8 Infant Sleep Facts Every Parent Needs to Know

Especially when it comes to babies because in the beginning, we are so, so tired, and we just want to catch a little bit of rest. These tips may not cure sleep deprivation or even teach your baby to sleep through the night, but it is my hope they will aid you in guiding your baby to sleeping better.

Infant sleep facts can better help you troubleshoot sleep challenges your baby is currently experiencing.

When we know why our baby is sleeping a certain way, it helps minimize the mystery and makes sense out of frequent infant waking. We may even be able to optimize naps and nighttime sleep, decreasing fatigue over time.

1. Infant sleep cycles are about 45-60 minutes.

Infant sleep cycles are short compared to adults. With short sleep cycles, babies tend to wake up often. This means that if your baby wakes up 45-60 minutes into a nap, they are likely waking up mid-nap. So unless it’s the last nap of the day, which may be a cat nap, your baby likely wasn’t actually done napping. If a baby wakes mid-nap, you can try to lull your baby back to sleep to allow her to finish her nap.

2. Babies spend about 50% of their sleep in active Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.

Babies begin sleep in active sleep and spend equal amounts of time in active and quiet sleep. This means 50% of baby sleep is relatively light and often filled with dreams. Light sleep may contribute to your baby waking often. If your baby is struggling to stay asleep during light sleep, you may consider being extra quiet during sleep cycle transitions (45-60 minutes from start of sleep), swaddling, or using white noise.

3. Babies can take as long as 20 minutes to reach deep sleep.

When initially falling asleep, it’s very common for a baby to take 20 minutes to reach deep sleep. If your baby wakes 5-20 minutes after initially falling asleep, it’s likely because she did not reach a deep sleep. Don’t mistake this for the baby not being tired. Try to lull your baby back to sleep, or if you are sleep-training, allow your baby the chance to fall back asleep independently before rushing in to get her.

4. Ideal nap length is typically 1.5 – 2.5 hours.

A good nap is considered to be at least 1.5 hours. If your baby is taking short naps, she is likely struggling with transitioning through sleep cycles (i.e. staying asleep during REM or light sleep). If being quiet, swaddling or using white noise isn’t enough to help your baby along, you can help lull your baby back to sleep, or if necessary, use a sleep prop like a swing or pacifier. I am not a huge advocate for sleep props, but I’ve certainly used them as a last resort. True story.

5. Infant sleep begins to settle around the 3-6 month mark.

If you are really struggling in the sleep department with your newborn, know that sleep will start to settle during the 3-6 month mark. During this time, your baby will start to enter deep sleep quicker and stay in deep sleep longer.

6. Sleeping through the night is an ambiguous term.

For some babies this happens sooner; for others, much later. Some consider sleeping through the night a 6 hour stretch during the night for a younger baby. For an older baby (+6 months), some experts believe that 10-12 hours per night is achievable for a healthy normal developing baby. This doesn’t mean that if your baby isn’t sleeping a longer stretch during the night that you are doing anything wrong or that your baby has a sleep issue. You are the parent, listen to your baby, and collaborate with your pediatrician to determine what a healthy stretch of nighttime sleep could be for your baby. Don’t rush for your baby to sleep through the night, even if you are sleep training, as it will likely happen naturally over time if you simply allow things to fall into place.

7. A few words about average ages for dropping naps.

Babies are very good at making us parents believe they are not tired. And because of this, naps may be dropped slightly earlier than the optimal window. These are only averages to serve as a guideline (not hard and fast rules) to help you decide when to drop a nap.
It is most common to move from 4 to 3 naps during the 3-5 month age range.
It is most common to move from 3 to 2 naps during the 6-9 month age range.
It is most common to move from 2 to 1 nap during the 14-18 month age range.

8. A few words about bedtime and morning wake-up time.

Newborns (0-3 months) may have a later bedtime initially until sleep starts to settle. However, the ideal bedtime for an infant (3+ months) is 6-8 pm, and the ideal morning wake up time is 6-8 am. Children have been sleeping from dusk until dawn since the beginning of time. If your baby is going to sleep late in the evening, there is a good chance she will suffer from being overtired.

8 Sleep Hacks That Will Put You Right to Bed

If you're groggy throughout the day, it might be because you're not getting good sleep. Quality snooze time is important, as it sets the pace for the rest of the day. To help you get great sleep, we've found some hacks that you might not know about. We found it fitting to illustrate these tips with the masters of snooze, aka cute animals.

1. Your last cup of coffee should be at 2 p.m. 

The half-life of caffeine, or the time it takes for the average person to get rid of half the caffeine in their system, is about five to seven hours. To get rid of 75 percent of the caffeine in your body, it will take eight to 10 hours. Drinking later in the day can generally interfere with your sleep.

2. Move your favorite night activities to the morning.

Maybe you stay up late to indulge in activities you enjoy, such as scrolling through Reddit or reading a book. Instead of putting off precious sleep for these time-wasters, do them first thing in the morning instead. That way, you'll look forward to going to bed and waking up. Reading a book while leisurely munching on your breakfast sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

3. Clean your sheets.

You will sleep better when your bed is clean and comfortable.

