BABY’S CRY AND SLEEP

Sleep problem are the most common and disturbing in a baby’s first year of life. The overtired baby or infant can be almost impossible to manage in the daytime and the frequent waker at night can put a strain on family relationships.



There are two types of sleep: Active and Passive. Active sleep is associated with body movements, muscle jerking eye movements and dreaming. Contrastingly, passive sleep is deep and restful, without body movement or dreams.



These two types of sleep occur together in cycle which last about 50 minutes at birth 75 minutes by 4 years of age. This is the reason so many babies wake or becomes very restless an hour after being put to bed.



The new born sleeps about 17 to 20 hours a day. The sleep periods usually don’t last more than five hours and wakeful period not more than two or three hours. By three months, 70 percent of babies sleep about eight hours a night. Hunger and feeding are closely related to sleep in the early weeks and many babies wake screaming with hunger. Once the baby is 6 or 8 weeks old, hunger is less of a driving force and your baby will begin to wake before an occasional feed and not automatically expect food. MORE

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