Getting a good night's sleep

Posts Tagged ‘sleep issues’

Topics Below are:

• Crib From Day One
• Feeding Schedule and Sleeping through the night (various methods)
• Snoring Sound while Eating
• If Baby Falls Asleep while Eating
• Bedtime Routine
• When Baby Wakes Up in the Middle of the Night
• Changing baby in the Middle of the Night – will it wake your baby?

All babies/children are different but we are all human beings and have certain basic needs. Of course in the first few weeks of life an infant sleeps most the time so you might want to wait a few weeks before worrying about structure, schedules, and sleeping. I personally started from day one with structure, and I am very happy I did.

For best results on getting baby to sleep through the night, start with a feeding schedule then you can move into establishing a sleeping schedule. This feeding schedule will eventually help you to help your baby sleep through the night. Timing is everything here. A baby who sleeps enough, will thrive in so many other ways. These days school children do not get enough sleep and it affects them greatly. It is never too early to start putting some routines into your days and nights. But you have to be flexible since babies are not robots. If your baby is scheduled to eat at 2pm and is crying and seems hungry (sucking your finger off) at 1:15pm, feed your baby. The schedule will soon regulate closer to 2pm as your baby gets older. Often if you engage the child you will see that eating or sleeping is secondary to fun.

Read the rest of this entry »

When a School-Age Child Won’t Sleep Alone by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. reviewed by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. Parents expect their infants to keep them up at night. But many preschool and early school-age children also resist falling asleep without a parent present, or they wake up in the middle of the night and insist on coming into their parents’ rooms. Sometimes they do both.

This problem often starts in infancy and simply carries over into the preschool age range. On the other hand, it’s not uncommon for preschool or school-age children who were sleeping through the night in their own beds to start having these problems. They may end up camping out on their parents’ floor for months at a time–uncomfortable for everyone!

Sort out possible causes The way to go about solving this problem depends somewhat on how long it has been going on and on what else is going on. The more recent the problem, the easier it is to deal with. Sleep problems like this also are easier to handle when your child is doing well in other aspects of her life. A child who is under a lot of pressure–either from peers, at school, or in her home–may develop a sleep problem as a result of the other stress in her life. In these cases, you need to tackle the other problems first, if you can. Then the sleep problems are much easier to handle.

Read the rest of this entry »

Incoming search terms for the article:

• get in bed

To print, just click on your PRINT icon in the top browser navigation bar. Go Back

Your Top 10 Questions About SleepAnswered! Rest easy. Here’s everything you need to know. By KATHERINE FINN DAVIS, PHD, RN, CPNP

New parents often worry about their babys sleep: Is he sleeping too much or not enough? Is he in the right position? Where should he sleep? Dont let these questions keep you up at night the answers are easy once you know the basics.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sadeh, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sadeh, A. Related Collections Office Practice Social Bookmarking What’s this? PEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 6 June 2004, pp. e570-e577 ELECTRONIC ARTICLE A Brief Screening Questionnaire for Infant Sleep Problems: Validation and Findings for an Internet Sample Avi Sadeh, DSc

From the Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

ABSTRACT TOP ABSTRACT METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION APPENDIX: THE BISQ REFERENCES Objective. To develop and validate (using subjective and objective methods) a brief infant sleep questionnaire (BISQ) that would be appropriate for screening in pediatric settings.
Read the rest of this entry »

Sleep. It’s what all humans need. It is part of the rhythm of life and the life cycle. We know that babies sleep a lot. Babies spend more than half the day sleeping. Even by age two, a toddler spends more time asleep than awake. All in all, nearly 40 percent of childhood is spent sleeping.

Why do we need to sleep? Sleep is a necessary part of healthy brain functioning. The right amount of restful sleep is needed for our overall good health. Sleep has a direct influence on many of the body’s functions and helps the body to heal, grow, and stay on track. Recent studies have also linked the risk of obesity to not getting enough sleep. When we get the right amount of sleep, the brain will make chemicals that help control hunger and weight. The amount and quality of sleep we have can affect our safety, how alert we are, as well as our memories, moods, behavior, and learning abilities. Sleep is especially important for children’s learning.

How Much Sleep Do Children Need?

Sleep is as important to children’s development and well-being as nutrition and physical activity. Making sure children get enough rest is but one of many concerns of parents with young children. However, parents are often not sure how much sleep their children need and how much is enough sleep. Doctors and other experts have recommended the following amounts of sleep for children by age:

Read the rest of this entry »

Incoming search terms for the article:

• baby pillow
• sleeping babies

After thousands of years, one would suppose appropriate sleep routines would be ingrained in our traditional childrearing practices, but somehow we’ve lapsed, so it’s fortunate Elizabeth Pantley felt called to retrain us in mindful, deliberate ways to support children’s healthful rest.

Following her insightful, reliable guide to helping babies settle into sleep better (No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night 2002), Pantley presents the next step, a fresh look at sleep issues with practical, logical help for parents of older children.

She gives sound information, wise, caring opinions, and down-to-earth strategies such as her “gentle removal plan” and morning fairy rewards, but no harsh, extinction-based or cry-it-out “programs” to follow. With respect for children and parents, in understandable, friendly language, she explains basic normal sleep patterns and problems, lays out how to develop customized “sleep plans,” and offers general tips, precautions, and a variety of options parents might consider.

