Happy Sleep Habits for Infants
The Importance of Sleep
Written by Prof. Avi Sadeh
Body Maturation
Sleep is a basic physiological need required for physical recovery, reinvigoration, body growth, brain maturation, learning, and memory. Chronic and sustained sleep deprivation can lead to exhaustion, physical damage to body tissues, dysfunction of the immune system, severe stress and even death.
The growth hormone, the one responsible for a baby’s physical growth, is secreted mostly during the deep stages of a baby’s sleep. A severe sleep disorder could, therefore, lead to insufficient secretion of this hormone and to compromised body maturation.
Brain Growth
When a baby suddenly becomes active during sleep — her breathing becomes uneven, her eyes dart from side to side, and she smiles and grimaces – it means she is in a unique stage of sleep — Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This stage is associated with dreaming. Babies spend as much as 50 percent of their sleep in REM sleep, which is very important for brain maturation, learning, and development. A baby is born with about 30 percent of her full brain size, and during the first 3 years, the brain grows very rapidly — to almost its full adult size. It is believed that REM sleep is an essential stage that facilitates brain growth, which is why babies spend so much time of their infancy in this unique sleep stage. We also know that during REM sleep, the brain “digests” and stores all the information that bombards a baby during the wakeful hours. Disruptions to their REM sleep could lead to the compromised learning of all the smart things we teach our babies when they are awake and alert.
Time to Sleep
When babies don’t get enough sleep, or if their sleep is disrupted, they tend to be very agitated, nervous, hyperactive, and difficult to manage or soothe. Most parents experience these situations when their baby reaches the time she needs to go to sleep. These signs present important information for parents, telling them when their baby is ready for sleep. Many parents know that when they miss their baby’s sleep time, it could become much harder for her to calm down and fall asleep. This is because their baby, like an adult, has an internal biological clock that makes it easy to fall asleep at certain times, and difficult to fall asleep at others. Keeping to a regular schedule and a relatively constant bedtime helps the baby (and her parents) to regulate the biological clock and develop healthy sleep habits.
Sleep
Written by Dr. Luis Rivera, Diplomat of Philippine Pediatric Society
“Good sleep is essential to a baby’s growth and development. It is expected that on their first year of life, babies should sleep between 11 and 18 hours a day, and during this time have growth hormones actively working on their physiological and emotional development at three times the normal rate.
A baby who doesn’t get enough good sleep will exhibit very real developmental problems that may include hyperactivity, aggression and learning difficulties. His physical and mental growth may also be impeded, and he may experience more behavioral problems and a reduced ability to pay attention and concentrate.
According to Dr. Luis Rivera, a Diplomat of the Philippine Pediatric Society, Fellow of the Philippine Society of Sleep Medicine and a Pediatric Consultant for Makati Medical Center and Asian Hospital, “Sleep for babies is not just rest for the body. It assists in brain development, proper learning and, to a certain extent, social adjustment. And since our growth hormones are released during sleep, the child is given developmental and growth values as well. Poor sleep can impact growth—they become stunted, or thinner, or smaller, crankier, and they develop slower.”
Dr. Rivera further explains, “What a baby really needs is good sleep, which is really nighttime sleep.”
Quality and duration of a baby’s nighttime sleep have a greater impact on overall growth and development than daytime sleep according to studies. At night, a baby’s brain development kicks in at full speed, as neurons grow and develop at an accelerated pace. This allows the child to develop cognitive and organized thoughts that allow him to learn and unlearn all the sensory input he encountered during his waking hours.
One of the best treatments for sleep problems in children is to adopt a regular bedtime routine that will signal the transition from wake to sleep for the child.
Bedtime routine
A good way to develop healthy sleep habits is to adopt a baby bedtime routine. Consistently practice it every day because, according to studies, babies as young as a few weeks respond well to bedtime routines.