Many parents complain about sleepless nights associated with a child's poor sleep. At the same time, scientists have proven that a baby can sleep without waking up for 6-8 hours, starting from the age of two months, if nothing bothers him. To teach a baby to sleep at night, you need to attend to this issue immediately after birth.
For a child to learn how to sleep at night, you need to understand how the night's sleep goes. And it consists of two phases - a phase of REM sleep and a phase of deep sleep, which alternately replace each other. Newborn babies do not know how to tie them together, so they often wake up at night.
To teach a child to sleep at night, it is necessary to teach him to combine fast and deep sleep. If you do not do this even in infancy, then it will be even more difficult to accustom your baby at a later age.
When the baby is born, be sure to follow the following guidelines:
- try to organize a separate sleeping place for the child in his bed (or even better - in a separate room), where he will not be disturbed by unnecessary noise, light and other factors unfavorable for falling asleep;
- Create a bedtime ritual for your baby (for example, bathing, hygiene, dressing, feeding, reading a story, falling asleep);
- do not jump at every rustle at night and do not take the baby on the arms at the first call - give him the opportunity to try to sleep on his own (of course, you cannot make the child wait too long, bursting into tears);
- if the baby cries, eliminate the cause (wet diaper, tummy pains, hunger), shake him a little on the arms, try to put him back to bed, sit next to him, stroke him and again let him fall asleep on his own);
- organize the regime so that the baby does not fall asleep at the breast or with a bottle, food should not be associated with sleep;
- despite the fact that many doctors do not recommend using a pacifier, a healthy sleep of the mother is no less important for the baby, therefore, some children (especially those who are bottle-fed) need it in order to satisfy the sucking reflex;
- do not turn on the light in the child's room at night if he woke up - he should understand even in infancy that this is not the time for games;
- cultivate patience in the child while awake - this way he learns to fall asleep at night on his own, without waiting for your participation in the process of combining the phases of REM and deep sleep.
By following these instructions, you will be able to teach your child to sleep at night without waking up for more than 6 hours by the age of three to four months. Having taught the baby to connect the phases of sleep at such a young age, you will provide him with invaluable help, because his sound sleep and sleepy mother are the key to his full development.
At an older age, it will be somewhat more difficult to teach a child to sleep at night, however, most of the listed recommendations will help to do this much faster and without any special problems for the baby's psyche.
