Newborn babies can sleep between 14 and 18 hours a day. As you grow older, this period begins to decrease. But even during the periods when he sleeps the most, his sleep time does not exceed 4 hours. Therefore, parents need to wake up frequently. Although children who turn 1 year old have a calm and regular sleep throughout the night, sleep disorders may occur at a rate of 10%. There are physiological reasons for these. Sleep problems may occur as a result of ear infections, urinary tract infections, fungi, milk allergy, and breathing difficulties. But there are behavioral factors in most sleep disorders.
What should you pay attention to in order to regulate your baby's sleep?
Baby's biological clock: Babies cannot establish a healthy circadian clock until 12 weeks. They may not realize that the night is for sleeping and the day is for living. For this, you can wake your baby at the same time in the morning. You can do the work you do during the day together and go to the places you need to go together so that your baby can understand what sunlight means. It is also very important to protect yourself from artificial lights at night. The correct functioning of the melatonin hormone depends on this.
Hunger: 3-6 month old babies will wake up at least once for feeding, even if they sleep for 5-6 hours. You can breastfeed your baby just before going to sleep. You can give foods that will keep you full throughout the night. This will provide you and your baby with an uninterrupted sleep pattern.
Before bedtime: The games you play with your baby before bedtime increase their excitement. If he is just learning to crawl or talk, he will continue these attempts before going to bed. New research has found that babies who look at a lot of screens also activate the nervous systems that keep them alive. Therefore, until 2-3 hours before bedtime, the environment should be calmed down, artificial lights should be reduced, and games that increase excitement and curiosity should not be played.
Sleep back: We adults also wake up many times at night and go back to sleep. We don't even remember these little awakenings. Your baby may not have learned this yet either. When he wakes up and doesn't see you next to him, he may show separation anxiety. But sometimes your baby just makes noises or cries in his sleep. If you woke up You can fall asleep after 1-2 minutes. If you try to put your baby back to sleep without making sure that he is awake, you will actually be the one waking him up.
Comforting: The things you do when you try to soothe your baby and put him back to sleep may not be soothing for the baby. Talking to your baby and using colorful and interesting objects will improve your baby's sleep. You should check whether the methods you use to soothe are actually relaxing.
Regularity: Your baby should wake up at the same time of day. This is very important for the baby to regulate his biological clock. Sleeping time at night must also be determined. Your child must understand that it is time to sleep. For this, it would be useful to create certain routines at night. A warm shower, singing lullabies and relaxing games can help you and your baby. You can also carry these routines into the daytime. In this way, your baby can get the necessary clues and understand more quickly what behavior he should show and when. If his sleep pattern is disrupted, you should increase the duration of his afternoon nap or wake him up earlier in the morning if he sleeps too much.
After a certain period of time, you should encourage your child to sleep on his own. A regular and balanced life will also solve sleep problems. Even if you show that you are with your child when he wakes up at night to prevent him from experiencing separation anxiety, not talking, not making eye contact and not moving too much will help him fall asleep faster. If you force your baby to sleep at meaningless hours, you can negatively change his attitude towards sleep. This may mean problems falling asleep in the future and the identification of failure with sleeping.
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