Your baby wakes up frequently at night? You may have overlooked these things...

One-third of a person's life is spent in bed, and good sleep quality is an important guarantee for the normal metabolic function of the body.

Sleeping well is not an easy thing for modern adults. At the beginning of this year, the "China Sleep Big Data Report" published by the China Sleep Big Data Center showed that in 2022, the number of people with sleep disorders in my country reached 38.2%, far exceeding the 27% estimated by the World Health Organization. In order to save themselves, adults have invented a variety of products such as melatonin, sleep spray, earplugs and eye masks, and sleeping mattresses, and even launched the slogan of pursuing "baby-like sleep".

But in fact, in China and even around the world, infants and young children are the real "hardest hit" by sleep disorders.

More than a decade ago, a multinational group conducted an extensive survey on the sleep of Asian infants and young children. Public data showed that 76% of Chinese babies have sleep disorders.

In 2016, the Children's Sleep Research Center of Shanghai Children's Medical Center released a three-year sleep research report on 300 infants, finding that only 10.2% of six-month-old infants were able to sleep continuously at night, a slight increase to 11% at nine months old, and even at one year old, only 12.9%;

Five years later, Cui Yutao, a parenting expert, also interpreted the "White Paper on Sleep Quality of Chinese Infants and Children in 2021". More than 66% of families believe that their babies have sleep disorders;

These data have evolved into real and specific cases on various social networks. Countless new mothers have become anxious, collapsed, and self-healed due to their babies' frequent night wakings. The author herself is also one of those who is deeply troubled by this.

Sleep is not a one-time sleep, but a cycle.

Unlike the ideal sleep of "sleeping through the night" that adults expect, infants' sleep patterns are actually more difficult to fall asleep, their sleep is shallower, and their sleep duration is shorter. If an adult were to follow the sleep patterns of infants, they would suffer terribly. Most families with newborns will be "tortured" by their babies' sleep for a few months or two to three years.

Before we understand infant sleep, we must first understand the nature of sleep. Human sleep is a state of alternation between two states.

Image source: Tuchong Creative

The first is non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which can be divided into four stages. Stages 1 and 2 are light sleep, and stage 3 is deep sleep. In the NREM state, our bodies become more and more relaxed, and brain waves become significantly slower (so deep sleep is also called "slow-wave sleep"), until all muscles relax, the brain "shuts down" and rests, entering a very meaningful sleep stage, and people's physical strength and energy are fully restored.

The second type is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is a stage of dreaming. In this stage, our brain begins to secretly "work overtime", the eyeballs move rapidly, and dreams occur. If you wake up at this time, you will still remember what you dreamed about. This is why people often say that they did not sleep well and had a dream all night. It is likely that every time he wakes up, he is in the REM sleep stage and the dream is still vivid.

In an adult with a normally developed and mature nervous system, NREM and REM sleep alternate.

A complete sleep cycle lasts 90 to 100 minutes, generally transitioning from NREM (60 to 70 minutes) to REM (15 to 30 minutes) to complete a sleep cycle, i.e. "wakefulness → NREM sleep → REM sleep". Then it returns to NREM and starts again, and there are about 4 to 6 such cycles in one night.

Re-understanding the truth about infant sleep

After understanding the normal sleeping patterns of adults, it is easy to understand how poor the sleep patterns of infants and young children are.

You can recall from your own experience that the brain is more active during REM period, so if you wake up during this period, you will feel very tired and even irritable. Fortunately, we adults only spend 20% of our sleep in REM period, and it is not easy to wake up.

When infants and young children sleep, they spend 50% of their time in REM phase. Their brains are always relatively active and can be easily "woken up" by various factors. When they wake up, they feel tired and in a bad mood just like adults. This is the first truth about "bad sleepers".

Sleep is the golden period for infants and young children to grow. Growth hormone is secreted vigorously, bones develop rapidly, the nervous system develops rapidly, and new synapses are established. It seems that the REM ratio of infants and young children's sleep is higher than that of adults. It is a necessary stage for growth and development. In sleep, babies also need to deal with external stimulation information received when awake, so that the brain "gets smarter with more use". In addition, REM sleep also helps infants and young children to develop memory and recover from the brain.

But the truth about infant sleep does not end there.

The second truth is that in addition to the high proportion of REM, the short sleep cycle of infants and young children is also one of the important reasons for frequent night wakings.

As mentioned earlier, the sleep cycle of an adult is 90 to 100 minutes, but for a baby this is greatly reduced to only 40 to 45 minutes.

In this short sleep cycle, the REM period, when the brain is active, occupies half of the time. Although the remaining half of the time is in the NREM period, it does not have obvious light sleep and deep sleep segments like adults.

Studies have shown that for babies aged 0 to 2 months, the NREM stages are not obvious and can only be slightly distinguished after 2 months. Their sleeping pattern is directly "wakefulness → REM sleep", skipping the NREM sleep of adults. It is not until 6 months that they begin to slowly switch to the adult sleeping pattern of "wakefulness → NREM sleep → REM sleep".

