Let’s Talk Baby Sleep Cycles
Have you ever wondered why sometimes your little one transfers so well after being rocked to sleep and other times they wake up instantly? This may have something to do with your timing, if we understand our little ones sleep cycles we can nail those transfers and understand why our littles are waking after only 30 minutes or every 2 hours overnight!
Let’s start with newborns! A newborn sleep cycle consists of two phases, Active sleep and Quiet sleep, these are very easy to distinguish as they are very visual cycles. When a newborn first enters sleep they are in active sleep, this is displayed as restlessness, eyelids fluttering and muscle movements. They are very easily woken during this stage, this is around 20-25 mins. From here they go into quiet sleep, their breathing slows, they have less movement and their eyelids stop fluttering. You may also notice they tend to become more relaxed and heavier if they are being held. A full sleep cycle for a newborn lasts around 50 mins.
At around 3.5-4 months of age is when your little ones sleep cycle begins to mature, this is what is also known as the dreaded 4 month regression but in truth its actually a sleep progression as they are progressing developmentally. Their day sleep cycles change to around 45 mins now and have a few more stages than just active and deep sleep and their night sleep cycles change to around 2-4 hourly. Their day sleep cycles change to around 45 mins now and have a few more stages than just active and deep sleep. Th first 0-10 mins of their cycle is when they are starting to fall asleep (easily woken), 10-20 mins they are getting into a deeper sleep (I wouldn’t be attempting that transfer yet), 20-30 mins they are now in that heavy sleep (perfect time to transfer), 30-40 mins they are coming out of that heavy sleep and 45-50 mins they are in that light sleep phase again. This is where things start to come undone because if our little ones are fully assisted to sleep and unable to link these cycles this is where we start to see catnapping appear. If you notice your little one is waking after 45 mins its usually due to them either not having the ability to link the sleep cycles as they are fully assisted to sleep or there are outside factors affecting their ability to drift back to sleep.
Ideally we want our little ones falling asleep in their own sleep space, the sleep environment consistent (dark room, white noise, comforter available, comfortable temp) and a little bit of space to allow our little ones a chance to link those cycles. If your little ones need some support to link these cycles this is where we offer a resettle! Keep your eye out for our resettling blog coming soon….
