A 10-month-old child does not sleep well at night, often wakes up and cries: what to do

There are cases when a ten-month-old child begins to sleep poorly at night, often wakes up, cries, and tosses and turns in his sleep. Violations may affect both daytime and nighttime rest. In addition, sometimes there are periods when it becomes very difficult to put the baby to sleep. Why does a 10-month-old child sleep poorly at night, often wake up and cry? How to fix the situation? This article will answer these and other pressing questions.

A baby’s healthy sleep is the key to his normal growth and development.

Night rest at ten months

The quality of sleep, regardless of the baby’s age, is determined by a number of factors:

Child's health;
Psychological state of the mother;
Emotional situation in the house;
Relationship between mother and child (amount of attention paid to the baby, presence or absence of close contact);
Recreation conditions;
Compliance with the regime.

Normally, a 10-month-old baby's sleep should last 13.5-14 hours a day, 11 of which are at night, and 2-3.5 during the day. In this case, the number of daytime sleeps should be 2. The listed values are averages, so do not be alarmed if the child’s rest deviates slightly from the established norm. In addition, each body is individual and therefore has its own sleep needs.

The need for rest in a particular case is determined by the following factors:

Genetic features. All people can be divided into 2 groups: long sleepers (who do not feel drowsy after 8-10 hours of rest) and short sleepers (who feel alert after 6-7 hours of sleep). This feature is passed on to the child from the parents.
Character of wakefulness. If the baby was very active during the day (played, walked, crawled, etc.), then he will need more time to recuperate.
Health. After suffering an illness (for example, a cold), the baby needs increased rest in order to recover, so he can sleep longer than other children.
Rest conditions. It is known that in a dark, well-ventilated room with a lower temperature, sleep is more restful and deep.
Ritual of preparation. Actions taken before bed can have both a relaxing and stimulating effect.

On a note. It is not at all necessary to adjust a baby’s sleep to general standards. In addition, as studies show, deviations of more than 1 hour up or down are quite rare.

To understand that your baby's sleep is not normal, you need to pay attention to the signs of lack of sleep:

The baby constantly wakes up 2-3 hours earlier than expected;
The baby regularly falls asleep in a stroller or car (if the walk or trip does not coincide with the period of normal sleep);
The child does not get up on his own at 7 o’clock (plus or minus 30 minutes);
While awake, the baby is often capricious, looks tired, and gets irritated;
The baby has increased excitability. This condition is explained by the action of cortisol (stress hormone), which is actively released when there is a lack of sleep;
Once every few days, the newborn suddenly falls asleep much earlier than the time allotted for night rest (thus the body tries to make up for the lack of sleep);
The child gets up too early. Regularly waking up at 6 am indicates accumulated fatigue due to lack of sleep or going to bed too late. With preschool children, the rule “the later he goes to bed, the later he wakes up” does not work - the child will get up early in any case;
The baby cries before falling asleep and after he wakes up. If health problems are excluded, then whims in such cases indicate non-compliance with the sleep schedule and overwork of the child.

On a note. Unlike very young children (up to 4-5 months), 10-month-old babies usually do not wake up with a strong desire to eat. Therefore, if a child gets up crying, then the problem clearly lies not in feeding, but in poor sleep hygiene.

Daily routine for a 10 month old baby

General tips on how to improve night sleep for a 10 month old baby?

Walk outdoors for at least 2 hours every day.
Create a proper bedtime routine for your child. The baby remembers that certain actions precede sleep, and therefore the process of going to bed with the help of a ritual that is repeated daily becomes easier.
The baby should be warm while sleeping, and the sleeping room should be fresh, dark and quiet. When you need to get up, turn on the night light and speak in a whisper. This way he will understand that night is a time of calm and sleep, and not fun games with tired parents.
If a child bursts into tears, do not rush to immediately pick him up. Maybe he lost his juice or didn't even wake up at all. First, try to calm him down in his crib.

A child's good night's sleep is the key to mental and physical health. The task of parents is to provide this vital need. At the same time, you should not forget about yourself, because the toddler always “mirrors” the mother’s internal state. Get enough sleep yourself, pay attention and time to your appearance, be creative, live with pleasure! Your child next to such a mother will definitely be happy.

Causes of poor sleep in children

Deviations from the norm may be the result of natural physiological causes; in such cases, there is no need to worry about the baby’s condition:

The ratio of daytime and nighttime rest changes during the first 12 months of life. Such phenomena are explained by the normal process of growth and development of a child.
Periodic sleep disturbances are the body’s reaction to ongoing changes.
Individual characteristics that determine the need for rest in each individual case. The baby may be slightly behind his peers or, conversely, ahead of them. In this regard, the duration of sleep differs from established norms. Age-related regressions that affect sleep, due to individual characteristics, can be perceived acutely by the child or occur almost unnoticeably.

Cauliflower puree for babies - recipe

One of the most important causes of sleep disturbance is the age-related characteristics of a 10-month-old baby. At this stage, the child achieves significant development and acquires many skills and abilities. Such changes put a lot of stress on the fragile nervous system of the baby, so they can often lead to overexcitation or severe fatigue of the child. Both the first and second conditions equally negatively affect sleep patterns and quality of rest.

