Newborns sleep a lot, up to 20 hours a day, and this is normal and necessary for their growth and development. Parents should not worry about oversleeping, as babies have their own internal clocks and will wake up for food and attention. It is not a sign of inadequate parenting.
Many new parents worry about their newborns’ sleep patterns. How much sleep can a healthy baby reasonably be expected to need during those first few months of life? Is there a time when a parent should worry about their child sleeping too much? The thing is, babies are sleeping, and that’s perfectly normal. Here are some facts about babies and sleep that can help ease the minds of first-time parents.
The reality is that newborns sleep. In fact, newborns sleep a lot. While a baby’s sleep pattern may not match that of his or her parents, there’s no cause for alarm if your baby sleeps most of the night and still gets plenty of sleep during the day. Even if your baby sleeps up to twenty hours a day, with short periods of wakefulness scattered throughout the time, there is no cause for alarm.
One of the reasons behind what appears to be oversleeping in children is the fact that the child is still adjusting to a new environment and experiencing rapid growth at the same time. Sleeping very early for babies is a good thing. Proper development requires children to get plenty of sleep. Growth hormones are secreted by the pituitary gland at a much faster rate while babies are sleeping.
As any experienced parent can attest, the first five months of a baby’s life are marked by rapid growth. It’s not unusual for babies to double their body weight by the time the baby has reached the age of five months. After that point, growth will continue at a steady pace, but will begin to slow slightly over the next few months. The baby’s sleep interrupted occasionally by waking up for food and attention is perfectly normal during this time and should be considered a sign of normal baby health.
There are those new parents who are concerned that their children’s oversleeping indicates a deficiency in parenting skills. That is absolutely not the case. As long as parents make sure that the baby is in a comfortable environment, is well fed, kept clean, and kept close during those intermittent periods of wakefulness, there will be no shortage. Children sleep because they need to, not to escape inattentive or in any way inadequate parents. Of course, as the child gets older, parents will play a more active role in helping the child develop sleep patterns in line with the rest of the family. But this will happen over time and shouldn’t be taken as a sign that a parent is failing to do a good job.
Babies sleep so much because it’s part of the natural order of things. Don’t worry about your child waking up in the middle of the night because he overslept during the day. Children have their own internal clocks that don’t work according to society’s conventions. Allow babies to sleep through those first few months which are so critical for normal development and don’t worry about baby oversleeping. In this case, the child knows better.
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