One thing is for certain, both young children and grown ups need their sleep. As adults we know what it's like to function with little or no sleep and how it affects our mood, performance, thinking and even health. We might be able to pull an "all-nighter" here and there and we've all done it, but imagine how this would affect a young child. A young child's brain and body needs adequate sleep to develop properly. Yet, concerns related to sleep affect as many as 20-30% of infants and toddlers (Mindell, Meltzer, Carskadon, & Chervin, 2009).
Questions related to sleep problems are frequently fielded by pediatricians and early intervention therapists alike. The most common questions parents ask relate to how to get their child to sleep and then later how to get their child to stay asleep. Babies who don't sleep mean parents who don't sleep and this just becomes a vicious cycle for all involved.
What Should Parent's Know?
Awareness of Realistic Sleep Expectations According to Developmental Age
Newborns - Newborns from 0-2 months of age spend the majority of their time sleeping. This varies from baby to baby, but anywhere from 10-18 hours is typical at this age. Mindell & Owens in 2009 reported that a newborn baby's brain is actually more active during sleep than when awake. No wonder they need so much sleep! They also found that newborns spend a greater part of their time in REM sleep than at any other time in life and that this is highly related to the development of their brain & sensory system (vision, hearing, touch, smell, etc). Actual sleep disorders are not as common in newborns as in older children, although we often hear of babies having their days and nights mixed up. It is recommended that babies who have a problem with day & night simply be exposed to more and more natural daylight each day, especially in the morning until their nighttime sleep improves.
Infants - In early infancy, after age 2 months babies typically need 8-12 hours of sleep per night with an additional 3-4 hours of napping during the day. It is reported that about 50% of infants are able to sleep through the night, 8 or more hours, by age 5 months (Henderson, France, Owens, & Blampied, 2012). Keep in mind that night awakenings are common and to be expected. Babies commonly develop the ability to self calm and self soothe in the first 3 months of life, but it is in infancy that many parents first report sleep problems with children who they say need their intervention in order to fall back to sleep. Some parents dislike when a child sucks his thumb or uses a pacifier as an infant, but in early infancy we see this as a important step toward self-soothing.
Toddlers - Toddlers should be getting about 9-12 hours of sleep with another 2-3 hours of daytime naps. By the time a child is 18-20 months old they are usually down from taking two naps to taking only one nap per day. During the toddler years there is an increase in the number of parents who report that their children are experiencing sleep problems. These include stalling at bedtime, night awakenings, crying, and night terrors. We also hear about toddlers climbing out of their cribs.
One thing you will notice is that the amount of sleep doesn't necessarily decrease as children get older. You'll note that your teenagers are sleeping sometimes as much as your newborn!
