All parents sooner or later wonder: do newborn babies have dreams? Indeed, how can one explain the fact that babies smile or frown in their sleep? What exactly affects a baby's sleep? And if possible, how can you make your child’s sleep calmer and dreams brighter? All these issues are dealt with by such a branch of medicine as child psychiatry.
Newborns dream
According to psychologist David Foulkes, one of the world's leading experts on pediatric dreaming, people often mistakenly equate their babies' ability to perceive with the ability to dream. “If someone gives evidence that he can perceive reality, then we are inclined to imagine that he can dream about it,” Foulkes wrote in his article. Some experts say that young children definitely dream about something. After all, the new world for a baby who came from nowhere turns out to be full of impressions. Another thing is that these dreams can be completely different from those of adults.
They say that children are able to dream, even while in their mother’s belly, because at this time the child already distinguishes sounds, then sensations, and after birth visual images appear. Thus, the dreams of newborns are not only pictures (fuzzy and blurry due to their undeveloped vision), but also sounds and feelings. Probably, the main storyline of a child’s dream is built precisely on the sounds and sensations that were available to him even before birth.
Baby sleep - features
The sleep of a newborn has features that are mainly associated with the following signs of physiological immaturity:
- the baby’s nervous system is still at an active stage of its development;
- the cortex and subcortical centers have not been fully formed, and the connection between them is also not fully established;
- in newborns, the sheath of nerve fibers is not formed, their myelination will occur until the age of 1–1.5 years;
- connections between neurons, chains are also formed.
The process of a newborn’s sleep itself consists of two phases:
- active, which is also called fast;
- passive or slow.
Both phases in infants replace each other, closing in a cycle. The cycles follow each other throughout the entire sleep period. When changing cycles, minimal awakening most often occurs:
- adults fall asleep again after it and do not notice awakenings;
- In infants, a partial awakening often entails a complete awakening, since they do not yet know how to fall asleep on their own.
The first (fast) phase in newborns is longer in duration, and the cycle begins with it. At this time, the brain is actively working, the flow of blood to it increases, and new information received is “recorded.” During this period, infants can dream.
Those brain structures that are responsible for dreams develop earlier than others, which is why children can see dreams even during intrauterine development.
The fast phase helps accelerate brain development, and the second (slow) phase corresponds to deep sleep. At this time, the body grows, tissue regeneration occurs, and new connections between neurons are formed.
The sequence and duration of the phases change as the baby grows. By 4 months of age, sleep begins to consolidate, or strengthen, and gradually acquires features characteristic of adults.
REM sleep in a child
From birth, sleeping infants may enter rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It is characterized by rapid eye movements, and this is precisely the period in which adults watch their dreams. Moreover, newborns spend half their sleep time in this phase, accompanied by movement of the eyeballs, arms and legs, and a characteristic sawtooth pattern on the EEG. By comparison, adults spend just one-quarter of their sleep time in REM sleep and the rest in the dreamless "non-REM" phase, marked by slowly changing brain waves. Thus, infants who sleep a lot can dream more than 8 hours a day - a whole working day.
Research opinions
The question of whether newborn children dream has interested and continues to interest many scientists and researchers. Numerous studies have been and continue to be conducted on this mysterious condition. To study and understand the process itself, an actigram, or sleep study, is used.
- Harvard professor Allan Hobson, a leading expert in psychiatry, believes that dreams first appear in a child already at the stage of intrauterine development, when the visual organs begin to form, from the 8th week of gestation. The fetus sleeps the majority of the time, while the rapid phase of its sleep is 4 times longer than that of an adult. The professor believes that newborns already have their own picture of the world; they have initial ideas about the life they have just entered.
- American expert David Foulkes conducted systematic research to find out what dreams newborns have. He came to the conclusion that children see dreams based on their very first impressions, of which there are many in a new environment, as well as new information. Dreams, Foulkes believes, take the form of unrelated pictures.
- Columbia and Stanford universities have also conducted studies on newborn sleep. With the help of modern equipment, it was found that dreams occur immediately after falling asleep, during the active phase (unlike adults who need to go through the slow phase first), as evidenced by changes in facial expressions, grimaces, smiles, and movements of the limbs.
- Jody Mindel, Ph.D., head of the sleep research department from Philadelphia, believes that dreams in newborns are silent, since neither speech nor the structures of the nervous system responsible for it are yet developed and consist of figurative pictures.
- Inge-Marie Eigsti, a psychobiologist at Columbia University, has also conducted research on dreams in newborns.
She found that children, falling asleep, do not stop processing information from the external environment, and thus the initial knowledge of the world occurs. An experiment was recorded on video and EEG with the simultaneous impact of the sound of a rattle and a light blow on the eyelids of newborns. It turned out that in 24 out of 26 children the two influences were linked in the form of an association. That is, newborns, even when sleeping, record, analyze and react to irritations. This is real training! The results of recording neuroimpulses indicated memory renewal occurring on the basis of the experience already experienced in a dream. - Interesting conclusions were made by Richard Farber, an American doctor working at Boston Children's Hospital, where he also serves as director of the Center for Sleep Disorders.
As a result of research, the expert found that in premature babies, the duration of the fast phase is up to 85% of the total sleep time, and in full-term babies it decreases to 50%. The observation suggests that the development of the brain and memory that occurs during the active phase is more intense and longer during the period of rapid development of the nervous system. This occurs in the last months of pregnancy and gradually slows down over time. Thus, three-year-old children watch dreams, the duration of which is 33% of the total time spent in a sleepy state, and from the age of 11 this time decreases to 25%.
