The place to sleep should feel familiar. And in the case of a night's rest, the same thing: your bed, your parent's. Variations are possible during the day.
- During the day, you need to strictly observe the duration of dreams no longer than 6 hours, otherwise the baby will sleep now, and at night it will start "walking".
- You should feed your baby better at night so that sleep does not interrupt the feeling of hunger.
- The air should be healthy - moderately humid (this is 50-70% humidity) and not hot (temperature - about 18 degrees is optimal for sleeping). You don't need to wrap your child up. Either one slip-man or a thin bodysuit and a blanket is enough.
- Do not forget about bath procedures at night. They enable the child to throw out the rest of the energy, get new impressions, this, in turn, helps to sleep soundly. By the way, if possible, the evening bath can be replaced with a pool, where the baby will get even more tired. At the same time, such a procedure will better strengthen his muscles.
- The child must be tired. To do this, you need to walk more, not limit the baby in movement.
Walk in the fresh air
- Massage is also important. It can be used as a preparation for sleeping in the afternoon. Good kneading of the baby's body is similar in effect to a pool. So the mother can do the massage herself, then immediately go for a walk outside with the baby. He will sleep.
- The place to sleep should be right. The mattress in the first year of a toddler's life should be moderately tight. It is unacceptable that it sag under the weight of the calf. A pillow is not needed in the first year (if parents use it, then only a thin, slightly thicker pillowcase). Bed linen should be odorless. A stroller is usually supplied with a thin mattress; a pillow for the stroller is not needed at all. If it is possible to raise the headboard of a child's vehicle, then it must be used. Only the angle of rise should be small.
- You do not need to additionally rock the baby, hiss, or carry it on handles. If he is sick or overexcited, then you cannot do without it. Normal laying should be mostly self-contained.
- A special ritual should be developed that will help the baby 6 months old. fall asleep. For him, it will become a kind of signal - it's time to sleep. Let's say this is a feeding, a lullaby or a fairy tale, turning on a night light. It is better to select an algorithm that can be easily recreated anywhere. This will facilitate the task of laying the crumbs, for example, at a party. The child will develop an association for sleep and will fall asleep easily.
- It is important that a good diaper is used for sleep. Desirable - proven disposable. Their absorbency is better than reusable ones. The diaper should instantly remove moisture from the baby's priests and not leak (for this, you need to carefully monitor the size and kilograms, as soon as the crumb goes to the next size in kg, you need to switch to it).
- At night before going to bed, you need to maintain 4-5 hours of wakefulness.
Children's doctor Komarovsky
Healthy baby sleep is the key to baby's development. It is not difficult to achieve it if you monitor the health of the baby and his well-being. A soundly sleeping baby is the cornerstone of parenting peace and relaxation.
