Sleep is incredibly important for babies. It impacts their long-term brain development, behavior regulation, and capacity to deal with life on a daily basis. However, there are many misconceptions about this topic. How important is sleep for babies?
Development Begins With Sleep
First of all, we need to think of sleep as brain activity. While we usually consider sleeping an inactive state, it is actually a time when all of the body’s energy is concentrated in the brain.
The brain gets to work consolidating the day’s experiences and healing and renewing whatever the body needs to heal and renew.
This brain activity is especially true, and necessary, for babies. For a newborn, 50% of their sleep is composed of REM, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep.
REM sleep is when a person is asleep, but their brains are busy consolidating all of the past lived experiences. In a way, this is when the brain processes the data it received while the person is awake. Dreams happen during REM sleep.
For a newborn, every experience outside of their mother’s womb is a new lived experience. As a result, they need a considerable amount of sleep every day so that their brains can process all these new experiences and organize them.
This process allows babies to understand the new world around them and file away these understandings for future use.
How Scientific Is Sleep and Baby Development?
A study by Nat Sci Sleep in 2017, reviewing ten independent studies on sleep and infant development, shows that sleep is important across the board. These were their main findings:
Sleep is when infants get to take a break from all the new sensory experiences they are having. They are no longer receiving sensory signals, and can now process what they received while they were awake. This lessens the possibility of overstimulation as they grow.
More sleep in infancy is correlated with better long-term memory in school-age children. Sleep is when an infant learns how to fix images and experiences in their minds, leading to better object permanence (they know something exists even when they cannot see it) in the future.
Infants who slept less than 12 hours out of 24 were more likely to gain weight in an unhealthy way by 3 years of age. One of the observations was that these infants automatically took in more kilocalories (kcal) per day because they were awake, up to around 50 kcal more than their counterparts who slept 12 hours or more in a day.
While the science on sleep and infancy is generally new, beginning around the 1980s, the results are generally consistent across the board. Let us now look at what kind of sleep, specifically, is important for a baby’s development and growth.
What Terms are Sleep Coaches Using?
If you are considering a sleep training coach, or if you are simply in hot researching mode about babies’ sleep patterns, here are a few terms you should know. Ultimately, as the parent, you make the decisions about your baby’s development and sleeping habits.
REM sleep. Rapid Eye Movement sleep is when our brains consolidate the day’s experiences and process them. It is also when we dream. An infant’s sleep is composed of 50% REM sleep, compared to an adult’s 25%.
NREM sleep. Non-Rapid Eye Movement sleep is when our brains focus on resting and restoring energy to the whole body. An infant’s other 50% of sleep is NREM, compared to an adult’s 75%.
Melatonin is also called the “darkness hormone.” It is produced when there is less light, making us sleepier. For the first 3 months of life, infants do not produce this hormone. As a result, day and night are fair game to them when it comes to sleeping times.
Homeostatic process. The homeostatic process is what makes us sleepier the longer we are awake. It allows our bodies to regulate our need for sleep by naturally knowing when our bodies are overtired. For infants, because sleep is a necessary brain activity, it happens in extremely short cycles of 3-4 hours of sleep at a time and sometimes even shorter bursts of awake time.
Circadian process. As infants grow into children and then into adults, they will begin to discover their Circadian rhythms. These are the rhythms of sleep and wakefulness that differ from individual to individual. In the earliest months of infancy, the baby does not have a Circadian rhythm. The body regulates sleeping and eating according to the baby’s immediate needs until they grow older and begin to recognize nighttime and daytime.
Object permanence. Object permanence is when a baby knows that their parent exists even when they do not see them. One of the main causes of separation anxiety in very young children is a developing sense of object permanence. Parents can begin to foster object permanence for their infants by giving them quality time and attention, and then leaving the room and coming back almost immediately, soothing and letting the infant know they are there. The sense of security that their parent or primary guardian will reappear is important in the development of object permanence.
Separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is a blanket term used to describe the distress of an infant when they are separated from their primary guardian or caregiver. It can happen even if a child already has object permanence. One way to lessen separation anxiety is to spend quality time with the infant right before bed, cuddling and talking to them. Reading to them, even if they might not understand what you are saying at that stage of life, is an easy way to spend time without over-exhausting yourself even after a long day.
Self-soothing. Over time, babies learn how to soothe themselves back to sleep. However, and this is important, babies learn how to self-soothe from the soothing of their primary caregivers. A pleasant voice and a gentle patting or rubbing hand in the first few months create memories for the baby to draw upon if they become anxious when they wake.
