7 reasons why a 1-year-old child sleeps poorly at night and often wakes up

Superficial sleep is easily interrupted by any reason that causes discomfort to the baby:

• Hunger. If the child does not receive the required amount of nutrients with meals during the day.
• Wet or dirty diaper.
• Anxiety when mom is not around.
• Uncomfortable microclimate: hot or cold, dry air or high humidity.
• Pain – colic, gas formation in the intestines, teething.
• Growth spurts. During periods of crisis, the child is capricious during the day and sleeps restlessly at night.
• Violations of the daily routine: too much or not enough daytime sleep, overexcitement before bedtime.
• Child's temperament.

Causes of insomnia in children

Insomnia is a clinical syndrome that can occur both against the background of psychological problems and against the background of disturbances in the physiological functions of the child’s body.
In 80-85% of cases, the causes of insomnia in children are:

• too strong emotions;
• watching movies, active games or using smartphones before bed;
• overwork at school, after tutoring or sports competitions;
• various phobias (darkness, closed space);
• hunger, nasal congestion, colic;
• symptoms of somatic diseases (high temperature, pain);
• drinking caffeine, dark chocolate, and sweet carbonated drinks before bed;
• intra-family conflicts.

Another important factor influencing the risk of developing insomnia is the child’s temperament and the nature of his upbringing. If from childhood a child is taught to worry about trifles, then in adolescence an ordinary “C” at school can negatively affect the quality of sleep.

How many times does a child normally wake up at night before one year of age?

Newborns do not yet have a set rhythm in the alternation of sleep and wakefulness. Both at night and during the day, they wake up every two to three hours and fall asleep after eating. That is, in the first month of a baby’s life, a young mother will sleep in fits and starts and wake up on average 4-5 times a night.

It is important!

By two months, your baby's sleep periods at night will become slightly longer than during the day.
And some six-month-old children will already be able to sleep uninterruptedly for up to six hours. That is, the luckiest mothers from now on will wake up only in the morning to feed the baby and continue to watch their dreams. Less fortunate ones will get up to the baby 2-3 times a night, or even more often, up to a year, and this will also be within the normal range.

Symptoms of insomnia in children

The main symptom of insomnia is the lack of normal night sleep. The nature of this disorder may vary. Some children cannot sleep, others constantly wake up or cry in their sleep. Insufficient night rest leads to dysfunction of the entire body. This may be manifested by the following signs of insomnia in children:

• constant yawning;
• reddened (sometimes “glassy”) eyes;
• emotional instability - from tearfulness to aggression;
• decline in school performance;
• chronic fatigue;
• loss of appetite;
• deterioration in the quality of social contacts with parents and peers.

It is necessary to pay attention to the child’s condition if 2-3 sleepless nights were observed within 1 week. Early detection of insomnia in children facilitates a quick search for the cause and helps to effectively eliminate it.

How many times does a child normally wake up at night before age 3?

I would like to promise mothers of newborns exhausted by sleepless nights that as soon as their babies reach 12 months, their sleep will immediately improve. But alas. The crisis of the first year, separation anxiety, the appearance of the first fears closer to two, the crisis of three years - your baby will still have enough legitimate reasons to wake up a couple of times a night. The good news is that these awakenings will not happen every day. Although by the age of three the baby is already able to sleep 10 hours continuously, 1-2 awakenings per night at this age are still normal.

Diagnosis of insomnia in children

Insomnia in children is a problem with a hint of subjectivity.
Some parents sound the alarm immediately after the first sleepless night, while others can torment themselves and their child for months. It is recommended to seek advice from a specialist after 3 sleepless nights a week. At the appointment, the doctor analyzes the patient’s complaints, examines him, and carefully collects anamnesis. Much attention is paid to conversations with parents. It is important to know in what conditions the child develops, whether there are any stress factors that affect his sleep, etc.

If you suspect the presence of somatic diseases, the doctor prescribes the following basic examinations:

• general and biochemical blood test;
• general urine analysis;
• ECG;
• stool analysis for worm eggs.

If necessary, the list of studies is expanded depending on the suspected pathology. The child can also be examined by related specialists (pediatrician, cardiologist, ophthalmologist).

Tips on how to improve your baby's sleep

For children of the first half of the year:

• Give your child plenty of tactile contact throughout the day, including skin-to-skin contact.
• Put your baby to bed in a dark, cool bedroom. Don't leave the night light on. Don't pick up the phone until your child is asleep. Light - especially blue light coming from gadget screens - destroys the sleep hormone melatonin.
• Try to go to bed after your baby's last evening feeding.

