A Newborn’s 3 Main Sleep Obstacles

Unfair, isn’t it? The one time in your life when you need rest and you’ve just given birth to an adorable malfunctioning alarm clock. Here are the 3 main reasons why, aside from hunger, your newborn just can’t do a solid block of snoozing during those first few weeks:

1. Night Time Cycling

A baby’s sleep cycles are shorter than ours. Up until about 9 months, one infant sleep cycle lasts around 50 minutes, while an adult cycle ranges from 60-90 minutes. Babies tend to pop in and out of sleep cycles and since newborns have no self-soothing skills, they struggle to bridge these gaps, causing them to wake up frequently in search of food and comfort.

1. It’s Oh So Quiet

Imagine being wrapped up in a blanket and attached to a Roomba as it hums and whirs around your house. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Not to a newborn, it doesn’t! (Please don’t put your baby on a vacuum, no matter how exhausted you are.) Newborns are fresh out of a cozy womb with built-in white noise that moved every time mom took a breath; that’s what comfort is to them. Is it any surprise that being put to bed in a flat, non-moving, quiet space takes getting used to?

1. Babies Have No Sense of Rhythm

All adults have rhythm. (Circadian that is; I can’t vouch for your dance-floor skills.) Our internal clock, influenced by sunlight and darkness, helps us regulate our sleeping and waking cycles. In utero, baby was dependent on mom’s circadian rhythms. Now little one finds himself in a world with dark and light and no idea how to regulate between the two. This is part of the reason why newborns may sleep 16 hours a day, but it is chunked into 1-4 hour blocks throughout the day and the night.

By Hannah Mira, Founder of Bonsoir Bebe Sleep Consulting