Babies often spend most of their time sleeping every single day. While it’s one of the fastest growing stage for the infants, it’s necessary for parents to pay attention to baby’s sleep. You might ask - What are the common sleeping facts? How to make sure your baby sleeps well? In this blog, let me clear all the question clouds for you.
Learn some sleep facts, develop a plan and implement it. Here are some facts:
- Infant sleep cycles are about 45~60 minutes.
- Babies spend 50% of their sleep in active Rapid Eye Movement(REM) sleep.
- Babies can take as long as 20 mins to reach deep sleep.
- Ideal nap length is typically 1.5-2.5 hours.
- Infant sleep begins to settle around the 3-6 month mark.
- Sleep through the night is an ambiguous term.
If you haven’t had good night’s sleep since your baby was born, you are not the only one. Your baby will have their own pattern of waking and sleeping, try to sleep when you baby sleeps. It’s totally okay if you are not sleeping at the same time as your baby, a little bit of noise is allowed and it’s good to get your baby used to it.
Teach your baby that night time is different from the daytime. During the day time, let your baby play with toys, open the curtain, talk to your baby in a normal volume. In the night time, do things such as keep the lights off, talk quietly, stop playing with your baby, don’t change your baby’s diaper unless you have to. In this way, you baby will learn that night time is for sleeping and not for playing.
Limit the length of naps during the day. I know it’s already hard to put a baby into sleep, but it will be worse if your baby gets enough sleep and won’t sleep during night time. If the baby sleeps past 2-2.5 hours, go wake your baby up and play with the baby for a while, then lay him down for another nap. This will help your baby get a better sleep during the night time.
Let your baby sleep on the back. Healthy babies should be placed on their back for naps, short periods of rest and sleep at night. “Sleep on the back” position was found to lessen the risk of SIDS(sudden infant death syndrome) in babies. Changing the direction of the baby in the crib so that they don’t have to always view the same things in one direction.
Make sure the baby sleeps in the same room. Your baby should sleep in the same room with you, but your baby has his own crib or bassinet for at least 6 months. This might help decrease the risk of SIDS. If you are worried about baby getting injured by the crib while they rolling, try to install crib bumper pads - which are cotton pads that go around the edge of the crib - to protect your baby’s head and body.
Now you know how to help your baby get a better sleep and hopefully you will get more sleep too, check our Biloban crib bumper pads, 100% breathable and hypoallergenic microfiber, which will protect your baby from putting their arms and legs through the crib slats, or hitting the head by the slats, you won’t worried about any of those so you and your baby can both get all night’s good sleep.