Sleep Schedules for Babies

Sleep schedules for babies are an important part of infant life. While routines eventually enslave the individual following them, schedules are still necessary. Studies show that infants actually enjoy following schedules. Newborns also have what we popularly call "internal clocks" and like adults their small clocks are also running at their best when they go to sleep at the same time everyday. This includes going to sleep at night, taking naps during the day, and waking up at the same time every morning.  

Even infants need some flexibility though, this means that like adults they will also like to stay up late for special occasions or sleep late on some days. Lot of this also depends on the individual preference of the child as well. Some infants automatically adjust to schedules and they will fall asleep at their scheduled time without any prompting. Other babies are more flexible in their outlook. Regardless of the tendencies of your own child, you must maintain sleep schedules for babies for a couple of weeks so that the habit is formed gradually. 

Sleep schedules for babies must be formulated after a few weeks and not after a few days of birth. This should be obvious because most infants will spend as much as 16 hours per day sleeping. As a parent you will soon realize that these 16 hours are randomly distributed in the 24 hour day cycle. Be prepared to wake up at 3 in the morning until sleep schedules for babies take effect. Newborns do not sleep for 6-8 hours at a stretch, like adults, but they will prefer to take naps of 1-3 hours and then wake up.

There is no fixed scale or chart that can tell you how much and with how many fluctuations your baby will sleep. The only logical answer here is that babies will sleep as much as they need. It is quite normal for a baby to nod off without warning and wakeup the same way, even if they are not disturbed. The point of note here is that not all babies are natural sleepers. The other type will need some help and sleep schedules for babies of this category will take as much as 3 months to take hold. 

What you must know is that newborns are incapable of differentiating day from night so it is not surprising that some of them will sleep during the day and stay awake all night. The only workaround to this is to help them learn the difference by turning down the lights in the evening and keeping your interaction with the baby maximum during daytime.  

Adults with normal sleep behavior spend a lot of time in what is called as REM sleep. During this phase of sleep adults often wake up for a moment and then go back to sleep. Babies on the other hand have very short durations of REM sleep and they are all light sleepers who cannot go back to sleep on their own once they awake. This is why it is important not to disturb the sleep schedules for babies. They are not born with the knowledge of how to put themselves back to sleep.