Sleeping babies are the cutest, idyllic and swollen little faces, which are fascinating to watch.
But sleeping babies have a lot of mythical behaviors that are difficult to understand.
Sometimes when you are asleep and your hands are open, suddenly a spirit...
Sometimes the corners of the mouth rise, smiling while sleeping...
Sometimes I have to fall asleep and start to snort, am I not full? What's going on here?
Let's take a look at what is behind the mythical behavior of young babies after sleeping.
I smiled when I fell asleep
Did you dream of mom and dad?
Seeing the sweet smile of the little baby who is asleep, many people will wonder if the baby has any beautiful dreams?
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Not really!
Dreams generally occur during the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep phase of sleep.
Image source: SLEEP WELL
Researchers in Japan have found that brain waves similar to REM sleep (known as active sleep) can be observed in the womb during the mother's 25 to 28 weeks' gestation.) While still uncertain, the researchers speculate that this could mean that REM sleep begins before birth.
But dreaming is still a little harder for young babies' cognitive development. Making up dreams requires material, but young babies don't have enough memory and knowledge to dream.
Psychologists and neuroscientists generally agree that babies start dreaming around the age of two.
According to research by children's dream expert David Fox, even if children have begun to dream before the age of 5, their dreams are more like static slide images than movie pictures, and they will start to move when they are 5 to 9 years old.
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
Therefore, when we see a small moon-old baby smiling while sleeping soundly, it is actually just a physiological laugh, a spontaneous smile.
This smile is more like a reflexive behavior, and it occurs involuntary and unconscious. In addition to smiling, we will also find that the baby frowns uncontrollably in his sleep, skimming his lips, and making various expressions.
So, are we thinking too much???
Falling asleep suddenly twitched
Scared?
Sometimes we see a baby asleep and suddenly twitching, and our hearts also tremble a little, what is wrong with the baby? Scared?
Don't worry, this is the baby's startle reflex, also known as the Moro Reflex.
The startle reflex is a reflex response of a baby when frightened (such as a loud noise or strong light) and is characterized by arms and legs stretching from the body to one side as if they were about to hug.
Why the startled reflex occurs, there are many opinions, and many theories have been proposed.
Professor Dennis Gasner of the University of British Columbia told everyone: "Some people think that the startle reflex is an internal alarm system to ensure that the baby responds to dangers, such as loud noises, sudden movements, etc."
At a young age, babies' jumping reactions are unavoidable, and babies will have this reflex in a healthy state, like a test of the nervous system.
Usually by March to June, the startle reflex will naturally disappear as your baby grows and develops.
So don't worry, he's just telling Mom and Dad I'm healthy.
Fall asleep without panting
Is there a problem with breathing?
During sleep, when the brain is less active, breathing becomes slower and shallower. Babies sometimes pause breathing for five or even ten seconds (if more than twenty seconds is a sign to be vigilant) and then take a deep breath to start over, which is called periodic breathing.
This is normal and will gradually develop into a more mature breathing pattern in the months after your baby is born.
Is it not a time to probe the baby's sniffles of you, all of a sudden to be frightened!
Fall asleep and sit up
Didn't play enough during the day?
When the turning over skill is turned on, the baby often falls asleep and begins to turn over, and after getting stuck, he will cry.
When the ability to sit is turned on, the baby suddenly sleeps halfway through, sits up and continues to sleep.
And when the standing and walking skills are turned on, even some babies fall asleep and stand up, and then lie down...
How does the baby fall asleep and exercise?
Just like the baby smiles in sleep earlier, the researchers found that when the baby is in active sleep (corresponding to REM sleep), there are not only facial movements, but also body movements.
Therefore, when the baby learns the skills of turning over, sitting and even crawling, he will naturally unlock these movements in sleep.
In fact, whether it is the facial expressions in sleep, the twitching of movements, these behaviors that occur during the baby's active sleep period are beneficial to the development of the baby's brain.
The University of Iowa Center for Psychological and Brain Science believes that babies' expressions and movements during active sleep (REM) are related to sensorimotor development — when faces and bodies twitch during sleep, it activates circuits in the brain that tell newborns what their body limbs can do.
So yes, the baby is also unconsciously practicing his motor skills!
Falling asleep suddenly snorted
Is there something delicious in your mouth?
The baby is asleep, suddenly making a bar chirping sound, eating very delicious, so that parents wonder if there is anything delicious in the mouth of the snack goods that has not been swallowed, or is it hungry?
In fact, they just soothe themselves by chewing and sucking like this.
This non-nutritive sucking (unearned sucking) helps soothe young babies, such as pacifiers and finger sucking, and is a very clever self-sedation strategy for young babies.
Especially when sleeping, it shows that he is trying to calm down through his own strength and give Mom and Dad more time to relax.
It's a little guy who hurts!
Fall asleep and talk about dreams
Is there any secret?
Children love to talk in their sleep more than adults. Half of the children aged 3 to 10 have experienced talking to themselves in their sleep.
In fact, when children begin to learn to speak and learn languages, sleep is also a good learning time for children.
When people are in the REM sleep phase, the brain is constantly recovering and charging, which is the golden time for memory consolidation, and so are children.
And neuroscientists believe that when babies are in active sleep (corresponding to REM sleep), the brain is also constantly building new pathways, constantly integrating new information, and then acting on the child's language learning and development.
So, babies are practicing speaking! Even sleeping is very hard to learn it, it is called a bully baby!
In fact, in the eyes of our adults, the behavior of those baby sleep myths is the baby's brain that allows them to secretly learn skills in their sleep, and slowly move towards independence and maturity.
In the first days, babies needed to be cared for day and night by mom and dad. So they want to grow up faster, reduce the burden on their hard-working parents, and then one day become the way they can repay their parents.
(Isn't it fun to have a sleeping baby, what are some of the peculiar movements of your baby, share it and see how much of it is with mom and you?) ）
[1] Okawa, H., Morokuma, S., Maehara, K., Arata, A., Ohmura, Y., Horinouchi, T., ... & Kato, K. (2017). Eye movement activity in normal human fetuses between 24 and 39 weeks of gestation. PLoS One, 12(7), e0178722.
[2] Foulkes, D. (1999). Children's dreaming and the development of consciousness. Harvard University Press.
[3] El Shakankiry, H. M. (2011). Sleep physiology and sleep disorders in childhood. Nature and Science of Sleep, 3, 101.
Newborn reflexes. HealthyChildren.org. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2022, from [4]https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/Pages/Newborn-Reflexes.aspx
[5] Sokoloff, G., Uitermarkt, B. D., & Blumberg, M. S. (2015). REM sleep twitches rouse nascent cerebellar circuits: Implications for sensorimotor development. Developmental neurobiology, 75(10), 1140-1153.
[6] Wolchover, N. (2012, February 8). What do babies dream about? LiveScience. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://www.livescience.com/33702-babies-dream-sleep.html
[7] Sense, B. (2019, June 12). Sucking: The secret to a good night's sleep. Baby Sense USA - Happy days & peaceful nights. Retrieved March 18, 2022
[8] Apnea. What to Expect and What You Can Do to Prevent Complications. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2022, from https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/conditions/apnea
Cooperation expert Wang Bingyu
M.A. in Preschool Education, Boston University
Many years of experience in kindergarten teaching in China and the United States
Audit expert Yang Yucheng
Physician of the Department of Pain, Beijing Shijitan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University
Clinical Master of Neurology, Bethune School of Medicine, Jilin University
Planner: Lan Lan
Producer: Astro Boy
Title image source: Stand Cool Helo