For children from 6 to 12 months:

• Start introducing rituals for falling asleep: before going to bed, try to reduce the activity of games and dim the lighting, give your baby a bath if bathing calms him down, give him a light massage, read a fairy tale or sing a lullaby.
• Pay attention to whether your child eats enough during the day.
• If you rock your baby in your arms or lie next to him until he falls asleep, do not rush to put him in the crib and immediately leave. After 15-20 minutes, the child will go into deep sleep and will not be alarmed by your absence.

For children from 1 to 3 years:

• If possible, delegate nighttime motion sickness to your dad.
• Make sure you follow your daily routine. Adjust evening rituals based on the baby’s age. Put your child to bed at the same time every day so that his body is prepared for a night's sleep in advance.

No matter how tiresome your baby’s night awakenings may be, sooner or later they will definitely stop.

Repeat this to yourself on particularly difficult nights and remember:

1. All children wake up at night.
2. The reason for night awakenings is in the peculiarities of the child’s physiology: the immaturity of the brain and nervous system.
3. Newborns wake up on average 4-5 times per night. By one year, some babies can sleep through the night, but most still disturb their parents 1-2 times a night.
4. Up to three years of age, occasional awakenings not every night are normal.
5. Adequate nutrition of the child during the day, a calm environment, a well-functioning daily routine, a normal microclimate in the bedroom, and rituals before bedtime will help reduce awakenings at night.

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Quality sleep for any baby is the key to proper growth and development. In a dream, a child rests, restores strength and stores new strength for the next day. This means that with good sleep, the baby will be awake qualitatively. But what if a nine-month-old baby doesn’t sleep well, constantly wakes up at night, and daytime dreams generally require endless prolongation? Is it worth sounding the alarm or maybe it’s time to reconsider your baby’s usual routine? Let's figure it out together.

Reasons for poor sleep in a 9 month old baby

A child can sleep for several reasons; you can determine which one your baby has only if you start keeping statistics of sleep and wakefulness, and also begin to change the current rhythm of the day.

The most common causes of poor sleep in a 9 month old baby:

• Overwork . The child receives a lot of impressions, spends time too actively, and there is absolutely no break for rest. In this case, the baby gets tired faster than usual, the nervous system cannot cope with the stress, and the baby becomes capricious. Waking time is reduced and, as a result, the baby ends up walking less than he needs.
• External factors that interfere with sleep . You think you can hang up the dark curtains, put on a larger diaper, turn on the air conditioning and sleep will improve. But it doesn't work that way. It is important to work within the system. Not only hang the curtains, but also establish a rhythm. Therefore, first of all, we check everything that may prevent the child from sleeping more soundly.
• Lack of proper daily routine . If the baby does not have a stable routine from day to day, then both daytime and nighttime dreams will always be unpredictable.
• Frequent daytime naps . If the baby falls asleep outside the routine and sleeps as much as he wants, then this can subsequently create problems with going to bed at night, as well as a deterioration in the quality of wakefulness and night sleep.
• A 9 month old baby sleeps only with the breast, with his mother or in his arms . In other words, the child is able to sleep only under certain conditions, and this is the influence of the association on sleep. If a child wakes up and asks for help in staying asleep, most likely he does not know how to do this on his own; the child can be taught this using techniques for falling asleep independently.
• Mom's condition . Sometimes, when there is no resource, a child, you want to put him to sleep at all costs. Mom is tense, worried, alarmed. Little children are designed in such a way that they feel it and instead of a quick lay down, it turns out to be a protracted one, and even with resistance.
• Growth spurt . In this case, mood and sleep deteriorate, both daytime and nighttime sleep.
• Teeth cutting and various diseases . When your baby is sick, he or she may get tired more quickly, which can lead to more sleep during the day and a more restless night. The regime is violated, but there is nothing wrong with that. Give your baby as much sleep as he needs. He will recover faster, and you can continue working on organizing sleep and wakefulness.

How to help a 9-month-old baby improve sleep?

Before you start applying any recommendations, you need to sit down and think about everything. Come to the conclusion that there really is a problem, identify it and begin to move towards solving it.

