Sleeping Patterns and Bed Selection in Babies
While the night sleep pattern in babies begins to settle between 6 weeks and 3 months, the daytime sleep pattern only settles around the 6th month. This is because the baby's brain perceives night and day sleep differently. In sleep training of babies, contrary to expectations, solving daytime sleep problems may be more difficult than solving nighttime sleep problems. However, with the right analysis, effort and patience, it is possible to solve almost any sleep problem.
Daytime sleep should not be considered as a completely separate issue from night sleep. All the baby's sleeps within 24 hours (day and night) are part of a whole. Night sleep affects daytime sleep, and daytime sleep affects night sleep. Balance is very important in this interaction. Having enough sleep during the day helps your baby sleep well at night. Sleeping too much or too little during the day negatively affects your baby's night sleep and causes them to wake up at night. Babies who are made to sleep less than they need during the day or kept awake until late in the evening, with thoughts such as "The baby who is very tired sleeps better at night" or "Let him sleep less during the day so that he sleeps better at night", wake up frequently at night due to extreme tiredness.
There are different approaches to where and under what conditions daytime sleep should be taken. Some experts argue that babies should sleep in a sound and bright environment during the day and in a quiet and dark environment at night. They think that this is the only way babies will be able to distinguish day and night. I don't agree with this. Of course, your baby will have to spend some of his afternoon naps in a car seat or stroller. However, if you are at home, I recommend that you put him to sleep in his room, in as quiet and dimly lit an environment as possible, for a quality daytime sleep.
If you want your baby to have a good sleep pattern during the day and at night, you should create a daily routine that suits him and stick to this routine as much as possible. Especially short daytime sleeps (30 or 45 minutes) can often be solved by making adjustments to the daily routine of babies. As babies get older, the hours they can stay awake during the day increase, and at the same time, the number and duration of daytime sleep decreases. For example, while a 3-month-old baby sleeps 4 times during the day, an 18-month-old baby can only sleep once during the day and stay awake until the evening. If you adjust the wake time of your baby according to his age and start preparing him for sleep with sleep routines, you can help him fall asleep easier and sleep longer during the daytime. Despite all these efforts, all babies may have inadequate daytime sleep from time to time. On such days, it will be possible to compensate for the daytime gap by bringing your baby's evening bedtime forward. If this deficit is not closed, your baby will develop a sleep deficit within 24 hours, and this problem may manifest itself as increased night wakings or early morning waking problems.
In order to create a healthy sleep pattern for babies, we need to pay attention to these balances while also making sure that the bed is chosen correctly. Considering that babies and children between the ages of 0-2 spend approximately 12-16 hours of their day sleeping in their beds, we can see more clearly how important choosing the right bed actually is. A hard or medium-hard mattress made of natural materials, without the use of any chemicals that may have a negative effect on the baby's health, should be preferred. Soft bedding may pose a risk of burying the baby's head. Again, since it may pose a health risk, the use of pillows in baby beds is not preferred in this age group.