- Categories : Advice

How many hours of sleep for a newborn?

Baby's sleep is an important concern for parents.

How to help him sleep? When will he sleep? Is he sleeping too much or not enough? As each child is unique, the answers to these questions will vary from baby to baby.

Indeed, from about the 4th month, we begin to introduce new things into our diet. Fish, vegetable puree or one steamed vegetable at a time. You should not want to put too much at the same time. One food per food is more than enough.

However, there will come a time when your child will need iron and protein. In that case, it's time to introduce baby meat into his diet.

How much sleep does my child need?

Every child is different. Some sleep a lot and others a lot less. The following table provides a general overview of the amount of sleep children need in a 24-hour period, whether it's overnight sleep or daytime naps.

AgeBaby sleep time/day
Infant (4 to 12 months)12 to 16 hours
Toddler (1-2 years)11 to 14 hours
Children (3 to 5 years old)10 to 13 hours
Child (6 to 12 years old)9 to 12 hours
Teens (13 to 18)8 to 10 hours

Epidemiological surveys show that a newborn baby sleeps between 16 and 17 hours a day. This time is important because one of the functions of sleep in infants is brain maturation. It is also during this phase that the hormones necessary for its growth are secreted. However, there are, as in adults, long sleepers and short sleepers, without this hindering maturation. Thus, some heavy sleeper babies sleep almost 20 hours, others will need less than 14 hours out of 24!

Thereafter, the sleep time gradually decreases as the child grows. Thus, at 6 months, the child needs 15 hours of sleep. At 1 year, 2 p.m.. At 3 years old, 1 p.m. and at 5 years old, at least 10 a.m..

In the first months of a child's life, the quality of sleep also changes very quickly. The restless sleep of the first days, very unstable, light, vulnerable, interspersed with frequent awakenings and bodily movements, will gradually give way to calm, stable sleep. Restless sleep, which represented 50 to 60% of total sleep at birth, only represents 27% at 6 months, a figure close to that of adults.

Children aged 6 months to 4 years will also gradually reduce their daytime sleep time, going from 3 to 4 daily naps around 6 months to 2 around 12 months, then to a single one around 18 months, when the morning one disappears, while the afternoon one lengthens a little.

How to help him fall asleep?

Put a 3-month-old baby to sleep is never easy… But luckily, there are a few tips that you can adopt as a mother to immerse him in the arms of Morpheus.

  1. Watch your diet! If you are breastfeeding, it is better to avoid taking too many stimulants such as tea or coffee, this will affect your baby's sleep!
  2. Don't neglect bedtime! Sleeping baby well is an art: not too crowded bed, ambient temperature not too high, extremely calm climate, even the layout of his room... It is also by preserving baby from the ambient agitation and by offering him a secure cocoon that he will be able to find a peaceful sleep.
  3. Start giving him landmarks: even if baby is very small, it is always a good idea to quickly establish a "routine" which includes bathing, feedings or bottles, sleeping... Regularity in the course of the days is always beneficial for baby's sleep: not only does it secures him, but it also helps him to acquire bearings.

This will soon allow him to differentiate between day and night and thus to move towards a rhythm other than that of his life. uterine.

Your motto from birth: repeat simple gestures such as changing the diaper, closing the shutters, rocking the child and possibly activating the music box at bedtime

His sleep is disturbed, what to do?

Every new mother is confronted, at one time or another, with baby falling asleep,
naps that seem disturbed or unrestful, a baby sleeping on his stomach... What to do?

- Try to recognize your little one’s sleeping phase. If he moves in all directions, he may simply be in a restless sleep phase... His apparent nervousness is therefore completely normal (he may even give the impression of being awake)... In order not to be mistaken, it is important that you always wait a few minutes before intervening. Similarly, if baby wakes up for a few moments between two phases of sleep, this does not mean that he will not go back to sleep: at that point, if you intervene too quickly, you take away any chance of him falling again. in the arms of Morpheus...

- Use and abuse grandmother's techniques: talk to baby in a soft voice, give him a bath, make him do a ride in a stroller (or even in a car for some mums) are all well-honed tricks!

Related posts