Much like adults, infants experience different sleep stages while getting shut-eye, notes the University of Michigan Health System. Various stages of alertness mixed with rapid eye movement sleep complete your baby’s sleep cycle. Understanding the different infant stages of sleep can help you recognize the best time to put your baby to bed, how to help your infant get enough sleep each day and a little of what your infant experiences while sleeping.
Drowsiness
Drowsiness is the stage in which your baby exhibits signs of tiredness, without actually being awake. While drowsy, your infant may move less, sink into her body or close her eyes for short periods of time. Drowsiness is the ideal stage in which to put your baby to sleep in her crib, notes KidsHealth.org, a division of the Nemours Foundation. Being put down before falling completely asleep helps your infant learn to sleep on her own and become settled quickly.
Light Sleep
Light sleep comes directly after drowsiness and is the stage in which sounds and movement are most likely to awaken your baby. It’s important to ensure that your baby is safely in his crib and that noise and movement are kept to a minimum so that he can successfully transition into the sleep cycle. A white noise machine may be an effective way to help your infant transition from light sleep to deep sleep more easily, without the constant worry of background noise disrupting him.
Deep Sleep
During deep sleep, your infant should be quiet, and although she may toss and turn a little, she stays asleep. During this stage, sounds and movements are less likely to wake her, but you still should exercise caution if you’re hoping to keep your baby asleep for a longer amount of time. Dr. William Sears, associate clinical professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine, notes that, upon entering deep sleep, your baby experiences a loosening of the joints, causing her to go limp.
Very Deep Sleep
Very deep sleep causes your baby to be quiet and not move. You may even be able to move your infant from your arms to a bed without waking him while he enjoys very deep sleep. He’ll eventually cycle back from very deep sleep, to deep sleep, and light sleep before REM sleep.
REM Sleep
REM sleep refers to a light stage of sleep that both adults and infants alike experience. Eyes move rapidly during this sleep, and infants will experience their first dreams through this process. The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital points out that the sleep cycle goes through the stages in a one, two, three, four, three, two pattern before reaching REM sleep. An infant may experience the different stages of sleep several times in the course of a night. Dr. Sears notes that REM sleep is necessary to increase blood flow in the brain to create nerve proteins to develop the brain, so it’s the most important stage of sleep.
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