Will your baby ever 'sleep through the night'?

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For many parents and caregivers, especially those who must go to work in the morning, one thought can drown out all others: will this baby ever sleep through the night?

For the first few months of life, 95% of infants cry when they wake up. And most of them need someone to soothe them before they can get back to sleep. But as your babies gets older, they might simply go back to sleep on their own.

Several studies have found that by eight months, over 50% of infants who wake at night go back to sleep without any soothing from parents or other caregivers. In fact, sometimes their parents didn’t even realise they’d been awake.

Learning about sleep

For a subject that’s so important – paediatricians report that questions about sleep are among the most frequently asked by caregivers – researchers know relatively little about a baby’s nightlife. But by using video cameras and activity monitors to keep track of babies’ sleeping and waking cycles, researchers are beginning to understand how infants form sleep patterns.

All babies are unique, and sleep patterns vary greatly from infant to infant. Even though typical sleep patterns don’t apply to all babies, researchers have identified general patterns that you can look for as your child gets older.

Sleep patterns: newborn to six months

It might seem hard to believe when you aren’t getting enough sleep, but most infants younger than three months sleep around 18 hours a day. It’s also normal for some to sleep more, and for some to sleep less. Young infants tend to sleep for around 2-4 hours at a time, and then wake for short periods, often to be fed. These patterns of sleeping and waking can vary, and they go on around the clock.

In the first weeks and months, it’s too early to expect a young baby to sleep through the night. As tiring as it seems, don’t expect infants to pay attention to adult schedules right away. A newborn doesn't know that people sleep when it’s dark, and a baby’s ‘circadian rhythm’ – the 24-hour internal clock that controls our sleeping and waking patterns – is still developing.

But hang in there! In a few months, babies gradually begin to organise sleeping and waking according to daily cycles of darkness and light. The 24-hour, light-and-dark cycle begins to affect most babies’ sleep patterns within the first three months.

Sleep patterns: 6-12 months

Not only will your six-month-old begin to sleep for longer periods of time. Your baby will also become better able to self-soothe when awake.

Researchers using video recording systems in babies’ homes observed that babies vary a lot when it comes to waking and crying – or not crying – at night. They found the biggest changes in infants’ sleeping and waking patterns between three months and six months. Six-month-olds not only sleep longer at a stretch than three-month-olds. They are more likely to go back to sleep on their own when they wake.

As they get closer to their first birthdays, infants tend to sleep longer, wake up less often, and sleep more and more at night. And they might take a nap once or twice during the day, ranging from 20 minutes to around two hours at a time.

Helpful parenting tips

When you hear that cry in the night, remember:

• Your baby doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase ‘sleeping through the night’.
• Don’t expect your baby to sleep through most of a night before 3-6 months.
• Even after 3-6 months, it’s normal for babies to wake up several times during the night. 
• Every baby is different. Your normal, healthy baby might have different sleep patterns from other children. 
• Be patient and hang in there. Your baby will probably begin to sleep for longer stretches of time when the time is right developmentally.

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