I started a new book by the Sears Family- William Sears, M.D., Robert Sears, M.D. (his son), James Sears, M.D. (another son), and Martha Sears, R.N. Talk about a medical family! I really enjoy everything I have read from Dr. Sears, which at this point is only 1 1/2 books. I trust his insight and knowledge. Some background info about the Sears: William Sears, M.D., received his pediatric training at Harvard Medical School's Children's Hospital and Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. He has practiced as a pediatrician for more than thirty years. Martha Sears is a registered nurse, childbirth educator, and breastfeeding consultant. The Searses are the parents of eight children. Drs. Robert and James Sears are both board-certified pediatricians at the Sears Family Pediatric Practice in San Clemente, California. All four authors live in southern California. More information about the Searses can be found at www.SearsParenting.com and www.AskDrSears.com.
The first book I read from William and Martha Sears was called The Birth Book. Even though Dr. Sears seems to take a more natural approach to childbirth, this book gives unbiased information on all the options available out there for childbirth. It covers different types of births; water births; home births; hospital births; best birthing positions; drugs; pain; how to design your own birth plan; and pages and pages of birth stories.
This new book I started from the Sears family is called The Baby Sleep Book. Despite what I said earlier about how it was hard to read The No-Cry Sleep Solution without a baby around, I've found this book to be very informative so far. I wanted to share something I learned about infant sleep from Chapter 3.
Why do babies wake up so much? The simple answer: because they sleep differently from adults.
Infants:
- designed to easily awaken
- designed to sleep less deeply
- need night feedings
- have short sleep cycles (60 minutes)
- have mostly REM (active) sleep
- designed to stay asleep
- designed to sleep more deeply
- don't need night feedings (I do sometimes right now:) - I guess cuz I'm feeding a baby)
- have long sleep cycles (90 minutes)
- have mostly non-REM- (quiet) sleep
-Babies go to sleep differently. Infants take longer (at least 20 minutes) to drift into a state of deep sleep. This is unlike adults and older children who can "crash" into deep sleep in just a few minutes. The younger the infant, the longer it takes him to drift into deep sleep.
What does this mean for parents? Babies awaken easily during this drifting-off period. A baby is not truly asleep until he arrives in the state of deep sleep, 20-30 minutes after closing his eyes.
and here's the problem I have with the Babywise book:
according to Dr. Sears:
"You can see why the advice from sleep trainers to put babies down in their cribs awake doesn't work, especially for babies who are less than 3 months old. Babies need to be gentled through this first period of REM sleep, so that they can stay asleep until deeper sleep overtakes them. Between 3-6 months, babies begin to drift more quickly into non-REM sleep. At this time, they can be put down awake, or partially awake, and they will enter deep sleep fairly quickly. Bottom line: Babies need to be patiently parented to sleep, not just put down to sleep."
-Babies are designed this way on purpose
Babies need to sleep this way. Babies sleep the way they do--or don't--for both developmental and survival reasons.
Babies sleep smarter. Sleep researchers believe that the REM Sleep stimulates brain growth. This explains why babies spend more time there than adults.
Babies sleep healthier and safer. Imagine if a baby slept like an adult. What if he slept so deeply that he couldn't signal when he was hungry, cold, had a stuffy nose, or having difficulty breathing? The baby's well-being would be threatened. Babies come wired to awaken so they can let nearby caregivers know what they need in order to thrive and survive. What does this mean for parents?
training a baby to sleep too deeply for too long at too young an age is not in the best interests of the baby's development and well-being.
"Sleep trainers ignore these basic biological facts and insist that babies should be able to put themselves to sleep and to sleep through the night. As you can now see, putting a baby down to sleep alone in a crib and leaving him to cry himself to sleep and go back to sleep when he awakens is both biologically and developmentally wrong."
My bottom line: keep the biological facts in mind when making all decisions about your baby's sleep.
For more information:
http://www.isisonline.org.uk/how_babies_sleep/
Hmm...interesting.
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