Babies Brain Development And Sleep: The Importance Of Sleep In Child’s Development

Aside from the obvious, have you ever wondered why sleep is so important to babies? In this post, we will dive into how important sleep is in a child’s brain development. We will also include some ways you can support your baby’s sleep. Let’s get started!

Baby Sleep Statistics

Naptime and bedtime are greatly productive periods for babies.

• Half of their sleep is an active phase –until their 6 months of age.
• 40 percent of childhood is spent sleeping.
• From birth to 2 years of age, children spend more time sleeping than being awake.
• Babies spend about 80% of their time in active sleep while in the womb.

Not accidentally, it is during these phases of a children’s life that the brain is at its peak of growth.

Importance Of Sleep In Baby’s Development

Although it seems like your baby is just catching sleep. The reality is a huge amount of mental and physical development happens throughout the sleep. One essential layer of fat known as myelin is forming all over the nerve fibers during sleep –and recent studies suggest connections between the child’s right and left brain hemisphere are being strengthened throughout sleep.

All of these developments might help the brain function more mature. They also help in influencing critical abilities like attention, language, as well as impulse control. During sleep, the brain activity has a great effect on the ability of a child to learn and might even impact his/her mood disorders and development in general.

Sleep is very important for any baby’s brain.

Ways To Support Your Baby’s Sleep

You know now how important a baby’s brain development is –now, let us look at the ways on how you can support your baby’s sleep.

1. Know the importance of sleep. Sleep is necessary to support a baby’s brain development.
2. Recognize the signs of sleepiness. The signs of sleepiness may vary by personality and age. Some babies are eye-rubbers, and some get frilly.
3. Put your baby to bed drowsy. As time passes by, this strategy may help your baby in learning how to get back on sleep on their own, in case they suddenly wake up.
4. Some experts suggest babies younger than 6 months old sleep better when wrapped with a blanket. If you want to try swaddling, talk with your doctor on how to do it properly.
5. Take advantage of alert, awake time. Providing interesting things for your child to play with by day, you are making them sleep more likely at night.

Baby’s sleep is so important for them to develop their brains properly. Follow the ways on how you can support your baby’s sleep and you will see a lot of positive changes with your children. You can rest assured that each time they rest up, they develop one essential thing for them while they grow up –their brain!

Sincerely,