Here are some tips to improve your sleep situation:

• Start organizing a stable regime. Children, on average at the age of 9 months, sleep during the day consistently 2 naps. This means that the child has a clearly planned routine. Getting up in the morning, the duration of his waking hours and daytime dreams are scheduled by the hour. The mother simply puts the baby to bed at the same time and lets her sleep at the same intervals during the day.
• Organize stress and relaxation during every waking moment. Help your child fill his day with interesting and exciting activities, practice a new physical skill together, look through books together, swim, do things together, spend enough time outdoors. If your baby is comfortable sleeping in a stroller, then why not give him this opportunity from time to time.
• Download the “COMFORT AND SLEEP” CHECKLIST and check all the points. Try to optimize the list so that you have the answer “YES” everywhere.
• Adapt all activities during the day to the child’s routine: feeding, bathing, walks, games, everything should be clear and repeated day after day.
• The mother's peace and resource is the key to good sleep for the baby. Remember that no matter how outwardly you try to be calm, the child will still feel that his mother is worried and will not let you go, will not want to fall asleep and leave you alone. Rest, fill yourself with resources.
• Ritual for sleep. Come up with and organize a ritual before each laying down. The main thing is not to delay it, on average at the age of 9 months it lasts 5-6 minutes. Children love predictability, and ritual will give it to the baby. After certain actions, the baby will already know for sure that sleep will come soon.
• If a child is currently experiencing a growth spurt, he needs a stable routine and his mother nearby more than ever. The mother’s task is to try to organize all this, since these factors determine how the leap will take place and when it will end.

Remember that you can break the regime only when it is not only built, but the child lives on it for at least 2-3 weeks.

If you have problems with sleep and you don’t know how to solve them, then we are waiting for you in the course “BABY’S SLEEP, MOTHER IN RESOURCE (+SZ)”. Many mothers from different parts of the world have already helped their children sleep better. In addition, during the course you will have structured videos and theoretical lessons, consultant support at any tariff. Write to us and we will select a work format that will fully meet your needs.

Proper organization of your baby’s sleep should begin from infancy. But don’t worry if up to 9 months the child slept and stayed awake at the same rhythm, but now the sleep has deteriorated and you need to put in more effort than before. Children just grow, their needs change, and if you help the little one, the quality of sleep will become much better.

Author: Tatyana Kremneva.

Sources

• Mindell JA, Kuhn B, Lewin DS et al. Behavioral treatment of bedtime problems and night wakings in infants and young children // Sleep. 2006. Vol. 29. No. 10. P. 1263–1276.
• The International classification of sleep disorders [Diagnostic and coding manual]. 3rd ed. USA: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2014.
• Frank MG, Benington JH The role of sleep in memory consolidation and brain plasticity: dream or reality? // Neuroscientist. 2006. Vol. 12. No. 6. P. 477–488.

Questions

• Which doctor treats insomnia in children?
  A somnologist or neurologist is involved in identifying and treating insomnia in children.
• If a child sleeps little (6-7 hours), but feels well during the day, should you worry?
  If we are talking about a teenager, then there is no reason to worry. Generally accepted norms for sleep duration for different ages are averaged. There are always children for whom 6 hours is the norm. Therefore, you need to focus on the child’s general well-being and the dynamics of his behavior.
• Do folk remedies help with insomnia in children?
  Herbal decoctions, teas, and various soothing procedures can be used to improve children's sleep. The main thing is not to overdo it. The use of folk remedies based on alcohol or alcohol is not recommended. This has an extremely negative impact on the condition of children, especially with long-term use.
• When should you take your child’s smartphone away before bed?
  The total duration of use of gadgets for children under 12 years of age should not exceed a period of half an hour to 3 hours. To relieve tension in the nervous system and improve falling asleep, it is recommended to stop using a smartphone no later than 1 hour before falling asleep. Scrolling through news feeds on social networks in bed is a direct path to the development of not only insomnia, but also psychological disorders.

Recommendations to help mom

There are several recommendations that are relevant for both artificial babies and breastfed babies:

• the child should go to bed well-fed;
• all the baby’s food should be nutritious and rich in nutrients;
• during the daytime, food intake should be stable and regular;
• Every evening the baby needs to be bathed - this will allow his muscles to relax, which guarantees sound and good sleep;
• active games should stop several hours before bedtime;
• air humidity and temperature in the room in which the baby will sleep should not exceed acceptable parameters.

Don't be upset if you can't wean your baby off night feedings as quickly as you'd like. Over six months of life (or more), the child has developed his own habits, including getting up at night and then drinking milk. The mother’s task is to instill new habits in her child, thereby ensuring stable sleep for both herself and him.