Bedtime: How to help your baby get restful, restful sleep

Up to 3 months, children have a sleep that is far from predictable and comes and goes all the time. “Babies have short sleep periods and don’t know how to tell day from night”, explains Márcia Pradella-Hallinan, coordinator of the pediatrics sector at the Unifesp Sleep Institute, in São Paulo. Like the little ones, adults also wake up several times during the night, although more sparsely. But while older people fall back to sleep so quickly they don’t even remember it, babies enter a restless, light sleep phase where they can kick, grimace, and even moan and cry. But all this activity is soon followed by a calmer, deeper sleep. During the night, they transit between the different phases, experiencing short awakenings between them. This does not mean that they have woken up for good or that they are suffering or in pain.

“Most parents are scared when they see the little one squirm, cry or babble and run to help the child. It is important for them to know that these are physiological awakenings and that they will soon go back to sleep. A worrisome awakening always brings associated signs: vomiting, cough, hard stomach and gas production and fever are some of the most common. If there is no clear indication of these symptoms, as a rule it is a waking up that is consistent with the period of life he is in”, says Fernandes.

Intervening when the child is in active sleep and in this semi-alert state can actually wake him up completely, preventing him from finding his own sleep rhythm🇧🇷 And if she wakes up, she’ll end up associating that after light sleep, it’s time to wake up, instead of relaxing and falling into a deep sleep. “Worse, using some strategy to get her back to sleep, like putting her in a stroller or rocking her, can make her get used to that stimulus and it becomes a habit. Then, later, if the baby is not taken care of, the parents can have a ‘dance’”, warns José Hugo de Lins Pessoa, from the Sleep Center of the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics.

Pessoa claims that parents still don’t have enough knowledge about babies’ sleep. “Mainly, that it is necessary to teach them to sleep and to get a night’s sleep alone and that this is done with the institution of a ritual when going to bed.” When this does not happen, a vicious circle is formed, which leads not only the little ones but also the parents to suffer from sleepless nights. “Nowadays it is difficult for many parents to establish a routine because they don’t have one themselves due to the pressure of work. We see parents arriving home later and later and wanting to spend some time with their children, babies sleeping later and later, children being overstimulated at inappropriate times, just to name a few examples. With all this, parents show up at the doctor’s office complaining that their child doesn’t sleep well. It couldn’t be different”, warns Fernandes.

According to Anna Price, a researcher at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, at the Royal Children’s Hospital, in Australia, if the baby does not have a peaceful night’s sleep, the whole family loses out. “The couple, usually the mother, becomes more anxious, exhausted, and the reflexes are soon seen in the marital relationship. Ensuring a good night’s sleep for the baby is ensuring the parents’ well-being“, he says. For Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in the United States, there is a direct association between parental well-being and baby sleep. “Studies show that when parents imagine that the baby is in some way stressed or suffering, he has more trouble sleeping.”

When it comes to children, experts say, it’s common to see parents creating their own behaviors based on the old precepts of trial and error and instinct. But patience, discipline and especially consistency, they say, are essential to ensuring your child gets a good night’s sleep. “The experience of raising a child can be fascinating, happy and exciting or terrifying, confusing and overwhelming. The difference between the two is a good night’s sleep,” says Brazilian Suzy Giordano, author of the book 12 Hours of Sleep with 12 Weeks to Live (Zahar).

Click on the image below and check out the experts’ tips for teaching your baby to fall asleep alone: