Baby Nutrition

If you have just had a child, you must be realizing the importance of sleeping at night. As soon as you put your head on the pillow and are just about to drift off to sleep, your new-born starts wailing. Bone-tired and weary, you have no option, but to go to him and be there till he feels secure enough to go back to sleep. The only consolation that can be given here is the fact that almost all the new parents have to go through this particular problem. However, following the right steps and sticking to them can help you put your baby in a sleeping routine, gradually, and ensure you that precious good nights’ sleep. In the following lines, we will tell you how to make your baby sleep at night.

Ways to Get Baby to Sleep through Night

Daytime Activity
Try to make your child indulge in some kind of activity in the day. Keep him engaged by talking to him, playing with him, singing songs to him, and so on. Make sure that he is exposed to light and normal household noises. This makes the baby know that the daytime is meant for activity. At the same time, the stimulation will help your baby in getting better sleep at night.

Pre-bedtime Routine
Establish a pre-bedtime routine for you baby. This involves soothing activities that make him relaxed. You can bathe him in lukewarm water, sings lullabies or read stories to him. If you play bedtime music, try to stick to the same tunes. Make sure that the pre-bedtime activities are not stimulating for the child. Following the same things daily will get your child into a sleeping pattern.

Create the Right Ambience
The right ambience goes a long way towards helping your child to sleep at night. Make sure that his sleeping room is dark and quiet, away from the slightest of interruptions. Even the hum of a dishwasher or dryer can interfere with the sleep of your baby. When you prepare him for sleep, talk in hushed tones, use dim lights and make calm movements.

Make Sure Baby is Awake
Put you baby to bed when he is drowsy, but still awake and not fast asleep. This will help him associate his bed with the process of falling asleep. At the same time, try to ensure that your baby takes all of his naps, even in the daytime, in his bed only. This way, whenever he is put down in bed, he will know that it is the time to go to sleep.

Give Time
Remember that most of the babies create a bit of fuss, like crying, before going off to sleep. So, don’t pick him up as soon as he creates the first noise after being put down to bed. Wait for a few minutes and if the crying does not stop even then, speak to him calmly, stroke his back and reassure that you are there. However, do not pick him up. This will make him feel secure, while making him aware of the fact that crying will not cancel his sleeping routine.

Do Not Panic

A baby is bound to wriggle, squirm and twitch in his sleep. This is perfectly normal and is bound to happen with your child too. Do not rush to his aid as soon as he makes the first fussing noise. Wait for a few minutes. It might be possible that he is just settling down for sleep. However, if you feel that it has been going on for considerable period of time, go to him and reassure that you are there.

We all know that babies have varying sleeping patterns. They require much more sleep in comparison to adults. On an average, babies under the age of three months sleep nearly twice as much as their parents. Moreover, half of this takes place during the daytime. Newborn babies or infants do not sleep for a very long stretch at a time, as they need to wake up for small feeds. Up to three months, babies sleep in cycles through the day, with longer spells at night. Though the duration of the cycle varies from baby to baby, a normal baby sleeps for about two hours at a time in the day and four to six hours at night.

Just like any other adult, babies also experience different phases of sleep. There are different levels of sleep that we switch over to and from, such as drowsiness down through light sleep and dream sleep into deep sleep. This is basically a cycle, following which we come back up again through dream sleep and light sleep to the surface, before going down again. This sleep cycle holds true for both babies and adults and occurs about five times a night. On a biological note, these sleep cycles appear in babies even before they are born.

While the baby is in dream sleep, his eyes dart back and forth under his eyelid, which is known as REM or Random Eye Movement. The rest of the body still appears to be still, except for occasional twitches or irregular breathing. On the contrary in a sound sleep, the baby breathes deeply and regularly. Mostly the body is quite still at such times, it may occasionally make little sucking movements with her mouth or "startle". These sudden jerks of the whole body are known as hypnagogic startles and are completely normal.