Sleeping well is a physiological need for a child, a good sleep allows babies a good physical and mental development. But toddlers have a very different sleep from that of adults, to respect it well it is important to know it well.
Between 0 and 2 months, the newborn does not yet know the difference between day and night, he still needs to eat during the night and he sleeps between 16 and 20 hours a day. The child’s sleep is divided into successive cycles of about 50 minutes (instead of 90 in adults), so the child can stay asleep for several hours, but he can also wake up and cry between each cycle... Each of these cycles is made up of a phase of agitated sleep during which the baby makes sudden movements, funny faces, breathes noisily, emits some noises, it is the sign of an intense cerebral activity. Then comes the phase of calm sleep where he seems to be deeply asleep, his features are relaxed, his breathing is calm, we have the impression that the sky could fall on our heads without baby waking up! It is during this phase that the cells regenerate and the brain secretes the famous growth hormone.
From 2-3 months onwards, restless sleep turns into REM sleep (phase where dreams occur) and the sleep cycles become longer. The calm sleep phase turns into slow wave sleep, which will become more and more important as the child grows. Then the child will learn to recognize the day and the night and its periods of awakening will be increasingly long, particularly at the end of the day, period when This is called "discharge periods" where the child evacuates its stress.
Between 6 and 12 months, the child sleeps 10 to 12 hours a night and sleeps much less during the day. The older the child gets, the closer his sleep is to that of an adult, but it is not until he is 5 years old that they will be identical.
Whatever the age, in order to encourage the child to sleep and not "wake up" between each sleep phase, it is important to respect calm and darkness.
Leave a comment