Crying babies can be a lot to handle
Image credits:nualaimages (not the actual photo)
This man’s ways of sleep training their 13-month daughter left her mom worried sick
Image credits:amenic181 (not the actual photo)
Image credits:ThrowRA_MamaForever2
Newborns don’t have a regular sleeping schedule, which means neither do their parents
Image credits:Sarah Chai (not the actual photo)
The first weeks with a newborn can be quite confusing for many reasons, one of which is their sleeping habits. While they do tend to wake up every few hours, they are not yet able to do much more than eat, sleep, relieve themselves, and repeat, which is why it might look like they sleep quite a lot. And that can make it seem like getting them to sleep won’t be that difficult later, too. Right? Well, not necessarily.
When it comes to babies, sleeping is way more complex than shutting off at night for however many hours it takes you to recharge. That’s because they’re only starting to familiarize themselves with the world and that includes sleeping patterns, feeling tired, the difference between day and night, for that matter, and all that jazz.
According to theSleep Foundation, until they hit the three-month mark, newborns tend to sleep for 11 to 19 hours a day, depending on each child. But during the first months of their lives, they do not follow a sleep schedule that is linked to the time of the day, forcing their parents to forget about theirs, too. Instead, they take naps spaced throughout the day, each approximately one to four hours long, to get some rest.
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The reason newborns don’t follow a similar day-and-night-dependant sleep cycle as adults do is because they are born without a strong circadian rhythm—a biological clock in the brain that synchronizes these daily cycles to one’s external environment.
The Sleep Foundation suggests that a child’s sleep starts to consolidate at around two months old and they might start sleeping through the night between the age of four to six months; it is recommended to wait until that time at least before attempting to sleep train the little one.
There are gentler approaches to sleep training than the ‘cry-it-out’ method
Image credits:Ryutaro Tsukata (not the actual photo)
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