How many hours of sleep a Newborn Baby requires?

Why sleep is important?

Sleep is essential for good health of children. When kids get enough sleep, they may have a lower risk of becoming overweight and developing diabetes as well as fewer learning problems and attention issues.

Good sleep is important for nutrition and exercise. The body repackages neurotransmitters, chemicals that enable brain cells to communicate during sleep. Experts have recently demonstrated that sleep allows brain cells to “take out the trash” each night, flushing out disease-causing toxins.

Mothers have to make sure that they have about 50 percent of their time in this deep sleep, considered to be essential for adequate growth as “Growth hormone is primarily secreted during deep sleep”. It is observed that sleep protects kids from vascular damage due to circulating stress hormones and arterial wall — damaging cholesterol.

During sleep, children produce proteins known as cytokines, which the body relies on to fight infection, illness, and stress. Kids sleep increases attention span. Sleep aids learning of kids of all ages, and education experts are finding that naps have a particular magic among children.

The sleep-weight connection seems like a snowball. When we’ve eaten enough to be satisfied, our fat cells create the hormone leptin, which signals all of us to stop eating. Sleep deprivation to any human being may impact this hormone, so kids keep right on eating. “Kids who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be obese” says Dorit Koren, M.D., a sleep Researcher.

How much new-borns sleep?

New-borns spend more time sleeping than they do awake, though the sleep occurs in small chunks or on an irregular schedule. They typically sleep up to 17 hours a day. Most of the babies don’t stay asleep for more than two to four hours at a time, day or night, during the first few weeks of life. Their internal clocks aren’t yet synchronized with the 24- hour external day. So, a new born baby requires an average of 8 to 9 hours in the daytime and about 8 hours at night.

How to manage sleep patterns of a new-born?

Week 1 of new-born sleep:

During the first week there is one goal with along with new-born sleep encourage your new-born to take full feeds.

There’s this tendency to let baby feed for a few minutes here and there and sleep here and there. This feels natural, but if you are a first time mom, it’s very hard to begin to understand baby’s cues. Why? Because baby seems to be fussing a lot and then falling asleep a lot and the mom don’t know when they’re tired or when they’re hungry. This is why routines (even loose ones) are so beneficial to baby and mom. Baby doesn’t need to cry to make their needs known if they are just well fed and well slept from the get go.

Week 2 of new-born sleep:

During the second week you are probably well and truly exhausted. And, if your baby has their days and nights mixed up, even more. So, at daytime when the baby is awake and feeding, open windows, turn on lights, and keep things very bright. At night, 8:00 pm and later, do all feeding, hugging, cuddling in very dim or dark conditions. After feeding your baby during the day, try to keep them awake for at least a few minutes by singing, cooing, playing, and bonding.

If your baby seems fully awake in the middle of the night, try turning on very bright lights which will cause your baby to shut their eyes. Don’t allow more time than 3 sleep hours between feedings during the day, even if they are still sleeping.

Week 3 of new-born sleep:

Now that your baby is getting the hang of full feeds and has their days and nights mostly fixed, it’s time to start teaching your baby to fall asleep on their own.

Do not let your baby get overtired (more on that here). Learn the fine art of putting your baby to sleep awake and not drowsy. This means while they are yawning, doing the “eye roll” or rubbing their eyes, you can set them in their crib to do the final hard work of falling asleep on their own. Give the baby a pacifier. This is the best ways to help your baby learn to calm down on their own. The pacifier becomes a positive sleep association and gives your baby a way to soothe themselves into sleep. This is my preferred pacifier because it rarely falls off and as the 3 months babies can hold it themselves. Perfect your naptime or bedtime routine as another positive sleep association for you baby.