A CONVERSATION ABOUT SLEEP CYCLES  and NEWBORN BABY SLEEP

 

[caption id="attachment_2204" align="alignleft" width="150"] Newborn sleep cycles[/caption]

 

It  does take a little to get your head around it but  in addition to other key points about sleep, it does help to make it easier to work out what is needed and why your bay is doing what he or she is doing.

 Then it is easier to work through the best way for you to help your baby sleep and to help your baby sleep enough so that he or she feels fantastic, is jumping out of his or her skin happy and life is so much more enjoyable with more fun time.

Her is a little about sleep cycles in a nutshell. 

We all have sleep cycles when we go to sleep. The cycles consist of a going off to sleep, deep sleep and then we come to a lighter sleep state.  Then it repeats. This is a very basic model of sleep cycles.

Generally the first cycle is shorter than subsequent cycles.  For very young babies- newborns, this can be as short as 20 minutes.  For adults about an hour is common for the first cycle.  Most of us have some sort of association for going off to sleep.   As adults we may have a drink of milk, read, have music on or have a favourite pillow. 

Babies can develop associations fairly early. Some associations can be helpful and some can start out being helpful then become unhelpful when the association is something the baby can’t do for themself.  One example would be using a dummy for the baby to go to sleep with.

Generally when we go to sleep , we go into a very short deep sleep and then come into our first light sleep. At this stage we subconsciously check our surroundings.  As adults this is when we may wake briefly and notice things happening around us. We might note that it is raining, the dog is barking, I’m cold or that your partner is not there. When we get into the second cycle is when we all get our deep restorative sleep.

With babies, it can be tricky.  When they come to their light sleep  they usually stir and can also have their eyes wide open, have a big cry that sounds like something is wrong and move their arms vigorously.  If you are unaware of light sleep and sleep cycles it is easy to misinterpret this as your baby being awake.  Afterall they look and sound awake. You may pick them up or talk to them without realising that they aren’t really awake. Often this is when babies’ “self settle” is interrupted and they have no chance of self settling.