A bedtime routine that includes restful music can be beneficial for your baby. Let me set the scene for you. Imagine an evening when bedtime is approaching. After a milk feed and snuggly pyjamas, you retire to the rocking chair for story/cuddle time with your baby to wind down before bed. In a dim room, playing a familiar track or two of music will add to the restfulness of your bedtime routine. While you sit and snuggle your baby with familiar music playing, he will recognize the music and know that bedtime is coming soon. Knowing the bedtime routine, your little one will derive comfort and security from it, which often helps babies sleep more readily. With the soft music playing, he can settle and relax so that he feels secure when you tuck him into bed. A consistent bedtime routine, often including music, may not only help your baby go to sleep more easily, but he might also stay asleep longer, too.

It is important however if you are using music to help soothe your child off to sleep in the evening you leave it playing softly right throughout the night. When your baby rouses between sleep cycles he will hear the familiar tones, he will recognize instantly where he is, feel secure and return to sleep. If you turn the music off once your baby is asleep when your baby rouses later in the night may very well wake as the music isn’t playing.

Music will help drown out the silence for older children who might find a quiet house scary during the night. If there are nights where wind, rain, thunder etc. are a problem, the music will help to soften these sounds out, too.

If your child is used to listening to specific music during the night, when travelling this will make the transition much easier. Although your child will be in an unfamiliar place, when he rouses during the night, he will hear the familiar music and feel like he is at home.

Another hint — don’t underestimate the beauty of your singing, at least to your child. You may not have the clearest soprano voice, but singing a lullaby or two before bedtime is another winning way to woo your baby off to sleep. Singing often helps combat stress, which might be ideal for you, too, if you’re feeling on edge.

Struggling with baby’s sleep issues can be confusing and overwhelming. You may find peace and restoration for both you and your little one in something as simple as music. By connecting music with sleep and rest, you could even instil a lifelong love of music.

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Baby Sleep Cycles are Important
Deep sleep (Non-REM sleep) restores the body and is vital to remain healthy. It repairs tissues and muscles, boosts your immune system and stimulates growth and development. Light sleep (REM sleep) is very important for your mind. It processes the information you have learned during the day and produces dopamine and serotonin which are feel good chemicals which will help your mood during the day.

When we sleep, we go through a sleep cycle of deep sleep and light sleep. You go from one sleep stage to the next right through the night. Usually when an adult goes to sleep they go into a deep sleep for the first hour or two, then into a light sleep for twenty minutes, back into a deep sleep for 1 hour and then a light sleep for approximately 30 minutes. As the night goes on the amount of time you spend in a deep sleep shortens and the light sleep lengthens.

When babies or young children sleep they spend a lot less time in a deep sleep and more time in a light sleep. According to Dr Richard Ferber there are 4 sleep stages, Awake, REM, Light Non-REM and Deep Non-REM. Newborn children enter REM sleep immediately after falling asleep. By about 3 months of age a babies sleep cycle changes and they enter a non-REM sleep stage before REM sleep as we do as adults.

A child will go from being awake to a Deep Non-REM sleep within 20 minutes. He/she will remain in a deep Non-REM sleep for approximately 60 to 90 minutes, followed by a brief Light Non-REM sleep for about 10 minutes. He/She will then return to a Deep Non-REM sleep for another hour or so. The child may then awake briefly and return to a Light Non-REM sleep for 30/40 minutes before returning to a brief Deep Non-REM sleep. After this the child will go from REM sleep to Light Non-REM sleep with some brief awakenings for approximately the next 5 hours. In the early morning he/she will return to a Deep Non-REM sleep followed by a brief awakening to a brief REM sleep to brief Light Non-REM sleep until they are finally awake for the day.

Considering Ferbers’ analysis of the baby sleep pattern, it is inevitable that the child can awaken a couple of hours after being put to sleep, with an increasing probability of awakening as night goes on.

Normally problems arise when a child is unable to resettle themselves after a brief awakening when non-REM sleep has been completed. This could be due to the child being hungry, circumstances having being changed after they went to sleep (i.e. not in parents’ arms anymore or their soother falls out), feeling unwell or uncomfortable, etc.  Also, when children awake briefly they can talk to themselves or cry for a few moments.  If a parent is too quick to respond to these activities the child may become fully aroused and be unable to resettle themselves back to sleep.

When a parent reacts too quickly in these instances, the baby can rapidly learn a negative sleep association of requiring the parents’ presence and not be able to resettle themselves unassisted.  The resultant effect is that the parent must constantly tend to the child at every awakening throughout the night.

If these negative sleep associations are not addressed they can last for 3 years or may even lead to a lifetime of sleep problems for the child.  It is vitally important that children get sufficient amounts of sleep as sleep deprivation can not only increase temper tantrums and irritability but can also lead to a poor immune system, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, increased risk of obesity and diabetes and children may be more accident prone or even develop depression.

