Many parents worry when their babies do not get enough sleep at night, thinking that lack of rest can impair their development. But as we know, understanding children's sleep is to understand that it is an evolutionary process and that it is perfectly normal for babies to wake up many times during the night.
A new study from McGill University (Canada), published in the November issue of the medical journal Pediatrics, reveals that a large number of babies do not get to sleep for six to eight hours without interruption per night, after six months. And some of them don't even get it a year old.
Researchers want to give peace of mind to parents who may worry about the development of their babies, noting that Children under the year who do not sleep the night of the pull do not have a greater risk of delay in your mental development or psychomotor skills.
The purpose of the study: reassure parents
Marie-Hélène Pennestri, lead author of the study, notes that the first year of a child's life "It is a beautiful period, but also vulnerable", which led her to carry out this study:
"My goal is to really reassure parents and take away that anxiety, which is not necessary."
Part of that fear, explains the principal investigator, is because some pediatricians advise parents to try "consolidate" the dream of their children in eight uninterrupted hours, instead of accepting the child's natural progression.
In Babies and more, what do I do? He slept well and now he wakes up several timesThe researchers obtained information from a longitudinal survey of mothers and their babies, born in Canadian obstetric clinics in Montreal, Quebec City and Hamilton (Ontario).
At six months of age, 38 percent of babies still did not sleep at least six consecutive hours at night, and 57 percent did not sleep eight hours, according to the study.
At 12 months of age, most babies did sleep through the night, although 28 percent of them did not rest six hours in a row without waking up.
In addition, the researchers discovered a difference in sleep patterns by sex: 48% of girls older than six months slept eight hours in a row, while only 39% of boys did.
Interrupted baby sleep does not cause developmental problems
One of the main reasons for the McGill University study was, according to its authors, to demonstrate that fragmented sleep during the first year of a baby's life does not cause developmental problems, as has sometimes been suggested.
"We could not find any significant association between sleeping at night or not, at six and twelve months of age, and variations in mental or psychomotor development."
That is the conclusion of the investigation, which adds:
"While the beneficial effects of sufficient night rest in childhood and adolescence are well known, it seems that the association between sleep-wake cycle patterns and development is much less direct during the first year of life."
In Babies and more When do babies sleep all night?The study also throws a fact that we already knew: that breastfed babies wake up more at night, since they need to feed more frequently, although researchers say that this is by no means an argument against breastfeeding, which offers many benefits for babies and mothers.
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