Sleep: Peace or Plight?

Sleep; to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension, complete or partial, of consciousness; cease being awake. To be dormant, quiescent, or inactive, as faculties. To be careless or unalert; allow one's alertness, vigilance, or attentiveness to lie dormant. -www.dictionary.com

: the natural, easily reversible periodic state of many living things that is marked by the absence of wakefulness and by the loss of consciousness of one's surroundings, is accompanied by a typical body posture (such as lying down with the eyes closed), the occurrence of dreaming, and changes in brain activity and physiological functioning, is made up of cycles of non-REM sleep and REM sleep, and is usually considered essential to the restoration and recovery of vital bodily and mental functions -Merriam-Webster Dictionary

A periodic state of muscular relaxation, reduced metabolic rate, and suspended consciousness in which a person is largely unresponsive to events in the environment. -Oxford Dictionary

These detailed explanations of sleep cover it all however, they don’t describe the anatomy of sleep specific to an infant. From the perspective of a newborn, sleep is anytime, anywhere. Babies enter the world at all hours and do not have a developed Circadian Rhythm to help them determine day from night right away. As a postpartum doula, I specialize in overnight support and deal firsthand with the mayhem of an undecided schedule. Although I am not an expert on sleep, I decided to take a deeper peek into the science of sleep in order to understand the similarities and differences between babies and their parents. Researchers believe this rhythm can start setting up in the early weeks with encouraging or eliminating cues utilizing specific colors of light or stimulus at certain times of the day. Babies and parents wrestle with a shared schedule to organize these matters and yet, over time, development, and through intentional rituals everyone eventually figures it out.  

Sleep is a science and understanding that there is a ratio of sleep to awake time as the baby matures can help parents decode what's going on behind closed eyes. Requiring about 14-17 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period, newborns 0-3 months will sleep in short bouts throughout the day and eventually trend towards sleeping more at night. In the first 4 weeks of life, a baby can sleep 16-17 hours in a 24 hour period with a mix of patterns mostly consisting of light and restless sleep but ranging from light to active to transitional sleep. Newborns typically drift directly into a baby version of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep when they first fall asleep. REM is an active sleep stage that often exhibits twitches, grunts, irregular breathing, and other physical activity. Babies are easily awakened while in REM, and most of their total sleep-time is spent in REM. It is during quiet sleep that babies can actually be fed without being fully awakened. A typical sleep cycle can last 40 minutes.

1. Indeterminate or Transitional Sleep

2. Quiet Sleep

3. Indeterminate or Transitional Sleep

4. Active Sleep

5. Brief waking (1-2 minutes)

6. Indeterminate or Transitional Sleep

We then need to take a look at the adult sleep patterns and how this syncs up, or not, with babies. Adults have a varied range in required sleep per 24 hour period. With that, when one is experiencing sleep, a complete cycle can take about 90 minutes and this can repeat 4-6 times throughout the night. A cycle consists of Stage 1 NREM (NonRapid Eye Movement): The lightest stage of sleep, which lasts a few minutes Stage 2 NREM: A deeper stage of sleep that accounts for most of NREM sleep Stage 3 NREM: The deepest stage of sleep, which is the hardest to wake from REM is the stage in which you dream.

Once a baby has surpassed his or her birth weight, usually within 2 weeks, there can be some flexibility with the feeding schedule particularly at night. It is recommended to stay on a 3 hour feeding schedule round the clock in order to create a consistent increase in the baby’s intake and the  mom’s milk output. If a baby is showing interest in sleeping longer, say 4 hours at a time, it is recommended to make small changes so everyone can adjust harmoniously. Within time, baby will go for longer stretches, as will mom. This coveted sanctuary of reprieve is a wonderful relief until it is realized there may be regressions. Ultimately the holy grail of achievements will arrive when the baby will sleep through the night -or at least give a robust clip of slumber compatible to your schedule.

At some point, we master the skill of consolidating sleep into a dense period of time. As we adapt to this pattern, sleep becomes essential for regeneration, healing, metabolic regulation, brain function, immunity, and a host of other functions. We also build rituals into sleep to create comfortable routines and support good sleep hygiene. Ultimately, this is what we do when we try to integrate babies, and their wild ways, into our organized world.

Sleep training has become a popular catch-phrase for getting babies to join us adults in a more predictable sleep routine. Over the years, it has been referred to as ‘crying it out” or the Ferber Method. Whatever we call it, this concept of falling asleep independently is a huge right of passage for many babies (and parents), some are accepting of it sooner than others.

Sources; ParentingScience.com National Institutes of Health

newborn sleep infant sleep postpartum