A child who is not getting a sufficient amount of sleep is not processing the information they are learning during the day as they should. Their memory will most likely be negatively affected. They are unlikely to be as aware of their environment as other children, as they may not be as alert during the day.  As lack of sleep also affects hand eye co-ordination their fine motor skills could suffer, this can lead to problems in their confidence and their ability to do things for themselves. In an older child, they may not be interested in physical activities due to fatigue and spend more time on the couch which can in some cases lead to obesity.

Inevitably, the child’s sleep problems will in turn affect the whole family as if the child is waking frequently during the night, his/her parents are also being deprived of sleep. This subsequently can lead to an increased likelihood of moodiness and irritability, depression, poor judgement, marital problems, illness, loss of motivation and in obtuse cases, depression.

As you can see, sleep deprivation has numerous effects on children and their entire family. Therefore, it is vitally important that sleep problems are addressed as soon as possible for all concerned.   Negative sleep associations should be changed as early as possible so that child does not suffer long-term from the effects of sleep deprivation.

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You can start to adjust his sleep schedule by awakening your child a half an hour earlier in the morning for 2 mornings and putting him to bed a half an hour earlier each night gradually over the course of the week.  Wake your child earlier and put your child to bed earlier until you  are back at his regular bed time.

It is important you don’t just tackle this on Sunday night. When people do this normally what happens is the child won’t settle until late on Sunday, this may lead to overtiredness on Monday night and again the child will find it very hard to go to sleep. This can then have a knock on effect for your child for the rest of the week. Sometimes this can lead to longer term sleep issues as the child loses the ability to settle themselves to sleep as their body clock is all out of sync.

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A sleep association is something that a child requires to help him get to sleep. There are many types of infant sleep associations, some good and some not so good. Therefore you need to be very wary what you introduce your baby to at sleep time.  The very thing that gets your baby to sleep may very well be the reason why your baby won’t sleep through the night.

Good Baby Sleep Associations

–          Bedtime Routine

–          Cot/Crib

–          Special Blanket/Teddy

Negative Baby Sleep Associations

Anything a child needs assistance with to help him get to sleep;

–           Soother, Rocking, feeding, staying in room, etc.

–          Continuously sleeping in buggy or car

–          Falling asleep elsewhere and then being moved to cot/crib

–          Musical Mobile needing switched on

Negative baby sleep associations are the cause for most infants not sleeping through the night. When we sleep we all wake frequently during the night.  Although it is usually very brief, if we can settle ourselves to sleep we generally are not aware of being awake during the night. Children are the same, however  as a baby’s sleep pattern is slightly different.  They can wake more than an adult and if they are unable to get back to sleep, your baby may wake up as many as 5 or 6 times a night. Obviously a small baby will wake during the night for feeds.  However, if you find your baby is awakening every 40 minutes to 1 hour it is probably an negative sleep association issue.

When a baby does not sleep though the night, it can affect the whole household.  Usually some form of sleep training will normally be required to break the association. When breaking a negative sleep association I would strongly encourage you to use a gentle approach, prepare yourself, be persistent and give your baby time to learn new methods of falling to sleep unaided.

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Sleep Routine Basics

Babies and children function better when they know what is coming next.

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New-Born Baby

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8-12 Week Old Baby

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4-5 Month Old Baby

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6-9 Month Old Baby

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10 Months & Older

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Short Nappers, Early Risers & Happy Babies

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Once all safety measures are in place then it is time to concentrate on how to get baby to sleep.

1-      If you want your baby to sleep in a crib or cot, then always ensure your child is placed in the cot/crib awake. You may find this difficult when your baby is very small but it is probably the single most important piece of advice you will get to ensure good sleeping habits for your baby in the months ahead.

2-      If you feel you need to introduce a soother, do not let your baby fall asleep with this in his/her mouth. Soothers are perfectly fine if you want to delay feeds or calm your baby but they should not be used as a baby sleep aid. If you need the soother for your child to wind down go right ahead, however remove the soother before your baby falls asleep.

3-      Do not let your child fall asleep while you breastfeed or on the bottle, remove breast or bottle before your baby is asleep.

4-      Leave the room before your child falls asleep, if your child is confident you are around they should be happy to fall asleep on their own. If you take this baby sleep approach from the start and points 1, 2 & 3 from day one then you should have no sleep problems when your child is older.

5-      Do not let your child cry themselves to sleep (Cry it out/Controlled crying method). This can cause more problems than it solves. There are always other ways to solve baby sleep problems. Reassurance is key to a child’s wellbeing, therefore if you do everything you can for the child during the day and then let your baby cry themselves to sleep,  all your efforts during the day was a total waste of time.

6-      Always reassure your child if s/he is upset going to sleep, don’t leave the room while s/he is crying, go back and reassure them and then leave when they stop crying, repeat this until baby falls asleep.