Infants and young children have short sleep cycles, so sometimes they wake up at the end of a cycle, or even before a cycle (such as just falling asleep, REM period, etc.). Therefore, many new parents will feel anxious because of "frequent night wakings", "babies waking up when they fall to the ground", "inability to sleep for a long time", etc. Waking up 2-3 times a night is not too much, and waking up for an hour or even dozens of minutes is not unusual.

Third, in addition to the above two sleep characteristics, what makes new parents even more frustrated is that the baby "can't sleep" by himself. Whether adults or infants, they are easy to wake up after each sleep cycle. But adults can turn over or go to the toilet and come back to sleep. Infants and young children have an imperfectly developed nervous system, and they are unlikely to fall asleep or wake up on their own after waking up. They will cry easily and need parents to pat, hold, feed, etc. to coax them to sleep.

This explains why families with newborn babies often have poor rest. The sleep cycle of infants and young children is out of sync with that of adults, which is the main reason why new parents stay up late and collapse.

Suppose the parents and the baby fall asleep at the same time, and you have just entered the third deep sleep stage of NREM, and the baby wakes up after a sleep cycle, pulling you out of deep sleep. After you finally coax the baby to sleep with a chaotic brain and an unhappy mood, the adults also wake up, and you have to start the process of "awakening → NREM sleep → REM sleep" all over again. Before you complete a cycle, the baby wakes up again... It's a vicious cycle.

New Mom's Self-Help Guide

This is the fragile sleep of infants and young children. As parents, only by understanding their sleeping patterns and why they wake up easily can we know how to coax them to sleep correctly.

Since babies have short sleep cycles and a high proportion of REM sleep, we as parents must ensure that they get enough sleep. A sufficient amount of sleep can make up for the deficiencies caused by frequent night awakenings and protect the baby's sleep as much as possible.

Therefore, once the baby shows signs of sleepiness, parents should catch the sleep signal in time and let the baby fall asleep as soon as possible. Don't tease the baby without knowing it! The correct solution is to let them develop quickly and get rid of the troubles brought to the baby and the family by frequent night wakings as early as possible.

For example, if the baby starts to rub his eyes, yawn, snuggle in his mother's arms, and doesn't smile when teased, you should consider whether it is time to coax him to sleep and help him enter the sleep cycle.

At the same time, don’t assume that your baby wakes up as soon as he opens his eyes. He may be in the REM period when his brain is active, and he looks almost the same as when he is awake. Don’t disturb your baby and let him continue sleeping.

In line with the principle of not letting the baby fully awake, when the baby wakes up at night and tosses and turns, you can gently hold him and reduce large movements to prevent him from waking himself up. Don't pick him up immediately when he cries, as this will not only make him fully awake, but also may develop difficult habits of coaxing him to sleep (such as patting, holding, walking, squatting, etc.). Try simply patting or holding him to let him continue to sleep.

In addition to night wakings caused by changes in sleep cycles, there are several other common reasons that need to be eliminated to help your baby get through it smoothly:

1. Calcium deficiency

Frequent shaking of the head, baldness on the back of the head, hair loss, sweating, strong urine odor, enlarged fontanelle, etc., may indicate calcium deficiency. Pay attention to calcium supplementation, vitamin AD supplementation, and spend more time outdoors in the sun.

2. Development of the inner ear vestibule

Frequent shaking of the head and scratching of the ears. At 6 to 8 months, the baby learns to sit alone, crawl and do other large movements. The vestibule of the inner ear that regulates the body's balance also begins to develop. The baby can relieve discomfort by swinging and rolling.

3. Hunger

Feeding method is also one of the reasons that affect night waking. Babies tend to wake up at night when they are hungry or seeking milk to soothe them. You can try to extend the feeding time, increase the daytime intake, and add complementary food (after 6 months of age) to improve this.

4. Eczema

Infants and young children have low immunity. In the process of adapting to the external environment, they are prone to eczema due to unsuitable temperature and humidity. It can be alleviated by moisturizing or taking medicine.

5. Intestinal flatulence

It is common in young babies. Because the gastrointestinal digestive function is not yet mature, they inhale air during feeding and cannot expel it. It can be relieved by exhausting exercises, probiotics, hot compresses, etc.

6. Others

Maintain reasonable temperature and humidity, keep the environment dark and quiet, change diapers promptly, and seek medical attention promptly if frequent night wakings are caused by other diseases.

In fact, every new parent will experience a period when their baby "sleeps poorly". Please remember not to expect a human baby who only knows how to eat, drink, defecate, urinate and sleep to have an adult lifestyle. I believe that as long as we learn to unlock the infant's sleep pattern and follow the rules, we all have the opportunity to have an angel baby.

References:

Study on factors related to infant sleep problems

China Sleep Big Data Report

"China's Infant and Child Sleep Quality White Paper 2021"

Epidemiological study on sleep problems in children aged 1 to 23 months

The article is produced by Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project (Creation and Cultivation). Please indicate the source when reprinting.

Author: TUTU Mama Science Creator

Reviewer: Peng Zhiping, Director of the Science Department of the China Sleep Research Society