Adequate sleep is very good, for adults and for babies. The importance of adequate sleep cannot be over emphasized. Many mothers and fathers don’t understand the importance of adequate sleep. At this juncture, I think I should say it clearly that it is recommended medically that babies less than a year old should have at least 13 hours of sleep everyday. Here are a few reasons why adequate sleep is important for babies.
Problems of Inadequate Sleep For Babies
• Weakening of the immune system of babies
• Depression
• Grumpiness and Moodiness
• Memory weakening and Reduction of rate of learning
Weakening of the Immune System of Babies
When your baby doesn’t have adequate sleep it would affect his health. He may fall ill a little often. He may run temperature too often. This is because his immune system would be weak. His antibodies would have a little or no resistance against any illness. This would definitely take its toll on your pocket because you’ll spend more money on drugs and treatment.
Depression
Lack of adequate sleep can also cause depression for your baby. Although the case of depression caused by inadequate sleep is very rare, the possibility shouldn’t be ruled out. Babies who get between 12 to 14 hours of sleep everyday are lively and happy babies.
Grumpiness and Moodiness
Any night that your baby didn’t get enough sleep, he’ll be grumpy and moody for most part of the subsequent day. Sometimes when your baby falls ill and can’t sleep, he’ll be grumpy and moody. Most people think the cause of the grumpiness is the illness, but on the contrary, the main cause of the grumpiness is actually the sleeplessness caused by the baby. That’s why whenever a baby is ill, if he can’t get enough sleep, the illness will linger on for long, but once the sleeplessness is cured, then recovery is near. The two biggest signs that a sick baby is getting better are increase in appetite and increase in the number of hours of sleep.
Memory weakening and Reduction of rate of learning
The final problem I’ll like to discuss is the memory weakening which in turn leads to a very slow learning process. Babies learn from everything they see, they learn from what people around them do and they also learn to speak by repeating what they hear people say. Depressed babies and /or grumpy babies don’t even observe anything happening around them, let alone learning from it. Since lack of adequate sleep can cause both grumpiness and depression which in turn leads to a slow learning process, lack of adequate can be linked directly to slow learning process. Please note that this can only happen when the inadequacy of sleep becomes perpetual or continuous.
Since I have discussed the importance of adequate sleep to your baby, it becomes incumbent on me to put you through how to make your baby sleep better. I promise to discuss that in my next article. Please keep in touch.