On a note. Development, acquiring new knowledge, learning skills at the age of 10 months are much more important for a child than sleep. This is not a deviation. Essentially, these are natural consequences of the normal process of growing up.

The following circumstances can cause anxiety to the baby during sleep, cause him to fidget and wake up periodically:

Mom's nervous state. It is very important that the woman maintains calm and peace of mind, otherwise negative emotions will be transmitted to the child and affect his sleep.
Various pathologies. These include:

Colic;
Regurgitation;
Allergies;
ARVI;
Dermatitis;
Cystitis;
Rickets.
And so on.

To rule out diseases as the cause of sleep disturbances, you need to contact your pediatrician.

Poor conditions for recreation. In order for a child to sleep peacefully, without tossing and flinching, the environment around him should be calm. Therefore, you need to provide darkness (promotes the production of melatonin), silence, fresh air, and a comfortable bed.
Failure to adhere to sleep patterns. By the age of 10 months, the baby switches to 2 naps during the day. Such changes require restructuring the body and getting used to the new schedule. The recommended time of morning awakening is between 6:00 and 7:30 am, bedtime for night rest is 19:00-20:00. Excessively long periods of daytime and night sleep are unacceptable. The child should fall asleep at a time that is comfortable for him (you can determine this by observing the signs of fatigue in the baby).
Incorrect associations with sleep - the child associates the process of falling asleep with motion sickness or breastfeeding.
Restlessness or lack of sleep. A serious mistake parents make is spending active time before going to bed at night (noisy games, watching TV).
Lack of parental attention while awake. For a baby, sleep is equivalent to separation from his mother, so it is very important to pay enough attention to the baby throughout the day.
Stress. This state is often generated by new conditions, acquaintances and impressions (arrival of guests, completion of breastfeeding, potty training, return after a long absence, visiting a doctor, etc.).

Need to know! If none of the listed reasons is suitable for a specific situation, then the phenomenon in which the baby began to sleep poorly can be designated by the term “sleep regression.” It is explained by a sharp leap in the development of the child’s body.

There are many reasons for a baby's restless sleep.

Signs of regression at 10 months of age are:

Difficulty falling asleep, waking up at night, restless sleep;
Irritable behavior of the child, frequent whims, hysterics;
Increased appetite;
Increased need for attention, love and affection. The baby needs tactile contact with his mother;
Increased physical activity.

The most common reason why a 10-month-old child wakes up at night and cries is that his nervous system is overloaded, which cannot cope with the changes occurring in the baby’s body. Another important factor is the habit of eating at night. Babies get used to night feedings and take them for granted. It is very important here to distinguish between the demand for milk or formula as a manifestation of hunger and as a need to calm down. A 10-month-old baby can easily do without night feedings. An excited state caused by active games and other similar activities before going to bed at night is also the cause of restless sleep, as a result of which the baby often wakes up, starts screaming, and crying.

Other common causes of poor sleep in an infant include:

A sharp destruction of the associative series (the mother no longer places the baby next to her at night, the baby is no longer rocked to sleep);
Lack of fatigue due to too much daytime sleep;
Feeling of fear, helplessness;
Taking medications (in particular antihistamines).

An adult spends a third of his life sleeping. A ten-month-old baby sleeps much more - the baby spends at least half of the day with his eyes closed. Sleep is an important part of anyone's life, but good sleep is especially important for children. In many ways, the baby’s development and his future life depend on him.

Some parents are faced with the fact that their child does not sleep well at 10 months: he resists being put to sleep, sleeps restlessly, often wakes up, does not sleep during the day or at night. In this article we will look at what may be the cause of poor sleep at 10 months and how to help your baby.

How long does a 10 month old baby sleep?

Let's turn to the tabular norms. They say that a child at this age should sleep 12 to 15 hours a day. Of these, approximately 10-12 hours of sleep occur at night, and 2-3 hours are divided into two daytime sleeps, each 1-1.5 hours long. The duration of one waking time interval at this age is from 3.5 to 4.5 hours.

What could be the reason that a 10 month old baby is not sleeping well?

