Parentpedia

What Experts Say

You might've learned the difference between REM and non-REM sleep in high school biology, and, at the time, you might've wondered why it was worth knowing. Well, now's the time to refresh your memory. Because understanding how your baby's sleep cycles work will help you get her to sleep through the night sooner -- or at least make her night-wakenings shorter and less painful for you.

REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM are the two types of sleep. REM sleep is very light. A baby may twitch, smile, or even coo during REM sleep; it's also the stage where dreaming occurs. Non-REM sleep has three stages: light, deep, and very deep. Babies and children need lots of very deep sleep; this is when your little one is so deeply asleep that he doesn't react if you try to wake him or move him from one spot to another.

While adults tend to cycle through these stages, babies flip-flop through them. In fact, according to Elizabeth Pantley, author of "The No-Cry Sleep Solution," babies' sleep cycles are shorter and more numerous. In addition, they spend more time in light sleep than adults (newborns spend the majority of their time in REM sleep, whereas adults spend only about 25 percent).

Finally -- and this is the most important point -- babies have more stages of brief awakenings. These awakenings are a normal part of sleep. When we adults have them, we may roll over or move our pillow, but we quickly drift back off again.

Babies, on the other hand, may not know how to fall back asleep on their own. For example, if your baby associates rocking or nursing with falling asleep at bedtime, he'll come to believe he needs that to fall asleep all the time -- even at 3 a.m. That's why it's key to teach your baby how to soothe himself to sleep at bedtime. (For more on this, see Get-to-Sleep Strategies and Crying It Out.)

Here are a few things to remember about sleep cycles.

• Sticking to a set bedtime -- day in and day out -- is vital to your child's sleep cycles and keeping his circadian rhythms in check.
• Babies and toddlers need lots of sleep -- more than you may realize! Newborns can average 18 hours of sleep a day. From 3 to 12 months, they need between 14 and 15 hours a day, and from ages 1 to 3 they require 12 to 14 hours total.
• Children ages 18 months and older experience night terrors during non-REM sleep. During these episodes, a child wakes up panic-stricken and can't be consoled (she also doesn't remember the episode the next morning.) Luckily, according to Ari Brown, M.D., author of "Baby 411" and "Toddler 411," there is a fairly easy way to solve these terrors. Since they usually occur at the same time each night, wake your child up 30 minutes before they tend to happen. This will cause your child to skip the part of the sleep cycle where his night terror occurs.