Sleep and newborn babies

How do newborns sleep?

The first weeks and months after bringing a new baby into the family can be a trying time. The newborn's sleep patterns often play a major part in the difficulties faced by new parents. Parents often find that their sleep schedules are thrown into confusion and are concerned about their newborn and their own sleep.

Newborn sleep patterns come in many forms and can vary widely between babies. A healthy newborn can sleep as little as nine hours a day, or as many as 20; the average is 16-18 hours. There is neither one 'right' pattern, nor is it a competition between babies or families. You will know that your newborn is sleeping enough if they are healthy and active during waking hours.

One large reason why sleep is such an issue in newborns is that newborn sleep patterns are very different to those of their parents. As a parent, it is important to understand that newborns do not sleep in the same way that adults do.

The infant has just arrived into this new, strange world. It is undergoing several processes at once:

• Developing its brain and body at a very fast rate;
• Learning new information about this new environment, and;
• Physically adjusting to the new environment and its rhythms.

Thus, sleep in the newborn is a different activity than it is later in life.

How much will a newborn sleep?

Healthy newborns spend from nine to 20 hours a day in sleep throughout their first three months of life, with an average of 16-18 hours. These numbers drop off gradually as your baby grows. A one-year-old baby will sleep for 12-15 hours on average.

At first, your newborn can sleep anywhere and anytime, day and night. After 10-12 weeks, more mature sleep patterns begin to emerge. During the first three months or so, a baby's biological clock starts attuning itself to day-night cycles. They will wake one to three times a night on average.

What happens during newborn's sleep?

Adults spend about a quarter of their sleep time in REM, or 'active' sleep, which is when we dream. Infants in the first three months of their life have a different pattern. They fall almost immediately into active sleep (REM) - eyes closed but moving, limbs moving and twitching. Breathing is often irregular (periodic) and can stop for up to 20 seconds.

Your newborn spends about half of its sleep time in active sleep. Active sleep is necessary for brain development. During sleep, the newborn brain is busy growing, developing and assimilating the information it has gathered while awake. Experiments show that newborns can even learn new things from their environment during sleep.

Why do newborns wake up so often?

An adult 'sleep cycle' - the transitions between deep and light sleep - normally lasts about 90 minutes. We go through several such cycles every night. Your newborn's sleep cycle, however, lasts for only 45-55 minutes.

A newborn baby's stomach is very small - about the size of a marble at birth. Because of this, even a fully-fed baby cannot hold food to sustain them for more than a few hours. Thus, infants need to wake up every one to three hours in order to feed again.

It is not expected that a young infant will 'sleep through the night'. A baby in its first few months who is a 'good sleeper' is not one who sleeps for six to eight hours at a stretch. Rather, it is a baby who can wake up, feed and return to sleep with minimal fuss.

The good news is that after a few months, your newborn will gradually move into a more mature sleep pattern. Sleep patterns change - often just when you have finally become used to the existing pattern.