As the baby continues to grow and age, the time to sleep slowly decreases, from the original fifteen hours of sleep a day to twelve or even ten hours a day. Moreover, with the reduction of time, the quality of sleep is also declining, from the original deep sleep to light sleep, it is easy to wake up from sleep because of a little sound.
The quality of sleep has a big impact on your baby's health and development
1. Sleep quality affects the baby's height development.
At this time, the baby is in the first golden period of height development, and it is also the fastest golden period among the three golden periods of growth in the human body.
When the baby enters deep sleep, the pituitary gland is able to allocate limited energy to secrete growth hormone, and at the same time, it begins to enter the high-speed secretion phase two hours after entering deep sleep. Therefore, the better the quality of sleep, the higher the proportion of time spent in deep sleep, and the easier it is for your baby to grow taller.
2. Sleep quality affects your baby's brain development
When the baby goes to sleep, the brain also goes into a semi-dormant state, in which the oxygen consumption of the cells in the brain is greatly reduced, which facilitates their storage of energy. Therefore, good sleep quality will promote the development of brain intelligence, improve the development of baby's memory and attention, and will also make him energetic the next day.
3. Sleep quality affects your baby's immunity and physical function
In normal operation, our body will produce corresponding antibodies against various antigen substances, and then clear these antigens through the immune response of the immune system, which is the so-called immunity of the body, and sleep can improve the body's immunity.
On the other hand, the body's basal metabolism in the sleep state is reduced, and while restoring the fatigue caused by the operation of the day and repairing itself, the stomach and intestines and other organs are also taking the opportunity to synthesize and manufacture various energy substances needed by the human body to prepare energy for activities after waking.
4. Sleep quality can also affect your baby's mental health
Low sleep quality will have a relatively large impact on the baby's mood, the external performance is that the baby is more likely to cry, in fact, this is the tension, anxiety, irritability and other emotional changes brought about by low sleep quality.
If the baby is not sleep-deprived for a long time, he will develop the habit of insomnia, and he will be in these emotions for a long time, which will lead to anxiety and depression if it is serious. Once these two mutually causal things are allowed to happen, it leads to a vicious circle.
It can be seen that it is very necessary to cultivate good sleep habits for babies, so how can mothers help their babies improve their sleep?
1. Do not over-intervene
This is also a problem that most mothers make, once the baby makes a sound or frowns, they rush to pick up the baby and beat and shake. Such a practice will not only fail to achieve the purpose of letting the child fall asleep again, but also create a false psychological impression for the baby.
Babies humming or crying during sleep are actually very normal phenomena, but the appearance of these phenomena does not mean that the baby is fully awake, if there is no external intervention, the baby can actually enter sleep again. This can cultivate the habit of the baby falling asleep on his own, if the parents interfere excessively, the baby will not be able to sleep without shooting, or as long as he sleeps, he will easily wake up.
2. Fix your baby's sleep time and remind you in advance
The human body has its own biological clock, which, once formed, has a semi-coercive effect. Just like some people are used to going to bed at ten o'clock, then once they reach ten o'clock, they will feel sleepy, and this is the biological clock at work. At the same time, the biological clock is also very easy to break, and if the body's schedule is continuously disrupted, then this time will disappear.
Help the baby fix the time of sleep, remind the baby half an hour in advance, let the baby's body subconsciously enter the state of preparation before going to bed, and form good sleep habits.
3. Arrange your surroundings in advance
Arrange your baby's bedroom in advance, make a bed, adjust the lighting and indoor temperature, and create a comfortable sleeping environment for your baby.
4. Help your baby calm down in advance
Do not engage in intense activities with your baby for an hour before going to bed, and try to slow down your baby's heart rate as much as possible. Calm activities, such as reading stories, can be arranged to avoid increasing your baby's excitement. At the same time, do not place toys or loud objects around your baby's bed, so that your baby will not want to sleep because of curiosity or want to continue playing.
5. Pay attention to companionship when you first let your baby sleep alone
Once your baby is no longer breastfeeding, he should start sleeping on his own. At this time, the mother should accompany the baby to sleep, hum a gentle song or pat the baby's back to give them a sense of security. Don't leave immediately after the baby is asleep, stay with them for ten to twenty minutes, and then leave after the baby has fallen into a deep sleep.
The baby's good sleep habits need to be cultivated by parents, and developing good sleep habits for the baby is also to ensure their physical health and mental health.