Your child’s sleep may be disrupted due to orthosomnia
Baby sleep is one of the biggest challenges parents face, and when baby won’t sleep, parents are desperate for answers. But children’s sleep expert Dr. Natalie Barnett said newsweek Parents should walk a line when it comes to answers about getting their baby to sleep through the night.
“People are much more interested in sleep than they were a decade ago, but people can also become obsessed with sleep, which is what we want to avoid,” said Barnett, vice president of clinical research at Nanit and founder of the Nanit Lab. Newsweek.
Nanit recently completed a study of over 100,000 users across the United States to analyze the sleep of babies ages 0 to 8 months. Barnett said she has ideas about why babies in some areas are sleeping better at night than others, but more research is needed to find out exactly why, as the results surprised her.
The study analyzed children’s sleep scores and Barnett said it was important for the company to develop a single metric for parents to look at. She said the goal was to give parents an easy, quick way to see how well their baby slept, so that parents don’t have to worry and stress too much about their baby’s sleep.
“We know that sleep is just as important to their child’s development as nutrition and exercise. And so we want them to focus on sleep and we want to make sleep a priority, we don’t want them to be sleep deprived,” Barnett said. “The last thing we want to do is create orthosomnia.”
What is orthosomnia?
Barnett explains that orthosomnia is the obsessive pursuit of perfect sleep. newsweek It is not helpful for parents to be obsessed with getting their baby to sleep well all the time.
Children can sense the stress being felt by their parents, which may signal to them that they are not safe or in danger. Every parent of a baby who has not slept knows that it is difficult to control the stress caused by the baby not sleeping, but if parents are stressed over analyzing how well the baby is sleeping, it will not help the baby to sleep better.
According to Barnett, as much time as parents should be focusing on sleep, they also spend time thinking about brushing their teeth.
“It’s something that’s a priority. You want to do it every day. You want to make sure you have the right toothbrush. You want to make sure you’re flossing. You want to make sure you’re seeing your dentist regularly, but it’s not something you think about every day or spend hours at work thinking, ‘Oh my God, OK, I have to make sure I’m brushing this tooth better. Am,'” Barnett said.
Barnett wants parents to check the sleep score, see whether their child had a good or bad night, and then move on with their day.
When do children sleep at night?
“When do babies sleep through the night?” It’s often one of the top Google searches related to baby sleep, and for good reason too. Every parent wants to know when they will get a chance to go to bed at night and wake up at a reasonable time in the morning. However, unfortunately, the answer is not definite.
Generally speaking, babies start sleeping through the night at around 3 to 6 months. But some babies may start sleeping through the night earlier than others, and this may be related to how much they eat during the day, with older babies being able to eat more and sleep longer.
By 8 months of age, Barnett told Newsweek, most babies can go longer periods of time through the night without feeding.
How long does sleep regression last?
Now, it’s easy to tell parents whose kids are sleeping through the night not to worry about sleep, and it’s much harder to tell parents whose kids aren’t sleeping well to ignore why they’re not sleeping.
And even babies who were previously sleeping well through the night may go backwards and suddenly start waking up multiple times during the night.
Barnett said these regressions usually indicate that a physical milestone is about to occur and usually last only a few days. She urged parents not to give up routines during the fall and said it’s a sign to “stay the course.”
“I want parents to really understand that the more consistent you are with your daytime routine, your bedtime routine, and how your baby is responding at night, the easier these sleep disruptions will go, and the faster you can get your baby back on track,” Barnett said.
In which states do children sleep the best?
Nanit’s study found that children with the highest sleep scores live in states in the Northeast, with five of the top 10 states in the Northeast. Maine had the highest sleep score of 87, and South Dakota and Alaska had the worst sleep scores of 83.6 and 83.9, respectively.
The study analyzed duration, efficiency and stability, as well as how often parents had to go to soothe their baby. Barnett said it was “really interesting” that states that are more urban and suburban had higher sleep scores than rural states.
“What we saw was that these kids in these heavily urbanized areas were actually sleeping better,” Barnett said. “Having raised three boys in New York City, it was kind of validating to see these kids getting really good sleep in New York City.”
With Nanit, parents are able to access their baby’s sleep scores and Barnett said she’s received feedback from users that it makes them feel empowered. They have information they can use if their child isn’t sleeping well or see how “great” the night went.
Why are urban babies sleeping better than rural babies?
Barnett said more research is needed to determine why babies in some areas sleep better than others. But, he said, it’s possible that access to child care, better parental leave policies and flexible working arrangements may contribute to why kids are getting better sleep.
“If you don’t get home by 8 p.m. because your shift doesn’t end until then, your baby may go to bed a little later,” Barnett said.
While it may seem counterintuitive that babies in New York City sleep better because of the noise, Barnett said the city’s constant hum acts almost as a form of white noise that babies are exposed to from birth.
“In more rural areas, you hear every little thing that could potentially wake kids up or make them a little more nervous,” Barnett said.
Is it harmful to rock your baby to sleep?
Another top Google search when it comes to baby sleep is sleep training, and there are many different schools of thought about the best way to get a baby to sleep.
One belief is that parents should place their baby in the crib when the baby is awake because this teaches babies to sleep independently.
Others deeply object to sleep training and believe that it is natural for a baby to want to sleep with its mother.
At the end of the day, Barnett said that as long as the baby is in a safe sleep environment, parents should do what’s best for their family.
“If you’re rocking your baby to sleep and then putting him in the crib and he’s already asleep and he sleeps through the night, I don’t care how that baby fell asleep at the beginning of the night,” Barnett said. “But, if you were rocking your baby to sleep, they were falling asleep in your arms, and then they were waking up 15 times a night calling for you to go and do the same thing to get them back to sleep, that’s all I care about.”
Parental visits during the night are a good indicator of a baby’s ability to self-soothe, Barnett said, which is why the Nanit study analyzed that specific metric. She said babies who can put themselves back to sleep in the middle of the night and are “independent sleepers” get better sleep, and in addition, parents get better sleep, too.
Barnett said this doesn’t mean parents have to sleep train their child to become an independent sleeper. She recommended establishing a consistent bedtime routine, because sleep is a learned skill that some children can acquire without dedicated training.
During the conversation, Barnett mentioned several times that there are always times when kids need their parents more at night.
It could be that a child is sick or improving, and Barnett said it’s OK to visit your child in the middle of the night when necessary.
“I really like to tell parents that there are some wants and there are some choices. There are very few requirements,” Barnett said. “Your baby needs to be fed. Your baby needs at least one person to love, and I would really love to keep your baby safe. Everything else, it’s very much a choice, and we want to give you as much science-backed information as possible… but really, it’s up to you.”