4. Take a caffeine nap — the ultimate power snooze.

Take a 15-minute nap immediately after downing a cup of coffee. Researchers found that combining the two was more effective than taking a nap or drinking coffee on their own. Caffeine takes about 15 minutes for the effects to kick in, so by the time you wake up, you'll be feeling refreshed.

5. Use F.lux to diminish artificial light from electronics.

Too much blue light before you sleep can affect the production of melatonin, a hormone that controls the sleep cycle. F.lux can help by changing the color of your computer screen to correspond with the time of day. For example, the brightness will automatically be dimmed and the blue light will lessen as the day turns into night.

6. Or get blue-blocking sunglasses.

You can wear blue-blocking sunglasses ($30) to block out the artificial blue light at home. A University of Toledo study found that adults who wore blue-blocking shades three hours before they slept saw a significant improvement in quality of sleep.

Of course, you can skip all these blue-blocking gadgets if you just limit your usage of electronics a few hours before bed.

7. Invest in some breathe-right strips.

If you're not getting quality sleep, then perhaps you're not properly breathing. For a quick fix, get breathe-right strips ($17) to help open nasal passages.

8. Warm your feet.

We all know that you sleep better in a cool room (between 65 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit) because your body temperature needs to lower for you to get to sleep. However, if the temperature is too low, it may cause your feet to get chilly. And when your hands and feet are cold, the blood vessels constrict, retaining heat in your body and making it harder for you to fall asleep. Since cold feet are strongly linked to the sleep cycle, putting on a pair of socks in bed might be a good way to induce sleep more quickly.

10 Bizarre Things Your Body Does While You Sleep

1. Paralyzes You
REM, which stands for "rapid eye movement" is the deepest phase of sleep. When you vividly recall a dream, it likely occurred during a REM cycle. In REM stages, muscles in our arms and legs are temporarily paralyzed while we sleep.This paralysis is normal, and it's not same as sleep paralysis, which occurs for a few seconds or minutes after you awaken (or, rarely, just before you fall asleep). In this disorder, the normal paralysis that happens during sleep holds on for a few scary moments after you wake up. If you experience this, check with your physician; it could be a symptom of narcolepsy.

2. Jerks You Awake
It may feel like you're falling or it may feel like you've been jolted awake, buthypnic jerks (sometimes called hypnagogic jerks) are a natural and common part of falling asleep. This phenomenon causes your limbs to jerk, perhaps because your body is preparing for the changes that take place during sleep, or perhaps because your body misinterprets the signs of impending sleep as falling--and thus jerks you in a misguided effort to stay upright. Scientists don't agree on what exactly causes hypnic jerks, but they're typically harmless.

3. Moves Your Eyes
As you sleep, you experience five phases of sleep, with REM as the last and most active phase. Once you complete a REM cycle, you'll start the first phase anew. Seventy to 90 minutes after you fall asleep, you should be in REM sleep, and you'll spend about 20 percent of your time sleeping in this stage. During REM sleep, our eyes dart quickly back and forth, but we typically have no memory of this (other than memories of dreams that often happen in this phase).

4. Produces Human Growth Hormone
Human growth hormone, or hgH, helps muscles, bone and other tissues regenerate. The helpful hormone is released during sleep, especially its deepest stages, and is thought to be prompted by low blood glucose levels present during sleep, among other factors. So, there is some science behind the concept of beauty sleep!

5. Narrows Your Throat
As you sleep, your breathing changes and your throat naturally narrows a bit as your muscles relax. If you've experienced a partner who snores noisily, you know what it sounds like when the throat becomes a bit too narrow. (Of course, snoring can have many causes, including a stuffy nose or tonsil issues.) Worse, the airway can close completely, causing sleep apnea.

6. Grinds Your Teeth
Bruxism (teeth clenching or grinding) happens to many people during sleep. It may be exacerbated by stress or a misaligned jaw, but research hasn't pinpointed the reason that some people grind only rarely (or never), while others end up with cracked or worn teeth and sore jaw muscles.

7. Slows Down Your Kidneys
Kidneys normally function to filter toxins out of the bloodstream and to produce urine. As you sleep, the filtering action of these organs slows, so that less urine is produced. (That's the reason your urine is usually so dark the first time you pee in the morning.)

8. Makes Up Stories
If you've awoken after a vivid dream, you know the vague unease of wondering if it was real--or why your mind produced that crazy mishmash of a story to begin with. Despite much research into dreaming and many hypotheses about why we dream and what dreams mean, the nuts and bolts of this everyday happening are still a mystery. Scientists have not yet figured out why we dream as we do, or found a proven process that would explain the content of our dreams.

9. Creates an Explosion
It's rare, but some people who experience exploding head syndrome hear a loud crash or bang, almost like a gunshot, just as they're drifting off to sleep. It's usually painless, but frightening, and tends to occur in adults over 50.

10.Turns You into a Chatterbox
It's more common in children than adults and in men than women, but talking in your sleep happens to about 5 percent of us. Dubbed "somniloquy," sleep talking is technically a sleep disorder, but may not bother you at all. In fact, you may not even realize you're doing it. Like dreaming, somniloquy has yet to be explained, and can occur in any stage of sleep. When you're sleeping lightly, your words will be easier to hear, and vice versa. Talking in your sleep can be sparked by episodes of stress, depression and illness, or occur alongside other sleep issues, such as sleep apnea.

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