Sleep disturbance in children is associated with many difficulties for parents. Sleep can be disturbed to varying degrees for a more or less long time. If a child does not sleep well, the functioning of his nervous system is at risk.
The child does not sleep well at night
Troubled baby sleep
During sleep, the formation of a child's body occurs. It is when a child is sleeping that stable neural connections are formed in his brain, which are responsible for memory, attention, and intelligence. During sleep, the baby's unique personality is being formed. In order for all these processes to take place harmoniously and harmoniously, the child needs a calm and sound sleep.
Baby sleep rates
The duration of children's sleep varies depending on the age of the baby. Its rhythms are not subject to the time of day. Having eaten, the child calmly falls asleep, and when hungry, he wakes up crying.
In the first months of life, the duration of REM sleep is 60 to 80% of the total rest time. By one year, the duration of the rapid resting phase is less than half.
Important! The sleeping child's breathing is irregular, he can move his limbs. This is normal and should not be a cause for concern.
Newborn
In the first days of life, a newborn sleeps for a significant part of the day. The first 2 weeks sleep duration is 20-22 hours. All this time, the child sleeps intermittently, because he does not distinguish between the change of day and night. Periodically, he wakes up to eat.
Newborn sleep
Over the next two weeks, the child's sleep time decreases slightly to about 20 hours.
1-3 months
During this time, sleep duration begins to decrease. At the age of 1-2 months, it is 16-18 hours a day. At night, the baby can do without feeding for up to 6 hours. During wakefulness, the baby actively explores the world around him. By the end of the third month of life, babies sleep for about 16 hours.
6 months
By the age of six months, night rest becomes the main one for the child. The total duration of sleep is about 15 hours. Of these, about 9-10 hours are spent on night sleep and about 6 hours on daytime sleep (and during the day the baby sleeps several times for 1.5-2 hours).
By about 9 months, the baby's sleep time is reduced to 12 hours. The daytime sleep also decreases.
Year
Up to one year old, a child needs approximately 11 hours to sleep. This time includes 2 day breaks.
Dream of a one year old child
Causes of poor sleep in a child
A restful sleep in a baby indicates good health, the correct daily routine. If he often wakes up, shudders, you should understand the reasons for the disturbance in rest.
Physiological
The physiological reasons include the peculiarities of the change in sleep phases. During the fast phase, which accounts for about 70% of the total duration of rest, active eye movement and increased breathing occur. The kid sees dreams, the information received in the brain is being processed. This is why he can wake up often.
Important! It is the physiological characteristics of childhood sleep that are the reason that it is intermittent and restless.
One of the common causes of unstable sleep in a baby is hunger. In this state, he cannot sleep. With severe hunger, the stomach spasms and causes severe pain, from which the child wakes up.
Other physiological reasons:
- growing teeth (it is at night that the pain caused by teething is most severe);
- intestinal colic;
Colic in a child
- drops in blood pressure due to changes in weather;
- the development of a post-tonic reflex (the child has a strong desire to sit down, which makes him wake up in the middle of the night);
- development of the urinary reflex (the urge to urinate may be accompanied by crying);
- violation of the drinking regime.
Psychological
The most common cause of poor sleep in a child is emotional overload. If the baby is overworked or overexcited, it will be very difficult for him to fall asleep. Sometimes he can toss and turn in bed for a long time.
The emotional state of the mother is very important for normal sleep. If for any reason she is nervous, this negatively affects the well-being of the baby.
The baby can be lonely in his bed, in such conditions he does not feel protected. Sleeping next to mom is much more comfortable for the baby. So he feels her warmth, heartbeat, smell. The presence of the mother nearby acts on the baby as a sedative.
Temperature and mode
Children's sleep is influenced by temperature and daily routine. Such factors negatively affect it:
- Heat or cold;
- Stuffiness in the room;
- Violation of sleep and rest.
Other reasons
Poor sleep in a baby can be caused by such pathological reasons:
- Violation of nasal breathing. Most often it gets worse due to the presence of crusts or the development of an allergic reaction.
- Congenital narrowness of the nasal passages.
- Lack of vitamin D3. It can manifest itself in winter. The first signs of a deficiency of this vitamin are poor sleep and moisturizing of the palms.
Note! Due to the climatic features of central Russia (high cloudiness and lack of sunny days), vitamin deficiency can be even in summer.
- Lactase deficiency. Children can have it as early as one month old.
- Reflex Moro. With a noise, a change in body position, the child spreads the limbs, then brings them together.
Reflex Moro
- Any somatic pathology - acute respiratory viral infections, dermatitis, etc. One of the most common reasons a child begins to push and cry is constipation.
Tips to Improve Your Baby's Sleep
To improve children's sleep, you need to follow these recommendations:
- Make sure your baby is well fed, clean and healthy.
Important! If the child feels discomfort, malaise, hunger, he will whimper, grunt and twirl until the unfavorable factor is eliminated. The mother's voice is the best soothing for eliminating crying or screaming.
- Noisy games, fun are prohibited before bedtime. It is better to transfer them to the morning. Quiet games are allowed in the evening. A warm bath is very helpful.
- The sleeping place for the baby should be comfortable.
- It happens that the baby often wakes up. For children under one year old, waking up in the middle of the night is absolutely normal. If the mother is worried and anxious about every waking up, negative emotions will be passed on to the child. Then falling asleep will be a real problem.
- A friendly atmosphere should be maintained in the home.
- The kid should eat well during the day, so as not to wake up from hunger at night.
- At the first sign of fatigue, restless behavior, the child should be put to bed.
Restless baby behavior
When trying to establish a baby's sleep, you should never do such things:
- wake him up, even if it's time for feeding or performing the recommended procedures;
- no need to walk on tiptoe or talk in a whisper (the baby should get used to the presence of standard sounds in the premises);
- feed the baby at night after reaching 9 months of age.
Tips
If the child does not sleep well both day and night, you need to make sure that he does not have the following symptoms:
- a sharp decrease in the total amount of sleep;
- prolonged falling asleep;
- often repetitive movements: rocking, twisting of the blanket;
- the child has "glass eyes" when he does not recognize the parents;
- inability to touch the baby;
- body bending;
- convulsions.
In these cases, you need to show the baby to the doctor as soon as possible.
There are many reasons why the baby began to sleep poorly at night. Not all of them are associated with pathological changes in the body. If you experience any suspicious symptoms, you should see a doctor as soon as possible.
