How to Help Your Baby Sleep
Sleep is the state of rest which comes periodically and naturally during which a person loses consciousness of the real world. The difference between sleep and wakefulness is that a sleeping person is unable to react to stimuli. During sleep which happens between repeated periods, the body is either in the REM sleep or the non-REM sleep. The REM stands for the rapid eye movement while in the non-REM there is no rapid eye movement. Sleep is crucial for the restoration of the immune, muscle and the nervous system. There are disorders that affect the sleep patterns in a person like insomnia, sleepwalking, narcolepsy and dyssomnia among others. Just like in a grown-up, sleep is also of importance to a baby sleep or toddler. The following are techniques for improving sleep in babies.
A sleep schedule is the most important thing a parent should do. A schedule is a plan of activities or events. For a healthy growth, the baby needs a lot of services from his/her parent. They include cleaning the baby, feeding the baby, breastfeeding, playing, napping and sleeping. A schedule must be made detailing the time these activities should be done together with the duration. The more the baby is small, the more the sleeping hours he/she needs. A baby needs about 9 hours of quality sleep.
Second, sleep train your baby. It is good to teach your baby not to cry when sleeping. The training includes coming up with a good sleeping routine, put the toddler to sleep early enough, establish a regular sleeping schedule and develop some signals and sounds to inform your child it’s time to sleep. After the sleep baby training, the parent will be able to sleep without the child disturbing him/her.
The next technique to improve sleep in toddlers is regular changing of diapers. Wet diapers make the toddler feel uncomfortable during sleep. Before putting your child on the bed, make sure he/she is dry and comfortable. During the day, a child will have a quality play when he/she is in clean and dry diapers. This will enable the child to have quality sleep in the night. The exhaustion as a result of playing will promote sleep. It is good to change the child diapers for about 5 times in a day. A parent should also ensure he/she uses the quality diapers.
It is advisable to always clean the baby before placing him/her on the bed. Wash the baby, change his/her clothes and oil him/her and you will see a change in the sleep patterns. Clean pajamas should also be put on before the child retires to bed. These will make a child feel comfortable while in bed and in turn have quality sleep.
Fifth, purchase a sleep baby monitor.
The above are the techniques of promoting sleep among the babies.