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When a baby is born, you should never anticipate that he or she will be sleeping all night long. Yes, babies are known to have at least 16 hours of sleep daily but they usually have 1 to 3 hours of interval, never sleeping all those hours at once, not like adults that sleep 8 hours per session. What should you expect the baby sleep schedule of your newborn to be? Let’s discuss this in some detail.

Each new parent experiences sleepless nights because more or less, their newborn is keeping them up all night. Don’t feel hopeless and agonized if your little one never gives you a wink of sleep at night. You are not alone.

Babies have different moods of getting sleep; they vary from baby to the next. Others snooze for a moment then get easily awakened. And some are can naturally sleep in an instant and get all the sleep they can get. Several newborns however, need the help of their loving parents to begin a proper sleep schedule at some point after delivery.

It’s very important that parents should know the fact that a baby can’t differentiate night time from day time yet. This is why they are more likely to be awake during night than during day time. Parents who have newborns that are awake in the evening will have a difficult time changing their timetable especially if they have other kids that need their attention and love during the day. This may prove to be a problem.

On the brighter side, parents can solve this problem. They can help their child to have a different baby sleep schedule by helping teach them how to determine night time and day time. To do this, parents should minimize stimulation of their baby’s activities. And take note that during the day time, they should do the exact opposite. As much as possible, they should interact more with the child. This may take a little while, but their efforts will not go to waste as little by little, the child can and will start to know his or her sleeping time in the evening.

Little ones, unlike adults, normally have more shallow sleep cycles or REM for adults. Thus resulting to difficulties of getting back to sleep once interrupted. They are prone to disruptions so try not to wake them up in the middle of their sleep. If they are awakened, parents may have to stay up all night. But sooner or later, they will learn how to go back to sleep on their own.

Usually when your baby is around 6 weeks old, they can sleep through the night with minimal disruptions. On the other hand, there are those who still wake up 2 to 3 times at night even after a year of their lives. This means they have a different preference in sleeping, that is also affected by their personality. Building a baby’s sleeping schedule actually differs from one baby to the next. Keep in mind though that they usually only sleep 4 to 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep during the night.

So it’s very essential that parents should start to put their baby in their crib as early as possible so they can learn how to sleep on their own in an early stage. Your child will develop a regular baby sleep schedule in time. Seeking the help of a pediatrician when you are frustrated by his sleeping habits is always a good thing.