It is clear to any person that only with prolonged and sound sleep can forces be fully restored - physical and spiritual. This is especially important for children. But at the same time, not all parents know what the norm of the child’s sleep is. This is a serious omission. You need to know how many children sleep at one age or another and see if your son or daughter is spending enough time in bed.
How much the baby sleeps in the first months of life
First, let’s tell you what the norm of a baby’s sleep is by months.
In the first month, it’s easier to say how long he is awake. Because a healthy child, whom nothing bothers, at this time there are only two modes - food and sleep.
He sleeps about 8 to 10 hours a night. And during this time he manages to wake up two or three times in order to thoroughly refuel with mother's milk. In the afternoon, he also sleeps 3-4 times, and sometimes more. So if a child who is not even a month old sleeps 15-18 hours a day, this is a completely normal indicator. Worse, if he sleeps much less - perhaps some discomfort, pain or hunger interferes with him. Be sure to consult a doctor so that he examined it. Sometimes the problem lies in a short bridle - the child cannot fully suckle his chest, eats very slowly, spending a lot of energy on it. As a result, he lacks sleep, which affects his nervous system.
At two months the situation is almost no different. The child may well sleep 15-17 hours. But for some time he is already looking around, studying the world around him. Although his main occupations are still sleep and food.
By three months, the picture is changing slightly. In general, the baby sleeps for about 14-16 hours per day. Of these, 9-11 fall at night. He sleeps 3-4 times a day. He has already spent quite a lot of time not only eating, but also simply inspecting the world around him, licking his fingers and any objects that he can stick in his mouth, makes various sounds, smiles.
We count a dream up to a year
Now we will try to find out the norms of sleep and wakefulness of a child up to a year.
The time spent on sleep is reduced gradually, but constantly. From 4 to 5 months, children sleep about 15 hours at night, and during the day another 4-5 hours, dividing this time into 3-4 periods.
From 6 to 8 months, a little less is allocated for sleep - 14-14.5 hours (about 11 at night and 3-3.5 in the afternoon). The child sits confidently, crawls, in every possible way studies the world around him, actively eats various complementary foods, although the basis of the diet remains mother's milk.
Further, if we talk about the sleep standards of children up to a year by months, a period of 8 to 12 months follows. At night, the child is still sleeping for 11 hours (plus or minus thirty minutes). But in the afternoon she goes to bed just a couple of times, and the length of each sleep session is not too long - from 1 to 2 hours. In total, about 13-14 hours accumulate per day - it is enough for the growing body to have a good rest, recharge with energy and successfully develop in all respects.
Tiny up to 3 years
Now that you know the sleep patterns of children up to a year by month, you can go to the next point.
In two years, the child sleeps at night for about 12-13 hours. There can be two daytime sleep sessions, but most often the children are limited to one, usually before lunch or immediately after it - and they already sleep relatively little, rarely more than 1.5-2 hours. Which is understandable - the body is already a little stronger, and around there are a bunch of toys with which you can have a great time, actively developing.
By three years, night sleep is reduced to 12 hours. There is only one daytime sleep, it is advisable to adjust it to the period after dinner so that the child does not run to a full stomach, but sleep peacefully, assimilating the substances received during meals. Sleep during the day is already quite short - about 1 hour, rarely one and a half.
And older
At four years of age, the child is already quite strong, he does not need as much sleep as before. In addition, various development options appear. And one month does not play such a role as in infancy, when a child and his needs change surprisingly quickly.
For example, some children aged 4 to 7 years feel best if they sleep 10-11 hours at night and do not take a day's sleep break at all. Such a schedule doesn’t suit others - in the middle of the day they become lethargic, do not want to play, they are capricious until they fall asleep at least for an hour. But thanks to such a break, night sleep is reduced to 9-10 hours.
From 7 to 10 years, children almost never go to bed during the day, if they have enough night sleep - this period should be at least 10-11 hours.
By 10-14 years, the child is already very close to an adult. Therefore, he usually sleeps 9-10 hours.
Finally, after fourteen years, he ceases to be a child, becoming a teenager, and in some cases an adult. Here, business is first and foremost individual needs. 7 hours is enough for some adults to get enough sleep, while others can work productively only if they spend 9-10 hours in bed.
So that each parent can easily remember these data, we indicate the norms of children's sleep in the table below.
How to calculate how much a baby sleeps
Many practical parents add their child’s rest time to homemade tables. The sleep rates of children were presented above. With such data, you can determine how correctly and harmoniously the child develops.
You can start such a table from the very first days of life. Just write down what time he fell asleep, what time he woke up, and then summarize the results and compare with the data above.
The main thing is to accurately determine the correspondence of the regime of the day of your child to the sleep standards of children up to a year. The table needs to be kept more than one day, but at least a week, or better, two. In this case, you can accurately determine how much the child sleeps on average per day. After all, there is always the possibility that a child was scared by an extraneous sound, or if his stomach just got sick from something, which prevents him from sleeping soundly. But having the data for a significant period of time, you will get the most accurate result.