Before you wade into the deeps of sleep coaching or training, it is a good idea to release some of the myths and misconceptions about sleep and your baby.
What Are Some Myths and Misconceptions About Infant Sleeping Patterns?
The most important detail to remember is that each baby is different. You may need a different approach, sometimes even a different bedtime routine, for each one. Every baby is unique, and they dictate their own starting point of sleep training.
BBC Future looked into the science of sleeping patterns for infants and identified what is most important and what is least important to know. This may take some of the stress or pressure off your shoulders. Here is what they discovered.
The most important thing is how much sleep an infant gets in a day
Even the experts disagree about how much sleep an infant should get in 24 hours. Most recommendations average between 14 to 17. Other studies have shown that as few as 11 hours do not seem to harm the baby, and as many as 19 hours do not make a significant difference.
What is sure is that given a secure and peaceful environment, an infant’s body will cause the baby to sleep and wake according to its needs. The number of hours is negligible, as long as the conditions are peaceful.
What does this mean? Scientifically, there is no hard and fast rule about sleeping schedules for infants, especially when they are below 4 months old. They do not need to sleep a number of hours at a time, they do not need to sleep through the night, and they do not need to sleep and wake at certain times.
This does not mean it should not be done! Managing infants’ sleeping patterns is important in helping parents maintain their energy and manage their own moods, both of which are needed in helping babies learn how to self-soothe. However, managing infants’ sleeping patterns is very different from stressing over these patterns. Your stress over strict schedules and routines may be what is distressing your infant and making it difficult for them to fall asleep easily.
Night wakings are not a source of concern
Even adults, teenagers, and children wake in the middle of the night. However, especially for adults, it barely registers for us. Unless we went to relieve ourselves an unusual number of times in the night, or there was anything that startled us while we were on our feet, we are unlikely to remember that night waking in the morning.
Infants sleep around 3 to 4 hours at a time, and wake to feed or experience the world around them in between those moments. This is perfectly normal for them, especially if they are below 4 months old. They are getting exactly as much sleep as they need, at exactly the times they need it. If they are unusually wakeful, or they startle awake often with only 1 to 2 hours of sleep, you may need to consider if their environment supports their sleeping time. If it does not, you may need to consider what could make their environment more peaceful or secure.
What Are Some Healthy Ways to Get Infants To Sleep?
Every infant is different, but that does not mean you can’t equip yourself to help your baby organize their sleep patterns. Here are a few trips and tricks you can apply. See if they work for you, and remember to give yourself and your infant a lot of space to learn!
Tip #1: Check if your baby needs comfort or just food. Some parents move immediately to feed their baby, knowing they are likely to calm sooner. However, sometimes the infant just needs a little soothing to go back to sleep or to stop fussing.
Tip #2: Plan a nap schedule, even if you won’t follow it right away. Your infant might not nap in a routine, but they will grow into it eventually. Even if you are still following your infant’s napping and waking schedules for the first three or four months of life, having a routine in mind will help you nudge them closer to it as their waking and sleeping times become more regular and predictable.
Tip #3: Have a going-to-bed routine. When you start to know your infant’s sleepy signals, you can begin their going-to-bed routine. It might consist of holding and rocking them, although you will want to put them in the crib before they are fully asleep so they can get used to falling asleep there. It might consist of playing a certain kind of music, or lowering the light. Although the infant’s body will not produce melatonin in their earlier months of life, they will recognize the time-to-sleep signals. In the long run, you can use these signals when their bodies are more responsive to light and darkness.
Tip #4: Check for self-soothing before responding, but go ahead and respond if your instincts are telling you to. In the long run, over time, your babies will learn how to sleep through the night without waking you. Studies have also shown that there is no clear difference in the long-term sleeping habits of babies who are sleep-trained and those who are not.
Here are some other health-based tips you should remember, although your doctor may have told you about them:
Place the baby on their back, to avoid breathing or suffocation issues. Placing a baby “prone,” or on their stomach, may increase sleeping time but it is more dangerous for the baby.
Do not use overly soft bedding or soft toys, especially anything that can move or bunch up around the baby’s nose and moth. They are not yet coordinated enough to clear breathing spaces for themselves, so you will need to do it for them.
Remember, you are the person the baby depends on the most for their safety and security, and babies fall asleep best in a safe and secure environment. Let your baby dictate their sleep pattern starting point, don’t stress about comparisons with other babies, and give yourself space to learn and discover the best way to support your baby’s sleep needs. You’ve got this!
Thank you for taking the time to read this article !