Sleep plays a fundamental role in the growth and development of babies. Your rest needs vary depending on your age. For example, newborns sleep most of the day, but their sleep is fragmented into short periods. As they grow, their total amount of sleep progressively reduces, while the duration of nighttime sleep increases.
According to the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health center, newborns sleep between eight and nine hours during the day and about eight at night, but they cannot sleep more than one or two hours at a time. It is approximately three months when babies begin to sleep through the night.
However, it may happen that the baby develops certain problems sleeping well. Around six months of age, they begin to experience separation anxiety, because they do not understand that the separation from their parents is temporary. As a result, they wake up upset during the night and have a hard time going back to sleep. Overstimulation or extreme tiredness can also trigger sleep problems in babies.
From Stanford Medicine Children’s Health they explain that babies do not have the ability to establish their own sleep and wake patterns, nor do they know how to fall asleep if they wake up during the night. In this regard, they emphasize that it is very helpful to have a sleep routine for the baby. Likewise, they discourage the baby from falling asleep in the arms of her parents, because if he gets used to this it may be difficult for him to fall asleep alone in her bed or crib.
On the other hand, babies who feel secure tend to handle separations better during the night. Therefore, we must hug and comfort him during the day to increase his feeling of security. In addition to these guidelines, they include other recommendations to help the baby sleep.