Read the rest of this entry »

Berkeley Parents Network Home Members Post a Msg Reviews Advice Subscribe Help/FAQ What’s New
Waking at Night: 2 and 3 Year Olds Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > Sleep > > Waking at Night

• 2-year-old used to sleep well, wakes at night now
• 2-year-old has started waking up at 2:00 A.M.
• 2.5 year old waking several times a night
• 2.5 year old has never slept through the night
• Setting up an “OK” time for 3-y-o to come into our bed
• Night Terrors
• More advice about waking at night

2-year-old used to sleep well, wakes at night now Feb 2004

I have a 2 year old who has always been a good sleeper and is now waking once or twice a night and having a hard time getting back to sleep. I checked the archives and noticed this doesn’t seem to be unconmmon. To parents who have 3 and 4 year olds who went through this at 2, does it go away on it’s own? Is this a phase that will pass without work or should I do something to help him through it. Currently, my husband or I go in and sleep on the floor but it’s tiering for us and I’m wondering if he’ll need us in there forever to be comfortable? Are we supporting him through a difficult developmental phase or are we creating a dependancy we will have to ”break” him from later. Let me know. Thanks! Sleepless

For what it’s worth, I am someone who recently posted a desperate e-mail about night- (and early-morning-) waking in my two-year-old, who up until then had been a champion sleeper. Her brother arrived just before she turned two, so I don’t know whether it was turning two, or the new addition to the family, but she just became a miserable, miserable sleeper — unable to fall asleep without having someone stay by her side for ages, waking up with terrible nightmares and unable to fall back asleep without yet more endless help, and then getting up to start the day sometimes as early as 4 a.m. I’m not really sure how we got through this, but yes, it DOES get better. My husband was in favor of indulging whatever requests she came up with — extra songs, lots of ”watching over her,” taking her into our bed (a big disaster), etc.; I was more inclined to try to nip things in the bud. In the end, we took a sort of middle road: he, the one willing to put up with everything, started putting her to bed, so at bedtime she got indulged — but ONLY as long as she was TRYING to fall asleep. If she was just playing around in her crib, or whining, or whatever, he would threaten to leave; if she lay there quietly with her eyes shut (although clearly suffering from some kind of anxious insomnia), he would stay quietly in the room for as long as it took, until she fell asleep. I would go to her for the night wakings, with a similar sort of approach. However, since we had the new little baby, eventually I would just get too exhausted to stay up with her, and amazingly, when I explained that I HAD to leave because I just couldn’t stay awake any longer, . . . she simply accepted that and went to sleep herself. Now, at 2-1/2, she often falls asleep without much trouble and when she (rarely) wakes during the night, a quick visit is enough to get her right back to sleep. I do think she benefitted from the extra comforting we gave her — maybe this helped her eventually to feel a bit more relaxed and confident – - but it was also interesting to see that she really didn’t NEED all of the comforting she had been demanding.

Or, . . . maybe she just grew out of it!

2-year-old has started waking up at 2:00 A.M. May 2002
Read the rest of this entry »

Newborn Babies and Sleep
By Elizabeth Pantley, author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution

Congratulations on the birth of your new baby. This is a glorious time in your life and a sleepless time too. Newborns have very different sleep needs than older babies. This article will help you understand your baby’s developing sleep patterns, and will help you have reasonable expectations for sleep.

Read the rest of this entry »

Incoming search terms for the article:

• polyphasic sleep cycles

If you’ve ever taken medicine to help you sleep, you’re probably in one of two camps: Either it worked well and provided much needed relief—or it was a waste of money, caused a slew of side effects, and left you wondering what better options were out there. While there are plenty of sleep drugs available to treat everything from insomnia to restless legs syndrome, they haven’t stopped the pharmaceutical industry from searching for newer, more effective, and more profitable medications.

No new prescription sleep drugs hit the market in 2008, but research in several fields is under way. “I’m excited about a lot of these new drugs,” says Lisa Shives, MD, president and medical director of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Evanston, Ill., and spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “The brain is a complicated setup with approximately 17 different neurotransmitters involved in the sleep-wake cycle and, as soon as we fully understand all of them, drugs will present better solutions for sleep disorders.”

Here, some potential treatments that could soon help you rest easier—and suggestions for what to do in the meantime.

Read the rest of this entry »

I did read it, all of it. And before having our baby, I thought it was the most sensible book out there on sleep issues. That was, until we had our baby.

Our son is just over 8 months old, and started waking up in the middle of the night, after having slept through the night from very early on. We are, of course, at a loss as to what to do.

He started teething, which we believed enticed the waking-up at 2:30 AM nightly routine. We both work, so instead of spending 20 precious minutes trying to put H back to sleep by cuddling with him, and maybe more time if he woke up again as soon as we laid him down in his crib, we just started bringing him into our bed. He would sleep wonderfully. But we sort of fear that we are establishing a bad habit, or rather, a habit that will be hard to break when he is older.

Read the rest of this entry »