PR-P 001: Baby sleep (or lack of). Research findings for normal 0-12 month olds.

Show Notes: Baby sleep or lack of
This is the first Practical Research Parenting podcast. I introduce myself then dive right into the research. In this episode I explore what is normal for baby sleep in the first year. This podcast is most relevant for parents who are expecting or have a young baby, but future topics will address older ages also. Here are the topics covered:

Body clock: When it emerges, how it is affected, and what this means.
Night wakings: What is normal during the first 12 months.
Self settling: How long it takes to learn and what disrupts it.
Interesting factoid
Take home messages including

Preparing yourself
How to decrease night-wakings by improving self-settling skills



Through this podcast you will learn:

That the body clock emerges around 10-12 weeks and what this means.
That body clocks are "set" by light, noise, activity, food, and sleep.
That night wakings are the norm during the first 12 months, and the ranges of normal development (see the table below).
That babies may self-settle from some night wakings, and that this proportion tends to increase over the first 12 months, but shows a lot of variation (again, see the table below).
That people are paralysed during REM sleep from about 6 months of age.
Some steps you can take toreduce the number of disruptivenight-wakings.

Prepare yourself

I mention co-sleeping. For details on how to do this safely, see Baby Centre, Dr Sears, and Dr McKenna.
I used the Arms Reach Cosleeper.
For details on a gentle approach to stop co-sleeping when you are ready, check out how to stop cosleeping.


4 Steps to improve self settling abilities during the first year.

Provide opportunities for your baby to fall asleep in his or her cot.
When Baby cries, wait and listen for a moment first.
Try to settle Baby in his or her cot before picking up.
Don’t stress if none of these steps work - your baby will get many opportunities to practice.





 




1 Month
3 Months
6 Months
9 Months
12 Months


Number of night wakings (Burnham et al 2002)
4.1(+/- 2.6)
2.8(+/- 1.8)
3.0(+/- 2.1)
2.8(+/- 2.5)
2.6(+/- 2.0)


Average percentage of awakenings where the baby self-soothed (Burnham et al 2002)
28%
33%
43%
48%
46%


Percentage of Babies who usually self-settled from awakenings (Goodlin-Jones et al 2001)

17%
62%
61%
50%


Longest sleep period without intervention (self-regulated) (Henderson et al 2011)
7.0 hrs(+/- 2.0)*
8.6 hrs(+/- 2.1)
9.7 hrs(+/- 2.0)
9.8 hrs(+/- 2.2)
10.3 hrs(+/- 1.9)



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Transcript
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Sleep Safety
Below is a sleep-safety info-graphic: Co-sleeping is not always dangerous as this graphic suggests, also check out Co-sleeping Guidelines, or Breastfeeding and co-sleeping.

Learn more about the importance of baby sleep safety at Mom Loves Best.com


References
Burnham et al 2002

Burnham, M. M., Goodlin‐Jones, B. L., Gaylor, E. E., & Anders, T. F. (2002). Nighttime sleep‐wake patterns and self‐soothing from birth to one year of age: A longit...