Babies are active sleepers. Their eyes move; they squint; they moan; they
gurgle; they smile; they mumble and grumble. This is normal and expected.
You'll understand why by reading on!
Instead of using non-REM and REM for children, doctors and scientists categorize
the two as quiet and active sleep. Scientists believe that active sleep patterns
develop in children even before they are born in the 6th or 7th month of
pregnancy and quiet sleep patterns develop in the 7th and 8th months of
pregnancy. (This is interesting to note for premature children and their sleep
problems). They also note that in the uterus, during an active cycle, babies
practice breathing, whereas in quiet sleep, they do not. The older the infant
gets the less active sleep she needs. It
appears, then, that active sleep is vital, so perhaps that's why so much
importance is placed on active sleep in the uterus and, as you'll see,
Infants' sleep patterns and cycles differ greatly from those of adults.
Infants spent about 50% of their time in active sleep while premature infants
spend 80% of their time in active sleep (as opposed to 20-25% in adults). The
other 50% are spent in quiet sleep, but it's not as deep as an adult's. Infants
don't reach stages III and IV of quiet sleep like adults do. Also, when infants
are in their quiet sleep, their brain waves aren't a steady flow of waves but
short bursts.
Infants' sleep cycles usually last 50 minutes (unlike the 90 minutes of an
adult). In their first few months of life, infants will often slip directly into
active sleep something that adults never do. Another difference between
infants' sleep patterns and adults is that infants have sleep patterns that last
throughout the 24-hour period. These are called polyphasic sleep periods. Can
you imagine a functioning adult drifting off to sleep every 50 to 100 minutes?
Adults have one sleep period that lasts about 8 hours.
By the time an infant is three months old, she will have developed all four
stages of quiet sleep, and by the time she is six months old, she will spend
most of her time (70%) in quiet sleep, coming closer to an adult's bio-rhythms.
It won't be until your child is a toddler, though, that she will almost match an
adult's sleep habits. Interestingly, people of advanced age go back down to
three sleeping stages, not experiencing StageIV or sleep.
Have you noticed that your child, after just an hour of sleep, often stirs and
is restless? This is because she has probably just completed one cycle and is
coming out of quiet sleep. Adults do it every night. We wake up, pull up the
covers, turn around, and adjust the pillow .. whatever. But if somebody came to
our side and said, Hey, do you need something? we might totally wake up and
have trouble getting back to sleep.
Because we're so in tuned to our children (especially new parents), we sometimes
rush to their bed, wondering why they're waking. Most children will grumble,
move around and get back to sleep if left to return to sleep. At this stage in
sleep, sleep terrors and sleep walking may happen as well (covered in Chapters 8
and 9). In that case, your child might need your aid. Again, though, a child
arousing after about an hour is natural.
By understanding this, you can
understand that your child can be left to fall back to sleep. Especially when
you know for the first few years of life, this will be happening a lot!
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"New Book Reveals Breakthrough Baby Sleep Secrets
Frustrated Parents Must Know To Practically Guarantee Your Child Sleeps
Peacefully Almost Every Single Night!"
Amazing
Baby Sleep Secrets
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