Healthy sleep is very important for your baby’s brain development. If your baby does not get enough sleep, he or she may have trouble speaking and reading. Parents often take their children to sleep in their bed, trying to strengthen the bond with their child in this way – a decision that will not only confuse the child but also become dangerous for them! However, this option of sleeping – is not the only way you can ruin a good night’s sleep baby.
Typical mistakes of loving parents:
1. No need to make a clear bedtime schedule
For a child, an evening routine is basic. This way she will calm down and get better ready for bed. The schedule will set the child up for the evening and, already expecting to rest, she will fall asleep normally and better.
2. Not getting your baby ready for bed enough during the day
Children are like us: the more we are tired during the day, the easier we fall asleep in the evening. So, entertain your child as much as possible during the day: sing, play with him, do simple physical activities, walk more and enjoy the wonderful days. This will make the child tired and more likely to fall asleep.
3. Not noticing obvious signals
Parents are often very slow to put their children to bed. For example, they wait until babies start to cry. However, a tired baby who wants to sleep will give you many signals that it’s time for her to go to bed. She will frown, rub her eyes with her fists, look somewhere far behind you, and tug at her ear – such obvious signs will indicate that the baby wants to go to sleep.
4. Don’tallow your baby to get ready for sleep on his or her own
Massage and rocking will help your baby to calm down and understand that it needs to go to bed. But sometimes it’s worth leaving the babies to themselves – let them learn to fall asleep on their own. And do not fly headlong into every squeaky baby who is trying to sleep. First of all, children’s sounds do not always indicate that the little one is awake and needs you: a child is just going through the baby sleep cycle, and your visits may wake him up. And secondly, scientists have studied that children whose parents gave them more freedom and left them to fall asleep on their own did much better.
5. Leaving children to sleep in a well-lit room
There is an idea: if you leave your child to sleep in a brightly lit room during daytime naps, he will learn to distinguish between day and night better. Do not think so. On the contrary: darkness calms the baby and provokes the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates our sleep.
Myths about baby sleep
When a baby is born, young mom and dad do nothing but listen to advice from parents, friends, and acquaintances on how to treat the baby. That’s why the baby sleep process is laden with myths, which we will now break down.
A baby should sleep in a quiet room
This is not true. Total silence can interfere with a baby’s sleep. Remember, there is noise in the womb: louder than a vacuum cleaner. That noise lasted 24 hours a day. For 9 months, your baby fell asleep to the rhythmic hum of blood flowing through the placenta. In a quiet room, there is a better chance that your baby will wake up to the hum of a passing car or another sound. A baby may sleep better when it is noisy.
You should never wake a sleeping baby
You should always wake your baby using the “wake and fall asleep” technique. It gently teaches your baby the important skill of self-soothing. Starting from the first days of life, wake your baby with a gentle nudge after you put him/her to bed. Then gently scrub his neck or legs until the infant slowly opens his eyes. Subsequently, the baby will return to a drowsy state. Those first seconds of awakening before going back to sleep are the first step to getting your baby to sleep soundly through the night.
Some babies sleep better without a diaper because they want to be free
That’s not entirely true. When we first start swaddling a baby, he may fuss and resist. That’s why it may seem like he hates the process. But babies don’t need freedom. They need the feeling of protection that they had in the womb. Without a diaper, a baby will wave his arms around and may accidentally punch himself in the face. It’s a recipe for bad sleep. So, swaddling is the first step to soothing. So it’s important that you don’t stop swaddling early, especially if the baby resists it.