When do babies sleep through the night?
Most new parents have trouble adjusting to the odd sleeping habits of their new born.
Before long, sleep deprivation leads them to ask the question when do babies sleep through the night?
The answer is your baby is going through a phase during which he will sleep a lot but never for more than 2-3 hours at a stretch. The reason is during the first 4 weeks his brain is developing at an electrifying rate and basically this means that his sleep patterns will be what we call REM sleep or rapid eye movement sleep. This type of sleep is light and your baby can easily be woken up when they are sleeping. As he gets a bit older about 6 and 8 weeks he will start to show signs of longer deep sleeps and fewer hours of REM sleeps.
Babies of about 24 weeks start to show signs of longer hours of sleep. This is highlighted by longer hours of deep sleep and general sleeping hours of 5-6 at a stretch. However during the first 4 weeks, then at 6-8 weeks and later even at 24 weeks he will continue to wake up several times to feed. You will need to keep checking whether he is hungry, needs to be changed and make him go back to sleep with gentle patting.
For concerned parents asking when do babies sleep through the night, it is recommended that you should realize that your baby’s specific sleeping pattern will be slightly unique and so there is no definite answer to the question. After a few weeks, however, you will be able to pick up the subtle signs when he is tired and thus needs to take a nap. He or she may tap his head, rub his eyes and even pick his ears and some babies also cry a lot when they are tired. Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of allowing him to get over tired though or he may have a problem going to sleep.
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