Infant Sleep Solutions

by Martha Ogburn RN, MS

New parents face an array of challenges and changes. It’s as if passage into parenthood depends upon fulfilling certain initiation rites – the first being how long one can last without sleep. This rite is closely followed by a test of one’s ability to endure nightly awakenings every two-three hours, every night, for an undetermined period of time. As the saying goes, “Babies change everything (except themselves).”

There’s no secret weapon, no secret code one can crack to get a baby to sleep through the night. Babies know nothing of adult expectations, rules and schedules. They haven’t read the books which say, “The average baby sleeps 16 hours a day.” They have their own inner clock which tells them when to wake, sleep, and eat. For a newborn baby, a five hour stretch is a full night and it often takes a full year or two for a child’s immature brain to develop a “mature,” all-night, every night sleep pattern. Expecting a baby to adapt to adult routines may be the goal, but it certainly isn’t realistic.

From the very start, a unique personality and developmental pattern emerges. As a result, a one size fits all mentality doesn’t apply. No baby is average. Even so, there are some tried and true methods which seem to help lull a baby to sleep. The easiest and most natural method is allowing the baby to fall asleep at the breast or bottle. In addition, swaddling, recordings of the mother’s heartbeat, white noise (like running a vacuum cleaner or fan), rocking, and even classical music all have beneficial effects. But there is very little one can do that will force a new baby to sleep when he doesn’t want to sleep. Likewise, there is little which will awaken him when he is sleeping soundly. Babies sleep when they are tired –it’s really that simple.

A parent who takes the time to observe a baby’s sleep-wake cycles, understand newborn sleep patterns and biology will be more apt to find productive solutions. Several facts help in this area:

1. Babies have very tiny tummies, even smaller if he or she was born prematurely. Formula digests quickly and breast milk even quicker. Thus, newborns need to be fed every two to four hours - and sometimes more often.
2. During the early months, growth spurts can push the 2-4 hour feeding schedule to 1-2 hours around the clock. Demand feeding eliminates the guesswork. If your baby is hungry, he will let you know (at this stage, crying is the only mode of communication).
3. There are two types of sleep -- rapid eye movement (REM) or light sleep and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) or deep sleep. While adults enter deep sleep quickly, babies in the early months enter sleep through an initial period of light sleep.  After twenty minutes or more they gradually enter deep sleep from which they are not easily aroused. Trying to rush your baby to bed while he or she is still in the initial light sleep will usually not achieve the desired result. Learn to recognize the stage of sleep and wait until your baby is in deep sleep before transitioning from one sleeping place to another. Light sleep is characterized by closed eyes, flexed limbs, irregular breathing, fluttering eyelids, and fleeting smiles. Once in deep sleep, a baby’s fists will relax, limbs will dangle weightlessly and grimaces and twitches will stop.

Although there are no magical solutions for coping with the night-time demands of a new baby, one can lessen the stress by sleeping when the baby sleeps, getting outside help for household chores and eating a healthy diet (B-complex vitamins provide extra energy). Above all, don’t despair. Soon baby will be sleeping through the night and so will you. Sweet dreams!

**A great resource on solving sleep problems in children is Elizabeth Pantley’s book, The No Cry Sleep Solution.  Pantley offers specific advice on how to help a baby learn to comfort himself to sleep without parental help (or the help of a pacifier). Since the association of sleeping with sucking is so strong, abruptly taking away a pacifier or a night-time feeding can be traumatic. Therefore, Pantley tells parents to “let a baby suck until he is sleepy but not totally asleep. Then, gently remove the breast, bottle or pacifier from his mouth and let him finish falling asleep without something in his mouth.  When you do this, your baby may resist, root and fuss to regain the nipple. It is perfectly okay to give him back the nipple and start over a few minutes later. If repeated often enough, he will eventually learn how to fall asleep without sucking.