What does a baby dream about?
Somnologists believe that the child dreams of what he experienced. If a newborn frowns, this could be dreams about the past birth and unpleasant sensations. If he smiles, it means he feels good. At this time, the baby may have dreams about his family, mom and dad.
When a baby cries in his sleep, there is no need to immediately wake him up, suddenly “pulling him out” of a bad dream. This might make him even more scared. It’s better to hold the baby to your chest, put your favorite plush toy in your hands and lull him to sleep. Then he will quickly calm down and forget everything unpleasant. And if your baby doesn’t have a favorite plush toy, you should take care of it...
What does sleep depend on?
A baby's restful sleep depends on a number of factors. Even what a child sees in a dream is influenced by environmental influences. In particular, such a factor is the mother of the baby.
Does your child sleep poorly and cry in his sleep? It is worth paying attention to the emotional state of the mother. Perhaps she is nervous about something, tired and irritable. Let us not forget the close bond between mother and baby. It's bad for the mother - the baby suffers.
Why do children have nightmares? It is quite possible that this phenomenon is provoked by the situation in the apartment. And it is not at all necessary that parents argue. Sharp and loud sounds while the baby is sleeping, bright lights, talking in a loud voice - all this affects the quality of sleep.
How to remember your dream
Since the original purpose of dreams is not for you to remember them, they are not stored in deep layers of memory. In order to remember a dream forever, you need to remember it in as much detail as possible immediately after waking up. After that, you need to either write it down, or scroll through your memory as many times as possible and it will be remembered.
The easiest way to remember a dream is to write it down.
It turns out to be an interesting thing. If you replay a poem, song or role in a play in your memory many times, you will remember it for a very long time. Information about the dream, even if it takes root in memory, will still be rejected. We haven’t been able to really explain this yet, but it’s a fact. There are exceptions, but it is dreams that are erased from memory faster than everything else.
The meaning of children's dreams
Dreams with a positive plot, for example, about a walk through a flower meadow and meeting kind fairy-tale characters, speak of a positive and stable emotional background of the child. Some dreams may emphasize certain qualities of the baby, for example, a dream where he was in the role of captain of a ship speaks of him as a natural leader. However, children's dreams are not always so rosy.
According to statistics, 30% of children have disturbing dreams. They may be recycled "stuff" associated with an experience, such as a cartoon or television show. Until the age of seven, a child has nightmares several times more often than in subsequent adult life. This is due to the special sensitivity of the child’s psyche, which is characterized by the immediate experience of a strong impression. Therefore, if your baby once had a nightmare, you don’t have to worry too much. It’s another matter if he has nightmares regularly.
Recommendations regarding children's sleep
It’s worth mentioning right away that there are different opinions regarding what and when children dream. But, it is necessary to ensure maximum comfort for the child so that he can not disturb his parents, and also guarantee himself an extremely high level of rest. For all parents who want to ensure their baby gets a good night's sleep, we recommend that you consider the following:
It is important that the child adapts exclusively to the parents’ sleep schedule, and not vice versa
. In the future, the baby will have to fully adapt to adult life, so the schedule of the child’s lifestyle during the preschool period and school should correspond as much as possible to that of an adult.
Children and adults need at least eight hours to get enough sleep
. The optimal time for children to sleep is from 21:00 until 5:00 in the morning. You can also consider the option from 23.00 to 7.00. You should not choose other modes for yourself, this will not give you the opportunity to rationally relax and ensure your health.
It is important to install the crib correctly and comply with all the necessary time frames for this.
For example, the baby should be in the parent's bedroom until the first year of life, otherwise the child will get used to it, and this will not cause a positive effect in the future. After this age, sleeping in bed with your parents all the time is the worst option possible.
Despite the fact that doctors traditionally recommend that the baby sleep during the day, you should not allow him to do this too often or too much.
The fact is that after getting enough sleep during the day, at night and in the evening, he will begin to behave actively, therefore, this will cause discomfort to the parents and will not give the baby the opportunity to fully develop and improve his health. He may become nervous and irritable, and the reason for all this is improperly organized sleep, which deserves special attention.
It is important to wean your child off whims, which will allow him to get decent sleep in the future.
. For example, night feeding of a newborn should not be done more than twice. When the child has eaten, you just need to let him rest without attracting any attention to himself.
It is important to provide a decent level of comfort in the room, which will be an excellent option for every child.
For example, the bedroom should be thoroughly ventilated.
Two to three years
If we talk about the dreams of babies at this age, they are usually fragmentary. In the dreams of such young children there is no single storyline. They are built on emotions and impressions, and since children receive them in huge quantities throughout the day, their dreams are incoherent.
Three-year-olds can already speak. Most of them are able to tell what they dreamed. Children most often see themselves in their dreams.
Is breast milk the key to good sleep?
There is an opinion that a child's sleep depends on the composition of milk. If the mother adheres to a strict diet and does not violate it, then her milk is good. Having eaten, the baby will sleep soundly. Such babies have good and kind dreams.
It also depends on the condition of the mother, as mentioned above. When feeding occurs in a calm mode, the mother is all focused on the baby, hums a song to him, and the room is in twilight - the baby will relax and sleep well.
If the mother is feeding the baby, and at this time she is talking on the phone, watching TV or simply crying from fatigue, this is unlikely to contribute to the child’s good sleep.
Others believe that babies fed with mother's milk sleep much better than their peers fed formula. But this is a very controversial statement.
