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Are you struggling with your baby’s sleep problems? Is your baby’s sleep cycle keeping you up at night? You’re not alone. There can be many reasons why a baby cannot sleep, including scheduling issues and age. Babies sleep differently from adults and may wake several times at night. Getting your baby back to sleep through the night is often a challenge for parents.
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As newborns, babies need to wake every few hours to feed since their tiny tummies aren’t big enough to keep them full throughout the night. However, as your baby grows, they need those nighttime feedings less. This is usually when parents expect their babies to start sleeping through the night, but things don’t always turn out as expected, making for exhausted parents.
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Reasons why a baby will not sleep:
No matter how old a baby is, some issues can cause sleep problems.
Scheduling issues:
If your baby is not sleepy at bedtime, it means your baby doesn’t know whether it’s day or night. As newborns, babies can’t differentiate between day and night. As they get older, they start sleeping more extended periods, with the longest stretches being at night. Some babies start sleeping on a day/night reversal schedule. If they’re sleeping too much during the day, they won’t stay asleep as long at night. It’s frustrating and exhausting, but it’s temporary.
Here are a few things you can do to help your baby sleep peacefully:
· Support your baby’s tendencies to wake up at the same time each morning. Include your baby in everyday activities. The hustle and bustle of social life help set your baby’s inner clock.
· Keep them awake a little longer during each waking period during the day and expose your baby to daylight during the morning and afternoon. Natural light helps reset their internal clock. This will help increase the need for sleep later. Some sleep experts recommend playing with your baby for a few minutes after a feeding instead of letting your baby fall asleep.
· Keep lights low or turn them off at night near the baby’s sleeping area. Likewise for sound and movement. Your goal should be zero disruptions and pin-drop silence, and always try to put the baby down at around the same time each day.
· Consider swaddling your baby at night, so their arms and legs don’t move and wake them.
· Babies’ nap timing changes as they grow, so their schedules may shift. Once the new schedule becomes clear, follow it.
Hunger issues:
Hunger is the most common reason babies wake during the night. They often wake during the night to feed, especially during the first six months of life. Your newborn isn’t eating all that much in a single feeding. If you’re breastfeeding, the milk tends to digest quickly, which means a baby can wake up hungry and ready to fill its belly. They need frequent feedings to grow. A drink of breast milk or formula may do the trick. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), if a baby shows hunger cues, such as smacking the lips, sticking out the tongue, and sucking on the hands, it is likely that they are hungry.
Here is what you can do to help your baby sleep peacefully:
· Dream feeding is a technique in which you provide your baby a large meal while your baby is asleep, before you go to bed yourself, in hopes that they won’t wake up in the middle of the night.
· Slowly wean them off the night feedings. This means feeding them less and not as frequently over a few days or a week to get them used to not feeding every time they wake. This way, your little one learns how to self-soothe so they can fall back to sleep on their own.
Discomfort:
There’s almost always something going on with your newborn’s body, and your baby can’t tell you what’s going on with them on their own. Your baby may be teething, have gas, be constipated, or suffer from a cold and allergies. Any of these conditions can cause a baby to wake up often during the night. Teething-related sleep issues can begin almost any time during the first year of their life. Some babies get their first tooth when they’re 6 months old with teething pain starting as early as 3 or 4 months. If you see any symptoms, check with your pediatrician. Here is what you can do to help your baby sleep peacefully:
· If you think gas is the problem, massage your baby’s tummy in clockwise or counterclockwise motions or lay your baby flat on their back and move their legs in a bicycling motion. This can help your baby move the trapped air out.
· Always dress a baby in light and comfortable clothing, as overheating increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Check if the diaper is wet or dirty, because a minor discomfort may affect your baby’s sleep.
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Exhausted:
Being overtired affects children’s ability to be able to fall asleep and sleep well. They may need extra help, such as rocking or nursing, to fall asleep.
Here is what you can do to help your baby sleep peacefully:
· Never skips the daytime naps in hopes that it will help them sleep better at night.
· Watch your baby and learn their sleep cues. When you see your baby is rubbing their eyes, yawning, or averting their gaze from you, it’s probably time for a nap.
· To prevent exhaustion, maintain a consistent napping schedule even when traveling and during other times of disruption, such as holidays.
· Don’t keep your baby awake to sleep later in the hopes that they’ll sleep later in the morning. This trick will not work. It’s essential to stick to an appropriate bedtime for your little one to keep them on track and to help your baby sleep at more appropriate times.
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