By Epworth Freemasons Maternity
During their first few months in the world – a period often termed ‘the fourth trimester’ – your newborn will spend a lot of time balancing sleeping with frequent feeding and increasing periods of alertness.
During this phase, they will be adjusting to life and starting to learn the difference between day
and night.
Newborn sleep cycles
Like adults, babies have different stages of sleep. The newborn sleep stages are rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM).
Newborns spend a similar amount of time in both REM and NREM stages while they sleep.
The REM sleep stage is often called ‘active sleep’ and NREM is called ‘quiet sleep’.
During active sleep, you might see your baby making small movements. Your baby’s eyes will move around (while closed), their arms, legs, and fingers might twitch or jerk, their breathing might speed up, and they might move their mouth.
During quiet sleep, your baby is still.
Your newborn will spend roughly 50 percent of their time asleep in REM.
Newborns sleep up to 18 hours a day (broken up across different sleep cycles), which means they experience up to nine hours of REM each day.
As your baby grows and develops, their sleep cycle will change.
As baby’s sleep schedule changes, so do their sleep cycles. Their time spent in REM and NREM sleep will change over time. All babies are unique and this is why there isn’t one guide or chart that outlines sleep cycle length or REM by age.
How can you tell if your baby is tired?
When it comes to sleep time, your baby will usually let you know by showing different signs, such as:
Rubbing eyes;
Yawning;
Being fussy;
Staring;
Jerky limb movements; or
Frowning.
You can use these cues to establish a schedule that works for them.
Rigid, time-focused schedules are inappropriate for a newborn because of the wide variation in newborns’ feeding and sleeping patterns and their individual needs.
Most babies need help and comfort to establish their sleeping patterns.
One of the best ways that parents can help is by learning to read their baby’s tired signs.
Once you see your baby making tired signs, you can help them to fall asleep by gently rocking,
holding, swaddling, or feeding.
Each family has individual needs when it comes to working out how to manage baby sleep patterns. Keep in mind that your baby’s sleep pattern will continue to change as they grow, so you may find yourself needing to adapt quite frequently. What worked yesterday might not work today!
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