Sleep is one of the baby’s main activities. Immediately after birth, it sleeps almost all the time, waking up for eating alone. As time passes, sleeping needs begin to decrease while increasing activity. So at 2 months of age, he spends about 16-18 hours a day in sleep, 9-10 of them at night.
It should be noted, however, that the baby and subsequently the child in early childhood and preschool age have a much greater need for sleep than adults. They need an average of 10-11 hours of night sleep. That means bedtime is not to be done in the evening after 20 hours so that sleep can be as complete as possible.
But what is the dream for the baby?
1. The rapid development of the baby ‘s nervous system requires time to recover. The young organism receives a huge amount of information daily that its immature yet nervous system needs to process. For this purpose, it needs a sufficient amount of sleep. So she is resting and ready to learn more new things.
2. Sleep is important for baby’s growth . It’s no accident that he spends so much time sleeping. It has been found that at least 50% of the baby’s time should be in a state of deep sleep to grow healthy and happy.
3. According to the studies, poor sleep in breastfeeding is associated with an increased risk of obesity afterwards. When we eat, the fat cells produce a leptin hormone that sends signals to the brain to stop eating. This regulates appetite. It is found that sleep affects the secretion of this hormone and the children continue to feel hungry. So irregular and unhealthy sleep leads to increased appetite.
4. Sleep helps to fight the baby with infectious agents . The reason is that during sleep a number of biologically active proteins are involved in the fight against infections. Therefore, insufficient sleep disturbs the baby’s protective power. It has been shown that children who do not sleep enough are three times more vulnerable to viral infections than common colds.
5. Sleep reduces the risk of developing behavioral disorders . It has been shown that children who sleep less than 10 hours per night up to 3 years of age, three times more often suffer from hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit disorder.
6. Sleep reduces the risk of accidents . In case of insufficient sleep, the child becomes more distant and the risk of accidents and injuries increases significantly. According to one study, 91% of the trauma in children occurs when the sleep is insufficient.
How to create conditions for a good and healthy sleep?
In the first few weeks, even months, the baby does not have sleep and wakefulness. It usually feeds on demand and sleeps for the rest of the day. After a while, however, his activity increases . It starts to spend more and more time awake. Then it is important to build a regime. The easiest way is to create a sleeping ritual . It includes a series of repetitive actions to show the baby that it is time to sleep.
It is important to observe a certain time to start the ritual of sleep. It should start with a game or activity that calms the baby. Usually, then, the baby is advised to bathe. After the bath follows the massage , which should stimulate blood circulation and improve blood supply to the muscles and skin. At the same time, the massage leads to calming and is a sure sign for the baby that it follows sleeping time. Then you can read a fairy tale or sing a song. It has been shown that building a sleeping tirouus greatly facilitates this process, as the baby gradually begins to associate every action with sleep.