Health status . The child may be worried about problems with the digestive system, teething, side effects after vaccination, dermatitis, allergies and much more. It would also be useful to make sure that there is no vitamin D deficiency or anemia. In these cases, you should consult your doctor.
Lack of resources from mom . Children react very sensitively to their mother’s emotional state, and if the mother is tired and anxious, the child may react, including by worsening sleep. Therefore, you must definitely take care of yourself, ask friends and family for help if possible, and do not forget to replenish your resources.
External conditions . A wet diaper, rubbing the seam on your clothes, too dry and warm air, a night light turned on during a night's sleep - all this and much more can cause sleep disturbances. A complete list of conditions necessary for quality sleep can be found in the “COMFORT and SLEEP” checklist.
Disturbance of rhythm or sleep pattern . At 10 months, babies typically have two naps during the day and a time-based routine can be established. At the same time, we continue to build our wakefulness according to the “Sleep PASSPORT” system. If sleep patterns are disturbed or there are errors in the “Sleep PASSPORT”, excessive walking, under-studying, and overexcitement may occur. All this leads to sleep disturbances. In this case, comprehensive work is needed to build a daily routine. By the way, this is exactly what we do in the “Sleep PASSPORT” course, establishing a comfortable daily routine in just a week.
Overexcitement or lack of sleep . Overexcitement can occur even if a sleep schedule is observed, in a situation where the child receives a lot of stress. For example, watching TV, going to a party or going to the shopping center can cause emotional stress, which in turn provokes sleep disturbances. Therefore, if you are planning something that could be a significant burden for your baby, be sure to spend a little more time on quality relaxation and watch for signs of fatigue.
Strong associations for falling asleep, such as rocking, breast, pacifier or bottle . And if the child is accustomed to falling asleep during motion sickness, then when waking up after each sleep cycle (lasting only about 40 minutes), he will demand the restoration of previous conditions. This problem can be solved by learning to fall asleep independently (until a comfortable stage).
Lack of mother's attention . Most mothers of 10-month-old children are usually with the child 24/7. It would seem that there is much more attention. But if you pay attention to the fact that while we are next to the baby, we are doing a thousand things at the same time: cooking, cleaning, talking on the phone, communicating in instant messengers, or doing a comparative analysis of baby diapers, deciding which ones to prefer. The concept of involved waking time is very important. This is the time when nothing is done, the smartphone lies aside, and all the mother’s attention is focused on the baby. 20 minutes of “cuddling” will greatly help your baby to be calmer and sleep better.
Stress, changing conditions . Moving, having a nanny, traveling - all this and much more can cause stress; due to increased anxiety, the child may sleep worse. In this case, the mother needs to be prepared for the fact that the baby will need time to adapt, and at this time he needs more attention and care.
Mastering new skills . The sixth growth spurt in children occurs around 10 months. The baby begins to understand that a certain sequence of actions can lead to a certain result. Skills such as standing or walking with support appear. Some babies begin to walk independently. All these changes excite the baby; he can begin to practice some skills right in the crib, instead of sleeping. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to regularly practice new skills while the baby is actively awake.

If you have eliminated all these problems, and your child continues to sleep poorly, you may be faced with a phenomenon called a second sleep regression. It occurs at 7-10 months, and its reason also lies in the next developmental leap.

Signs of regression:

Sudden deterioration in sleep (the child refuses to sleep, often wakes up at night);
The child is irritated and capricious a lot;
Appetite increases, as learning new skills requires more energy;
The child requires a lot of mother’s attention and can literally hang on her;
Increased motor activity associated with practicing new skills.

Regression is a difficult time for both the baby and the mother. Here are some tips to make the regression easier:

It is necessary to give maximum care and support to the baby, maximum mother’s attention and as much tactile contact as possible. At the same time, the mother should try to rest herself when the opportunity arises.
Avoid lack of sleep and overtiredness in your child. New skills provide a significant burden; quality, quiet wakefulness before bed becomes especially important during this period.
Stimulate activity during active wakefulness, practice new skills. For good sleep, it is important not only to relax before going to bed, but also to have well-organized active wakefulness. The baby needs to throw out his energy.
Offer the breast or bottle more often as your baby has an increased need for calories. In addition, when breastfeeding, in addition to nutrition, the baby receives much-needed contact with his mother. If there are not enough calories during the day, the child may compensate by waking up at night.

And remember: regression is a normal stage of child development that you just need to survive. If the regression has passed, but your sleep has not improved, you can seek help: consultants will help you find the cause of poor sleep and improve your daily routine. Write your problem and we will choose a course.

Author: Tatyana Kremneva.

How to identify the cause of poor sleep

At what age can you give your child kiwi?

To understand why a 10-month-old child sleeps poorly at night, you need to carefully observe his behavior and general condition for at least 7 days. This phenomenon can be temporary and occur due to increased stress on the baby. If this condition persists for longer than 1 week, it is recommended to consult a pediatrician or neurologist.

A visit to the doctor will help determine the exact cause of your child’s sleep disturbances.

What can a pediatrician recommend?

Baby sucks breast

What should you do to restore normal sleep? In such cases, some parents resort to alternative medicine, various conspiracies and other dubious methods of solving the problem. An experienced and competent doctor may advise the following:

Adjust your daily routine.
Follow the bedtime ritual.
Teach your baby to distinguish between day and night feeding.
Put the psychological situation in the family in order.
Show more attention to the baby.
Avoid lack of sleep and overwork.
Provide normal conditions for comfortable sleep (the optimal air temperature is between 18-20 degrees, the recommended air humidity varies from 40 to 70%).

On a note. According to Dr. Komarovsky, if at least one of the components of healthy sleep “does not work,” the child has problems with night and daytime rest.

Often, sleep problems in 10-month-old babies arise for natural reasons, but in some cases, the fault lies in the wrong actions of the parents. It is important to understand your mistakes and try to correct them, then the baby’s sleep will definitely improve.