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Your baby needs a lot of sleep, day and night. Your baby's sleep rhythm is very different from yours. It also changes a lot the first year. What does your baby's sleep rhythm look like and what changes can you expect? And how many hours can a baby sleep in a row? You'll find out in this article from baby store Keekabuu.
Your baby's sleep rhythm differs greatly from yours. Your baby sleeps a lot and often. Exactly how much sleep is needed varies from child to child and from age to age. Also, some babies fall asleep more easily than others.
Sleep is important for your baby. This period of rest ensures healthy growth and proper brain development.
For all babies, they sleep in blocks of 50 to 60 minutes. Such a sleep block is also called a sleep cycle. A sleep cycle begins with active sleep. During this, your baby sleeps shallowly. Your baby often still makes noises, breathes rapidly, moves and even has his or her eyes open occasionally. During active sleep, he or she wakes easily to sounds.
In the middle of the sleep cycle, silent sleep begins. Your baby moves almost nothing during this sleep phase and sleeps more deeply. Your little one also wakes up less easily.
When deep sleep ends, your baby wakes up or a new sleep cycle begins. A night or long daytime sleep consists of several sleep cycles in succession. In between, your baby may wake up. Has a good sleep rhythm developed? Then your baby "glues" the different sleep cycles together. Your baby sleeps on without noticing. This is the same with you.
During the first year, your baby sleeps about 12 to 16 hours a day. Your baby's sleep rhythm changes regularly during this year. Below is an explanation of sleep patterns by age. These are guidelines. Every child is unique and has its own sleeping pattern. Therefore, keep watching your baby to find out what is needed.
It is possible that your baby sleeps more or less than average. Do you notice that your baby is growing well and is happy? Then you can assume they are getting enough sleep. A listless, tearful, unhappy or tired baby could probably use more sleep.
For the first few months, your newborn baby sleeps an average of 14 to 17 hours per 24 hours. But it can vary from 9 to 20 hours. The number of daytime naps still varies a lot. Your baby usually sleeps no longer than 2½ to 4 hours at a time during this phase. This is especially true for the first 6 weeks.
The reason for this is that the stomach is still small. Your baby drinks very little at a time. So new feedings are needed quickly. Even at night, your baby will wake up every few hours. Therefore, there is no difference between day and night for your baby. Life consists mainly of eating, sleeping, being awake for a while, and sleeping again. Your baby can now be awake for about 1 to 2 hours.
To get your baby used to the day and night rhythm, it is smart not to make a lot of noise and light at night. Sometime between 6 to 8 weeks, the sleep rhythm changes. The day and night rhythm begins to come into play and your baby sleeps longer and longer at night.
From the 4th month most babies already have a reasonable day and night rhythm. This is mainly due to the fact that less night feeds are needed. On average, your baby now sleeps 13 to 15 hours a day. In these months, your baby can sleep for 8 hours or more at night. But not all babies do this at this age. During the day, your baby still sleeps 3 to 5 times.
During this period, your baby also begins to sleep deeper. Waking up will no longer happen so quickly. From now on it is a good idea to follow a fixed sleep ritual before bedtime. Consider reading a book or singing a song at bedtime. It will calm your baby and let him know it's almost bedtime.
Around 4 months, there is a chance that your baby will suddenly start sleeping worse again. This is called the 4-month sleep regression. It has to do with a major developmental leap: your child discovers that you are two separate people. Because of this, your baby starts to understand that you can go away. And that takes some getting used to. Your baby may now not fall asleep properly without you. Fortunately, this is usually temporary and this phase lasts only two to four weeks. Cuddling, rocking, soothing and carrying probably do a lot these weeks.
On average, your baby sleeps about 12 to 15 hours a day during these months. A good sleeper may sleep 9 hours or more in a row at night. There are also plenty of babies who don't sleep as long and sleep for 5 or 6 hours at most.
During the day, your baby now usually takes two to three more naps. Are they short naps? If so, there may be more. You probably notice that your child is ready for naps at about the same time every day. These times vary from child to child and also depend on your rhythm.
In these months, your baby learns many new things. Think about sitting, rolling over and crawling. Your child has a lot to process. Because of this, falling asleep without you will (temporarily) be more difficult. Your baby may also start dreaming more during this period. Maybe your little one wakes up crying sometimes and sleep becomes more restless.
Around 10 months, your baby still sleeps an average of 12 to 15 hours a day. A good sleeper can sleep about 11 consecutive hours at night. About 3 hours of sleep is still needed during the day. Also, your child may now be awake for 3 hours at a time. The more daytime sleep there is, the fitter your baby will start the night. The night then goes more smoothly. Therefore, between 9 and 12 months, most babies need two more daytime naps.
Between 13 and 18 months, your baby still sleeps 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours. Perhaps the time has come to give up the morning nap. However, it is important to keep an eye on your child and its sleep behavior. After all, every child is different.
Does your baby sleep well at night and does falling asleep during the first daytime nap become increasingly difficult? If so, this may indicate that it is time to switch to one daytime nap. Still, there are plenty of children 18 months or older who do still sleep twice during the day.
You can't always do as much about it if your baby sleeps poorly. However, you can make sure the sleeping situation is as pleasant as possible. In addition to a regular sleep routine, the following things can help for a good sleep rhythm.
Bonus tip: Use a sleep trainer which quickly gets a baby into the right sleeping rhythm
A baby sleep trainer helps get a baby to sleep. For example, they play lullabies or project shapes on the wall, which calms a baby down. Moreover, they also feature soothing tunes that help the baby fall asleep sooner. In this way, you can build a sleep rhythm for both children and babies.
If you want the baby to be in a deep sleep faster, you can use our suggested sleep trainers use. Keekabuu has looked through years of experience and many tests to find the best sleep trainer for babies. From this research, we have carefully selected a collection of sleep trainers that we feel are responsible to use. In this way, we are always confident that our loyal customers will always have access to the best baby and toddler articles have.
