The statement that you need eight hours of sleep per night is thrown about as fact. The problem is that it is only  a hypothesis. Scientists are only guessing about the eight hours. The amount of sleep you need is based on your age and  on how healthy you are. Every person needs as adequate amount of sleep in order to function correctly. Proper sleep allows us to be alert, perform to our highest abilities and keep us at our optimum health. So eight hours is the amount of sleep needed by the average person, meaning that some people need less than 6 hours while some need more than 9 hours. Thus an average of 8 hours of sleep at night.

Newborns sleep 14-16 hours per day. They need this amount of sleep because of the amount of growing they are doing.  Babies around the age of 3-6 months sleep 10-14 hours sleep. Again, because of the exorbitant amount of growing that is going on. Children and teens need 10-14 hours sleep. This amount of sleep is normally considered laziness in teenagers. They always want to take a nap or are falling asleep in class. Due to the hormonal changes and the internal changes going on inside a teenager they need a great deal more sleep than even they realize. The average adult needs approximately 6-8 hours of sleep per night. Again this depends upon a person’s health. Regular exercise during the day as well as a well balanced diet actually requires less sleep because a better quality of sleep is achieved. Pregnant women need 3 additional hours of sleep a day. It is said that a pregnant woman’s body is doing the job of a rock climber while she is at rest. Thus the need for at least 3 extra hours of sleep per day.

It’s about the quality of the sleep you get, not just the hours. In order to get the most out of a good night’s sleep you should understand the whole system. Stage one is when you’re drowsy. You are relaxed but still somewhat aware of the world around you. This lasts for approximately 10-15 minutes. Step 2 is light sleep. Your temperature starts to decline, your movements tend to stop, your heart rate reduces as your body slows for rest. Step 3 is deep sleep. You are unaware of the world around you. You’re groggy and completely disoriented. Deep sleep is when hormone cells begin to regenerate. Scientists have discovered that those who exercise stay in this stage 2-3 times as long as those that don’t exercise. Stage 5 is REM sleep. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. This is the last 5-6 hours of an 8 hour sleep. How much sleep you get in this stage depends upon how much sleep you get per night.

While you are sleeping the body is repairing itself and rebuilding parts that need assistance.  You know that you have achieved the right amount and the right quality of sleep when you wake feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day. If you have trouble focusing during the day or find yourself nodding off then perhaps you need more sleep.

Find out how much sleep you need by trying out a sleep reduction experiment. The first night get the least amount of sleep you believe you can function on. Don’t be crazy and not sleep at all. Start out at 5-6 hours sleep. Take note of how you feel in the morning. Are you dragging or did you bounce out of bed? Now did you need a nap halfway through the day? Then  try adding one hour of sleep to the amount you slept the night before. Repeat this exercise until you not only bounce out of bed, you don’t feel sleepy during the day anymore. If you’re getting the right amount of sleep, going to bed at the same time every night, as well as getting up at the same time every day, then you may soon find yourself throwing out that alarm clock because you have optimized your body’s natural alarm clock.

Sounds for Silence is a baby settling program with soundtracks and a health guide, developed by Pediatrician, Dr Harry Zehnwirth.

Sounds for Silence is safe, easy, fast and effective, successfully soothing 90% of babies, 50% in less than a minute. The baby-specific soundtracks, that are dramatically different to lullabies, combine layers low-pitch, everyday domestic noises and physiological sounds that mimic the womb. Recall the sounds during a pre-natal ultrasound and it makes perfect sense.

The Sounds for Silence package includes a health guide with practical information on health and settling issues. It cuts through the myths on settling with reliable expert information and is all parents need to know before they start to panic.

Sounds for Silence has been developed by Dr Zehnwirth using over 25 years of specialist Pediatric experience. All the knowledge and understanding of what makes babies cry and how to soothe them culminate in this wonderful package.

It meets the needs of parents and young babies everywhere. It has been embraced internationally and has become the benchmark for settling babies in Australia over the past 5 years.

Sounds for Silence is comforting for babies and reassuring for parents – the multi-award winning essential baby settling program.

More information is available on the website at: www.okidokiebaby.com

Summary

Sleep deprivation in babies or infants is not very different from sleep deprivation in adults. A number of adults find it difficult to sleep each night and similarly infants also have problems while trying to sleep. The only difference is that the causes of sleeping problems in babies are entirely different from the causes of sleep problems in adults.

In adults sleep problems are usually blamed on the factors like stress, jetlag, depression, work, etc. but what have these factors to do with the babies that can’t sleep ? In fact every child or baby has varying sleep patterns and different sleeping habits. Even the time, when they go to sleep also varies from one infant to other. Usually during the first few months from their birth, babies on an average, sleep for about 16-18 hours per day. The baby may wake up once or twice during this sleeping period but normally falls back asleep on his own.

Babies experiencing sleeping problems usually:

• Find it very difficult to go to sleep

• Wake up quite early in the morning

• Wake up a number of times during the night and have a difficult time in getting back to sleep

Sleeping problems in babies are often due to one or some of the following reasons:

• Babies or young children may want to grab the attention of their parents at all the times.

• The baby may be suffering from some digestive problems like colic.

• The most common reason is that the baby might be hungry and not getting proper feed.

• Sleepless nights are very common the infants start their teething process.

• The baby may be having some serious health ailment.

Some tips to handle babies that can’t sleep:

• If the baby starts crying in the middle of the night, there is absolutely no need to rush there immediately. Most of the times babies stop crying on their own and fall back asleep themselves. Your attention or intervention at each and every cry will provide the baby with a reason to remain awake.

• Make sure that the outside noises are not disturbing your baby’s sleep. If you think that such noises are preventing your baby from sound sleep then you can try to cover up these noises by playing some soft music.

• Do not encourage the baby’s habit of going to sleep in your arms. Try and cultivate the ritual of his falling asleep in the crib. Make sure to select a comfortable crib and provide the baby with soft pillows that can mould perfectly according to the shape of the baby’s head.

• Unless the doctor prescribes, you should never use any infant medication on your own, to make your child fall asleep.

• The market is replete with baby products that help in promoting sleep. These devices are called sleep machines and produce white noise. These machines allow the child to have a restful sleep.

As a responsible parent it is important for you to know when to go to a doctor regarding your baby’s sleeping problems. Despite of all your efforts, if the number of consecutive sleepless nights of your baby keeps on increasing then you must head to a physician for a thorough check-up of your baby.