Focus

• Sleep is essential for growth, immunity, learning, and memory.
• Babies, children, and adolescents have different sleep needs.
• As babies and children grow older, their sleep patterns change.
• We all experience cycles of deep sleep, light sleep, and brief awakenings during the night.

Why is sleep important?

Sleep restores your child’s energy. It helps them learn and remember things, and improves their immunity. Sleep helps children grow. For example, children’s bodies produce growth hormone while they sleep.
Children of all ages need plenty of sleep so they can play, learn, and concentrate throughout the day. Sleep at different ages
Babies, children, and teens have different sleep needs. For example, as babies and toddlers get older, the amount of sleep they need decreases.
In addition, as babies and toddlers get older, their sleep patterns change. For example, as babies get older, they sleep less during the day and more at night.

Babies under six months: Sleep and sleep duration

Newborns sleep both day and night. They sleep 14-17 hours every 24 hours.
There are two types of sleep – deep sleep and light sleep. During deep sleep, your baby moves around. You may see him fidgeting, fussing, or sucking. During light sleep, your baby is calm and his breathing is regular. Newborns experience cycles of active and restful sleep, with each cycle lasting about 40 minutes. They may wake up after a sleep cycle and need help getting back to sleep.

Babies 3-6 months

At 3 months, babies begin to develop a daily sleep pattern and sleep more at night. Babies usually sleep 12 to 15 hours every 24 hours.
Between 3 and 6 months, babies may begin to develop the habit of sleeping 2-3 times a day, each lasting up to 2 hours. They often wake up at least once a night.

Babies 6-12 Months: Bedtime and Sleep
sleeping at night
As your baby grows, he or she will sleep more at night.
By this age, most babies are ready to fall asleep between 6 and 10 p.m. They usually sleep for less than 40 minutes, but one in 10 babies sleeps longer.
By 6 months old, your baby should be sleeping for about six hours at night. About two-thirds of babies wake up just once a night before needing to be put back to sleep by an adult. About 1 in 10 babies cry 3 to 4 times a night.
More than a third of parents say their child will have trouble sleeping this year.

Daytime sleep

Most babies 6-12 months old will take 1-2 naps per day. These naps usually last 30 minutes to 2 hours. Children: Sleep and Nap
Infants need 11-14 hours of sleep per 24 hours. This usually means 10-12 hours of sleep at night and 1-2 hours during the day.
Some babies don’t like to sleep at night. This is often because they want to spend the night with their family. This is a common sleep problem that parents report. It peaks at 18 months of age and improves over the course of the year.
Less than 5% of 2-year-olds wake up three or more times a night.

How sleep cycles affect children’s sleep

Children are most likely to fall into deep, non-REM sleep in the first few hours after falling asleep. This is why children sleep well in the first few hours after falling asleep, and are not disturbed by anything.
Children have more REM sleep and lighter non-REM sleep in the second half of the night. Children are more easily awakened from this type of sleep, so they are more likely to wake up at this time than at earlier times of the night.
In childhood, sleep cycles become longer as the child gets older. A 3-year-old child’s sleep cycle is 60 minutes. By about age 5, the sleep cycle matures to an adult sleep duration of 90 minutes.