Help Your Baby Fall Asleep: The Best Sleep Techniques

When a baby appears in the house, young mothers have many questions about caring for him, especially about sleep. Every day, mothers have a lot of things related to not only caring for the baby, but also housework. Despite this, it is important to have time for your own relaxation. Therefore, “quick and easy” in this matter is extremely important

When a newborn is born, he has no idea about the rhythms of sleep and wakefulness. In the first weeks, adaptation to extrauterine life takes place. That is why babies sleep so much. A newborn requires approximately 16 to 20 hours of sleep. If your happiness sleeps for a couple of hours more or less, do not rush to sound the alarm, as it only adjusts. In the womb, the most favorable environment is created for him. Any of your movements for the baby are ways of a kind of motion sickness. It is dark, warm inside the mother, and her voice always acts soothingly. This creates a natural sleeping environment. Therefore, when your baby is born, he will have to create these conditions artificially.

Sleep and Its Standards

Sleep is a very important physiological process. After all, it is in a dream that children grow up. This can be explained by the fact that during sleep, the body produces growth hormone – somatotropin. Its peak production occurs from about midnight to 3-4 o’clock in the morning. Therefore, compliance with the daily regimen is important for proper development and growth, which will benefit not only the child, but also rest for the parents. However, the older he gets, the less time he needs to sleep. A child aged 2 to 4 years old needs 16 hours of sleep, at the age of five – 13 hours, at the age of 6-7 years about 12 hours, and adolescents need 9 hours of sleep.

There are many ways to get your baby to sleep quickly. Age plays an important role in choosing the right method for your baby.

To begin with, consider several effective ways to put your baby to bed.

Tips about Baby Sleep

If you have ruled out the likelihood that the baby is hungry, in wet diapers, or something hurts, then proceed to the selection of the best means for falling asleep:

1. As already mentioned, an important aspect is adherence to the daily routine. It is necessary to prepare for bed, if possible, at the same time.
2. During the first month, you should introduce your baby to the times of the day – day and night. During the day, it should be light in your apartment, you should not communicate in a whisper, but shouting, as you understand, is not worth it either. Some pleasant music or a movie can be an accompanying sound background. At night, on the contrary, darkness and silence prevail.
3. If there is a need for feeding, or changing the diaper, then it is better to do this using the dim light of a night lamp, so as not to interrupt sleep.
4. Excessive nervous excitement (active games, loud noises, an abundance of attention from grandparents) a few hours before bedtime will also not play into your hands. The same will apply to older children.

Methods

So, below are several methods that will help you put your baby to bed:

White noise

 As you can imagine, while the baby was inside mom, he was never in complete silence. He always heard the beat of her heart, the sound of her voice, all the sounds going on around: the voices of others, the noise of rain, wind, water, music. Therefore, all these quiet, measured sounds will give him a sense of calmness, security and comfort.

 Swaddling

Babies in the first months of life are characterized by spontaneous motor activity in the form of shudders, which can cause problems with sleep. In order to prevent your own hands from frightening with spontaneous movements and not waking you up, you can use ordinary or special diapers for swaddling. This will ensure a more restful and longer sleep.

Motion sickness. It is also one of the things that simulate intrauterine life that is so familiar to the baby. While it was in the stomach, all your movements, travel in transport, sports were a kind of motion sickness, which allowed you to sleep sweetly and enjoy life. Therefore, after birth, picking it up and wearing it for up to half an hour, you will create that very favorable environment for sleeping. You can also rock the baby in the arena, stroller, or on a rocking chair. If you are ready to spend a little, then there are special motion sickness centers that make life easier for parents. But this is not always the easiest way to help your baby fall asleep. For a mother, this is quite hard physical labor. Therefore, if you want to put your baby to sleep without motion sickness, in order to make life easier for yourself, it is better to teach him to fall asleep without them.

Warm

Create comfortable conditions for your baby, in which he will feel comfortable, so he will quickly fall asleep. A cashmere baby blanket is perfect for this. It is warm, but wicks away moisture: under it the child will never be hot.

Deception

Place your baby next to him, hug him, close your eyes and try to breathe slowly and steadily. By pretending to be asleep, you signal that it is time for him to rest too.

Be observant. Just watch the baby, he will always give a signal that he is ready to sleep. Children begin to yawn, rub their faces and eyes with their hands, become less active and lose interest in the things and events around them. Catch the right moment and go to bed.

How to Put a Toddler to Bed for Sleep

Now consider the question of how to quickly fall asleep for an older child.

These tips will help parents of kids over a year old.

1. The general rules remain the same as for infants: regime, quiet, dark environment and the absence of excessive arousal a couple of hours before bedtime. The kid must clearly understand the plan of action. To do this, you must explain to him, for example: “Now we go to the shower, brush our teeth, then I will read to you and we will sleep.” And so it should be daily, until it becomes a habit.
2. The ritual is still valid. Only now its possibilities are unlimited. Mothers can tell fairy tales so that the child falls asleep quickly, sing lullabies, turn on pleasant music or a cartoon. But you need to remember and take for yourself as a rule that as soon as the baby falls asleep, you need to turn off all sound sources. When a baby is asleep, his brain must go through all the necessary sleep phases. A constant sound in the background will not give a good rest and will only allow him to go through a superficial sleep, which can have a bad effect on the further development of the brain.
3. Physical and emotional relaxation. In order for the little one to sleep well at night, he needs to be active during the day. Walking in the fresh air, classes in the pool, playing on the playground – all this will help you to emotionally and physically release, which will play into your hands at night.
4. Daytime sleep. Although the baby has already grown up, the issue of daytime sleep will remain open for a long time. By mistake, many people think that if you do not let your child sleep during the day, then he will sleep well at night. Due to lack of sleep, a large amount of stress hormone is produced, which may not allow you to fall asleep at all, or the sleep will be weak – superficial.

More tips about kids care you can read here.