Newborn babies sleep between 16 to 20 hours a day, but harried, sleep-deprived parents are unlikely to appreciate their tenuous hours of reprieve during baby's daytime naps. Mayo Clinic experts state that newborn babies sleep only in short increments--around 1 to 2 hours at a time--waking suddenly, without warning. Parents can rest assured that the sleeping cycle of their infant will soon change, with longer stretches of sleep occurring around 3 months of age.
Why Do Babies Sleep So Much?
For the first half-year of his life, an infant's sleeping hours are divided roughly equally between the day and night, as his internal clock has not yet developed, says KidsHealth.Org. Newborns typically wake up whenever they get hungry, but if they don't, they should be roused every 3 to 4 hours for feedings during the first 2 weeks of life. The most parents of a newborn can hope for is a stretch of sleep that lasts between 4 to 5 hours--this is the amount of time the newborn can go without food.
Why Do Babies Wake Suddenly?
The sleeping cycles of babies and adults is different. Sleep cycles are comprised of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) or "deep" sleep. REM is a lighter stage of sleep, during which time you're more likely to wake. Each night, adults go through four to six complete sleep cycles that last from 90 to 110 minutes, spending around 75 percent of their time in NREM sleep. Babies complete a full sleep cycle every 50 to 60 minutes, spending only 50 percent of their time in NREM sleep, says the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Being in REM sleep more frequently, infants can wake up at any moment--and they often do. By the age of 10, a child shares the same sleeping cycles and percentage of REM and NREM sleep with his parents.
Longer Sleeping Times
As as infant grows, so does the length of her sleeping cycle. Kidshealth.Org notes that by 3 months of age, babies typically shift their sleeping hours to 5 hours during the day and 10 hours during the night. Roughly 90 percent of infants in this age group sleep 6 to 8 hours at a time during the night--making it possible for parents to get some good shuteye, too.
Encouraging Healthy Sleep
Fostering good sleeping habits is healthy for both infant and weary parents. Mayo Clinic experts suggest using strategies to facilitate a better night's sleep by keeping the infant active and stimulated during the day and making sure that naps don't linger on for long periods of time. The nightly bedtime routine should consist of calming activities, such as bathing, reading or cuddling--things the infant associates with sleep. The infant should be placed in his crib, on his back, when he's just nodding off so he can learn to master independent sleep.
Disrupting Sleep
Certain maladaptive parenting techniques can interfere with your infant's sleeping cycle, warns an April 2008 "Time" magazine article. A study conducted by Valérie Simard of Hôpital de Sacré-Coeur in Montréal, Canada, indicates that well-intentioned parents who stayed with children until they fall asleep engaged in co-sleeping, or offered children food or drink whenever they woke resulted in sleep difficulties in babies as young as 5 months of age. "Giving food or drink to the child may be an appropriate answer when he awakes at night during the first months of life," Simard said. Parents who continued to engage in these practices with infants 29 to 41 months of age resulted in preschool-aged children with disrupted sleep cycles, bad dreams and overall shorter sleep times.
