Baby Sleeping Too Much Is Actually A Good Sign
Babies are such angelic beings that radiate some serious pick-me-up and cuddle me up until they start screaming. Soon after the birth of your baby, the number of surprises that come your way will not end. As you begin to take baby steps (pun intended) towards motherhood, you will learn many things on the job–such as mastering the perfect latch, changing diapers to establish the sleep routines of your baby. You will soon notice that your baby would have started to sleep a lot as things settle down. Sometimes babies even forget to sleep just for the feeding time. It’s nothing to worry about, though. And just in case you’re worried about the growth of your little angel, then don’t. Because a lot of sleeping does a lot of good for babies than you thought.
How Much Sleep A Baby Should Have In One Day?
Newborns do a lot of sleep, and it’s something they’ve done in the womb for most of the time. In those days the mother’s heartbeat, digestive system, and her voice were all surrounded by sounds. They are 90 percent-95 percent a day in such sleep-inducing conditions. Once outside the womb, newborns sleep 16 to 18 hours a day and wake up for a change in feed or pain every 2 to 3 hours. The sleep time can vary slightly because every baby is unique and needs are different. The hours of sleep can vary slightly as each baby has different needs and is unique. Newborns are sleeping a lot because their bodies are growing rapidly and sleep is essential for their proper mental and physical development, particularly brain and central nervous system development. It is, therefore, safe to say that newborns spend about 80 percent -85 percent of the day sleeping and there are no hard and fast rules as to how many hours a baby needs to sleep as long as they are healthy and regular feeding.
Can Your Child Be Too Sleepy?
A baby that sleeps all day can be a curse and a blessing. It gives you the time to get some rest, on the one hand. It may also be the source of anxiety, though. Does my child sleep more than usual? It’s a question that can ring your mind through. The reality is that it depends on the baby’s individual needs. Some may sleep longer while others are sleepless, and so long as they are healthy they are fine. One way to determine whether the baby feeds enough is to check their diapers. It is not a problem except if sleep affects food and health. The time your baby is sleeping decreases gradually as the baby gets older. This is good because you don’t want to have a child who sleeps too much to get away from sitting or crawling.
Sleeping a lot actually does babies a lot of good than you thought. Here’s what it does:
1. Helps To Boost Physical Growth
Babies are believed to experience growth spurts during sleep for a long time. But then, not enough studies were done to show if the baby’s physical growth was affected by the duration of the sleep. The more a baby sleeps, the better his / her body’s growth has been found in a recent study. The study analysis showed that children experienced an increased growth rate when their sleep time was increased overall.
2. Development of Neurosensory System
Your baby’s central nervous system develops dramatically over the first two years of life. The sleep stimulates his / her neurosensory system when your baby is asleep, thereby helping to grow. This process takes place during the sleep stage of the REM (rapid eye movement) and is called endogenous stimulation. Neurons are released during this process. These releases create the link between sensory organs and brain structures, which is essential to the development of neurosensory systems such as the auditory system, touch system, visual system, and vestibular system
3. Promotes Brain Development
What is known as brain plasticity is an important component in brain maturation? This is the brain’s ability to change its structure and function as a response to changes in the environment. Animal studies have shown that young animals who were deprived of sleep experienced the loss of this plasticity of the brain. This loss reduces brain size, reduces learning skills, and impacts behavior negatively. Hence, the study results show that sleep is very vital for brain and brain plasticity development.
4. Helps To Improve Learning Skills
The sleep of your baby plays an important role in consolidating memory that helps to learn. In a study, the researchers tried to teach 15-month-old babies an artificial language. The babies were split into two groups. Between the teaching and the test, one group took a nap and the other group did not. The researchers found that the babies who had taken a nap before each test were performing relatively better than those who had not. Not only did they remember the words they taught, but they also learned the abstract relationships between them.
5. Enhances The Mood
Not only babies but also adults do not become cranky when they are deprived of enough sleep? Some of the studies have shown that babies that don’t get enough sleep are usually cranky and temperamental. Indeed, one of the studies found that babies with less night sleep in 3 weeks were often more irritable even when they were only 3 months of age. They were relatively less accessible as well. So, if your baby has been cranky for a while now, check whether or not your little angel got enough night sleep.
Sleeping patterns vary as their personalities vary from baby to baby. A baby that sleeps more, therefore, does not necessarily need to ring alarm bells, unless it affects their health. Parenting is a learning curve, as your baby grows up and you get tuned to the needs of your baby, you learn and unlearn. Your maternal instinct is something that helps a lot, which tells you if anything affects the baby. So if your newborn is a sweet little person who loves to sleep, you could enjoy the calm as well as it lasts.
Also Read: How to get a baby to sleep in a crib
