According to a new study, sleep problems among infants are very common and
normally improve by the time the child reaches the age of two. The study was
carried out by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the
University of Turku.
The study found that large
changes take place in the sleep of infants during their first two years: the
time taken to fall asleep reduces to an average of 20 minutes by the age of 6
months, and by the age of two small children wake up are on average only once
during the night.
At the same time, the total
amount of time spent sleeping reduces to around 12 hours per day as daytime naps
get shorter.
During the first two years, the
child's sleep becomes more stable and more consistent.
However, there are large
individual variations in the quality of sleep of babies and toddlers, and many
parents are concerned about whether their child's sleeping patterns are normal
or not. Around 40% of the parents of eight-month-old children who participated
in the study said that they were concerned about their child's sleep.
The study was based on the
CHILD-SLEEP and FinnBrain birth cohorts. In total, the cohorts contain data on
approximately 5,700 Finnish children, and information provided by their parents.
Threshold values for good
sleep
The primary goal of the study was
to investigate how infants' sleep develops during their first two years.
"Up until now, we have not had
any reference values for good infant sleep that are based on large data sets,"
says Research Manager Juulia Paavonen from THL.
"Now we know that the individual
differences are very large, and that patterns relating to falling asleep, waking
up, staying awake at night and sleeping rhythms often develop at different
rates."
Secondly, the study sought to
examine how large the individual differences in sleep among infants can be while
still falling within the boundaries of normal child development. This would save
parents from unnecessary worry and would help to focus interventions on genuine
sleep disorders.
"Those children whose quality of
sleep is clearly different from the average would probably benefit from
situation assessment at, for example, the child welfare clinic. There are many
tools available for reducing children's sleep problems," Paavonen says.
According to Paavonen, it is
difficult to give a general recommendation on the total amount of sleep
required, although sufficient sleep is certainly important for a child's
well-being. The amount of sleep required depends on many factors.
"It is important to look at the
child's well-being as a whole."
If it takes longer than 40
minutes for the 8-month-old child to fall asleep, it is best to discuss the
matter in the child welfare clinic. The same applies if a 6-month-old child
normally wakes at night three times or more, or if the child stays awake at
night for particularly long periods, which would mean over 60 minutes for an
8-month-old baby, over 45 minutes for a 12-month-old, or over 30 minutes for an
18-month-old.
"If the parents are very
concerned about their child or their own ability to cope, help should be sought
even before these levels are reached," Paavonen emphasises.
The FinnBrain and CHILD-SLEEP
cohort data is utilised by a wide consortium which includes the Finnish
Institute of Health and Welfare, the Pirkanmaa Hospital District, the
Universities of Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Eastern Finland, and the Paediatric
Research Center of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District.
Via Science Daily