Sleep is about quality and quantity, baby’s need quality and quantity sleep and when they don’t get enough of it everything is off, including their ability to get sleep again. This may not make sense to you as most parents think that if you tire your baby out over the course of the day that he is more likely to get a better night’s sleep. The biggest misconception with parents is that if your baby is tired he will sleep, and that if they are kept up longer, they will sleep better. Actually the opposite is true and baby’s who are overtired will have less chance of making up lost sleep.
If you don’t get a restful night’s sleep you won’t be able to function as you normally would, it is exactly the same for babies. They are less able to cope with the day and are more likely to have restless naps and find it difficult to fall into a deep sleep the following night. They most likely will have trouble staying focused on eating when you nurse them or give them a bottle, and of course because they can’t communicate in any other way for the time being they cry. Of course the crying makes you more stressed but not everyone understands that the underlying reason for the crying is lack of sleep.
We usually attribute baby’s crying to teething, discomfort from gas or that universal time as day often referred to as the witching hour. Other times we label our children as “high spirited” or needy but in fact it is usually lack of sleep that makes baby’s fussy, less adaptable and more frightened. You most likely notice this behavior in the late afternoon when they haven’t really had enough sleep. We all know that when we are sleep deprived we feel terrible, but few people know how even a little sleep loss impairs a baby’s moods and performance.
Healthy sleep is important we all know that, but why? It is important because it is the foundation for:
1. Social and academic performance
2. Hand-eye coordination
3. Cognitive development
4. Personality
5. Normal blood pressure and normal stress hormones
6. Glucose control which is a factor in diabetes and obesity
Sleep is the body’s power source that keeps your baby’s mind alert and calm, every night and at every nap sleep recharges the brain’s ability to do these things. Providing your baby’s growing brain with quality sleep is necessary for his development and social well being. Sleeping well increases brain power just as weight lifting strengthens the muscles. Providing the sleep your baby needs will makes him more relaxed and mentally alert, he will be at his personal best.
