Okay so this has always perplexed me. It’s not so much a question of why babies need sleep. I understand why everyone needs sleep. Put simply, their bodies grow and repair themselves. However, I’ve been told by many parents that they put their babies to bed at 7:00PM and they are supposed to sleep until around 7:00AM. What I have found, however, is that most of the same parents also complain that their babies are waking up waaay too early. My roommates, specifically, have been dealing with their baby waking up at 4:30AM very consistently.
I have studied the mechanics of sleep (cycles, stages, conditions, etc) on account of my narcolepsy. The science doesn’t add up here, but I am certainly not a pediatrician. To compound the issue, they also put their babies down for naps that are often a couple hours long. Wouldn’t this be counter-intuitive? Babies should have a circadian rhythm, and their bodies should naturally know when they are ready to be awake. Is this really the correct course of action for a baby? Why do babies need so much sleep?
In: Biology
There are a bunch of points you are missing:
Babies are not born with a circadian rhythm. For the first 3-4 months, they don’t sleep like adults at all. Adults sleep in 40-60 minute cycles. Babies do not. They begin to develop these cycles as they age.
Babies grow at an incredible speed. By 12 months, they have tripled their birth weight. A baby’s brain does 90% of its development before age 5. Growing like this takes a ton of energy. This is why babies eat so frequently, even through the night. They also need a lot of sleep so they have enough energy to grow. This is especially important for brain development.
Babies can’t make it through the day without sleeping. A normal baby, depending on age, will sleep 10-12 hours a night and 3-4 hours during the day. Skipping naps does not make them sleep longer at night. It actually makes them sleep worse because they become overtired. In order to develop properly, they have to sleep throughout the day and night.
TLDR: babies are not tiny adults. Their body systems and sleep patterns are very different. You can’t compare the sleep needs of an adult to the sleep needs of a baby. It’s like comparing apples and oranges.
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