And here it is advisable to avoid rounding. Did the child oversleep in the afternoon for 82 minutes? So write down, not limited to the vague wording of "an hour and a half." Losing 10-15 minutes at each session of day and night sleep, you can well miscalculate for an hour and a half, and this is an extremely serious error, which will certainly affect the reliability of the observations.
Also, many parents are interested in the heart rate in children in a dream. In fact, this indicator can vary significantly even in one child - from 60 to 85 beats per minute. It depends on the position of the body, the presence of diseases, sleep phase (fast or deep) and other factors. So in a quarter of an hour such differences are quite possible - you should not worry about this.
Is it always necessary to comply with the standard
Some people are very worried about the child’s sleep rate by age. After careful calculations, it turns out that their child lacks sleep (or, conversely, pours) an hour, or even two. Of course, this can cause a panic.
However, in fact, in most cases there is no reason for concern. The main thing is to watch how the child behaves after waking up. If he is fresh, cheerful, plays with pleasure, reads, draws and walks, and eats well at the scheduled time, then everything is in order. Remember - first of all, the dream should satisfy the needs of the child, and not the tables compiled by experts for "average" children.
Observe how the child breathes in a dream - the norm is 20-30 breaths per minute in children under 3 years old, about 12-20 in adolescents. Moreover, breathing should be smooth, calm, without sobs and groans.
So if the child feels comfortable with the sleep regimen chosen by him, then you definitely should not worry.
How important is sleep?
But this item should be studied more closely. Everyone knows about the importance of sleep, but few can say for sure what threatens chronic lack of sleep in childhood and adolescence.
To begin with, children sleeping less than 7-8 hours are usually in worse physical shape. They get tired faster, are not able to withstand significant loads.
In addition, it affects intellectual abilities. Memory, intellect, ability to analyze the facts provided suffer. And the worst thing is that even if the dream is restored with age, and the person sleeps as much as necessary, missed opportunities cannot be returned - if the potential inherent in the child is not revealed at the right time, then it will never be revealed.
Of course, it causes harm to lack of sleep and the nervous system. Adults who slept little or poorly in childhood become more timid, insecure, more likely to become depressed, and prone to stress.
So the importance of the child’s sleep norm is simply impossible to overestimate.
What determines the duration of sleep
As you noticed, one child needs 15 hours a day for a healthy sleep, while 12-13 is enough for his peer.
This is due to various factors. First of all, the fortress of sleep. After all, if you sleep in a dark room, in comfort and silence, you can sleep in less time than in a noisy room, which is relatively brightly lit, on an uncomfortable bed.
Heredity also plays a role. If parents need 6-7 hours of sleep to feel great, they should expect that the child will come closer to these indicators over time.
Finally, lifestyle is very important. It is quite clear that a child who attends a couple of sports sections and spends a huge amount of energy will sleep longer (and, note, harder - which positively affects the nervous system) than his peer who spends all day at the computer.
What time to lay the baby
Another important question is how to choose the optimal sleep schedule. In infancy, the child often confuses day and night. He can oversleep all daylight hours and play or just mumble, look around all night. But with age, he enters into a certain schedule - in many respects it depends on the parents.
Experts believe that it is better for a child, like any person, to go to bed early and get up early. As practice shows, people who go to bed at 9 in the evening and wake up at 5-6 in the morning are distinguished by increased working capacity, do not get tired any longer, and have a wonderful memory. So if you can, try to adjust the child’s schedule to this mode. Of course, for this, parents will also have to change their usual way of life.
Signs of lack of sleep
Be sure to pay attention to whether the child has signs of lack of sleep.
The main one is increased tearfulness. The child, who usually behaves beautifully, begins to cry, get upset about every occasion.
It is also worthwhile to beware if the child sometimes goes to bed 2-3 hours earlier than usual - the body tells him that sleep is clearly not enough.
Children 1 year old and older, falling asleep and waking up with crying, are also an alarming sign. Definitely they need to sleep more, and parents should not only study the sleep standards of children after a year, but also provide a dark room, a comfortable bed and silence.
Do I need medication?
But here we can definitely say no. A child is a tool with surprisingly flexible tuning. And any medications, even those that, according to doctors, are harmless, can cause great harm to his health.
If the child is often upset and crying over trifles, he is falling asleep, so just give him the opportunity to get enough sleep. Sometimes the cause of lack of sleep is family scandals - try to protect children from this terrible side of adulthood.
Does the child sleep less than his peers, but at the same time he feels great, is not inferior to his friends in physical and intellectual development? This means that you should not worry at all - all processes in the body are proceeding normally, and the son or daughter just sleep as much as they need. Any attempts to adjust the established schedule will bring only unnecessary problems.
Conclusion
Now you know the norms of sleep and wakefulness of a child up to a year and older. Therefore, you can easily calculate the optimal schedule, protect children from any health and development problems caused by chronic lack of sleep.