How To Teach Your Child To Sleep Through The Night?

It is natural for a baby’s sleep to be fairly light during the first few months of life. However, there are a few things you can do to help them sleep better. Check them out below.

Sleeping through the night is one way of speaking because in reality it is not. A baby who wakes up several times a night is a perfectly normal baby. Many parents would like to teach their child to sleep like this “all night”, but no adult sleeps like this.

An adult does not sleep “all night”, contrary to what is often thought. A normal adult’s sleep cycle includes several awakenings in a night, after which he returns to sleep.

A baby can spend 17 hours a day sleeping, including alarm clocks. So there is not much to teach them about sleeping well, on the contrary, they know how to do it very well!

What do we need to know about children’s sleep?

Sleep is a natural process in every human being.  In the newborn’s brain, sleep cycles last 3 to 4 hours  . This is what a  study published in the  Bulletin of the Pediatric Society of Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and León .  The point is that when awake the little one cannot find a way to fall asleep again and cries.

During the 9 months he was in his mother’s womb, he spent a good part of the time asleep. He alternated between sleeping and feeding through the umbilical cord. When he woke up he heard his mother’s heart and voice. Then he would go back to sleep. When he is born, we can literally say that he wakes up.

The newborn wakes up, cries and after eating, goes back to sleep. This is how all newborns spend their days. If the baby is breastfed, he will have digested the milk about 20 minutes after a meal. If he is not breastfed naturally, it will take a few hours for him to digest. Then he wakes up and searches for his mother again to start the cycle again.

My baby was sleeping, but not anymore …

During the first two months of a baby’s life, sleep tends to be quiet. But from the third or fourth month, it becomes lighter. This is when the baby wakes up more often. Many mothers are blamed for this, believing that they have not taught their babies properly, when this type of sleep is normal for all babies who develop their sleep cycles.

At eight months, the baby’s sleep reaches all phases (the 4 phases of slow sleep and the phase of rapid sleep). However, it does not yet have the duration or periodicity of adults. However, some children do not always have the length or periodicity of adults, as this  article published in  Primary Care Pediatrics  .

At three years of age, a child’s sleep is the same as that of an adult. But it is only from the age of 5 or 6 that the child will have overcome all the difficulties to sleep through the night.

What to do to sleep through the night?

It is normal for parents to wonder if they are doing the right thing, if something wrong is happening to their baby because he cannot sleep and is crying. However, an atmosphere loaded with worry, anxiety and tension is the worst case scenario for getting to sleep through the night.

There are methods like Estivill’s and Ferber’s that recommend letting the child cry until he calms down. Indeed, after having cried so much, at some point, he will fall asleep because he will be tired of waiting for someone to come and take care of him. See if this option is right for you and your child.

For Dr  Rosa Jove, author of the famous book  Sleep without tears , letting a baby cry generates emotional shock. The hormones that regulate emotions are altered and the baby is taught that complaining is meaningless because his mother will not answer his call.

Pediatrician Carlos Gonzalez, known for his books like Kiss Me A Lot , How To Raise Your Children With Love , explains that when the baby wakes up and cries for his mom, he waits for someone to come and take care of him. If the mother arrives, the baby learns to have her calls answered.

On the other hand, parents are asked to limit contact with their children and that they do not force themselves to console them, because this “educates them badly”. It is quite normal for children to wake up at night and want to be comforted so that they can go back to sleep.

How to help your child?

After many nights with many awakenings, you are tired and want “something” to help you and your child sleep through the night. We know that it is not easy to appeal for calm. But if you’re okay with respectful upbringing, you know the solution is to not let your baby cry.

Here’s the basic recommendation: wait until your child grows and regulates their cycles. Even if you are told that this or that method has worked for that baby, it may not be the case with your child. In the daily dynamics with your baby, you will discover what works for you.

However, establishing a few habits will help promote the calm your child needs before sleep. Here are a few :

• Take a lukewarm bath before going to sleep.
• Avoid games or bright mobiles in the cradle or bed, as they awaken his attention.
• If they are over two years old and watch TV or play on the tablet, make sure they don’t use it for more than an hour a day.
• When a child is very tired, it will be more difficult for him to fall asleep. This is why the nap is a very good remedy.
• If he doesn’t like the dark or is afraid of it, leave a night light on.
• Avoid getting angry, beating him up or punishing him before going to bed. To associate sleep with punishment is a terrible idea.
• Adopt a ritual for going to bed. It could be singing a lullaby, reading a story, talking a bit.

What to do to make him sleep through the night?

The style and methods of education should be the decision of each parent. But we will insist on the fact that it is important to respect the cycles and particularities of each child. Likewise, it is necessary to understand that the formula that works for one baby will not necessarily work for another.

Your baby will not be a baby forever. The nights of sleep he gives his parents today are part of the development process. Be patient, he will soon no longer be a baby and what you think is a problem will be over tomorrow. You will have time to get more sleep.