7-      Always watch your child to ensure he is not overtired when you put them to bed. When you spot the first signs of tiredness i.e. rubbing eyes, yawning, quite in himself then this is the time you should start your bedtime routine.

8-      Routine is vital to a child especially when s/he gets older s/he needs to know when bedtime is, therefore you must have a routine in place. How would you like it if you were told just as your were getting ready to watch Coronation Street that you were not allowed and had to go to bed right now!

Follow these ‘How to Put Baby to Sleep’ steps and you should not require my services in the future. However if you do, just email me at info@babysleepacademy.ie I would be delighted to help you get your baby to sleep through the night.

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There are several other factors that also inhibit physical development, including diet and exercise, however for children the key element is sleep.

Without enough sleep a child may develop slow or stunted growth.  Research carried out by Department of Psychology, The Adler Centre for Research in Child Development and Psychopathology, Tel Aviv University, proves this. They carried out a study on ninety-six first born healthy 6 month old infants. Their sleep was monitored over 4 consecutive nights. The baby’s parents had to complete a background and developmental questionnaire. The baby’s weight and height was assessed during a standard check-up in the clinic. The researchers found that sleep is related significantly to physical growth as early as the first months of life.

This being the case sleep is vitally important for a child’s physical development. If a child continues to have sleep problems for a number of years this will hugely impact on the child’s development, therefore it is extremely important that child sleep issues are rectified promptly. “You need to go to bed to grow big and strong” is very true.

¹“If children are not sleeping well the consequences may be problems with behaviour, attention, learning, and memory”.

The term “sleep on it” is very beneficial.  If you have a problem you have a much better chance of solving it after a good night’s sleep.  Some researchers believe that REM sleep holds important psychological functions. They suggest that sleep allows us to process daytime experiences and move recent memories into long-term storage.  Therefore if a child is not getting an adequate amount of REM sleep they are not processing and storing the information they gathered during the day.  It will therefore take them longer to learn and develop in comparison to a child who is getting a sufficient amount of sleep.

If children do not get enough sleep at night, it will affect how they learn the next day. They will not be able to retain the information they are being taught correctly. They will also feel very sleepy in school and be noted as being a “daydreamer”.  Their judgment is impaired which can make them more accident prone.  They may also not have the energy to participate in sports and active play.  This may culminate in the child developing a laissez-fair attitude to life.  The child may experience difficulties in making friendships as they do not have the interest to participate in activities.  These factors may in some cases lead to depression in the child.

According to a recent study from Johns Hopkins University, for each additional hour of sleep, the risk of a child becoming overweight or obese was lowered on average by 9%. The paper also showed that children who slept the least had a 92% higher risk of being overweight or obese compared to children with a longer sleep duration.

When you are sleep deprived, your body produces less leptin which is the hormone that tells your brain there is no need for more food, and produces more ghrelin, the hormone that triggers hunger.  So it is logical to surmise that a lack of sleep coupled with lack of exercise due to low energy levels, results in a tendency to eat more sugary food as an energy substitute when you are tired culminating in an increased the risk of obesity.

Studies also say that lack of sleep also affects the body’s ability to adequately use insulin. Currently childhood type 2 diabetes is on the rise.  Lack of sleep and obesity are contributing factors.  Hence our children are potentially at risk of a multitude of medical problems due to lack of sleep.

Many children who are taught to suffer from ADHD have subsequently discovered that lack of sleep was the main cause of the problem.  As children can often get very hyper from overtiredness and become unable to concentrate on a task for any significant amount of time.  As overtiredness in some children can seem the same as ADHD, ADHD can often be misdiagnosed.

Insufficient sleep affects a lot more than the child’s mood.  It potentially affects nearly all aspects of their life.  If children’s sleep problems are not dealt with as soon as they are discovered the outlook for that child’s future can be significantly negatively impacted. The amount of physical, mental and emotional problems that can be related to a lack of sleep is countless.  Lack of sleep has the ability to completely change a child’s life.  Physically they may not grow to their true height, their weight can increase which then leads to other problems with blood pressure etc.  The risk of diabetes is increased.  Intellectually they may have problems as they will be unable to retain information correctly.  They are more accident-prone due to bad judgements. They can either be withdrawn and uninterested in life or hyper-active.  A good night’s sleep is as important to a child’s well-being as food and drink.

¹ Dr. Shelly Weiss, author of Better Sleep for Your Baby & Child: A Parent’s Step-by-Step Guide to Healthy Sleep Habits .

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Does your baby seem cranky or irritable?

Does your baby fall asleep straight away when put down?

Do you have trouble waking your baby in the morning?

If your are unsure how much sleep your baby is getting, it is a good idea to keep a sleep diary.  You can download a sleep diary template here.

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