The dream of children is one of the greatest concerns of parents, because the life of adults has been acquiring schedules and rhythms that the lives of children and their nature do not respect. They sleep in their own way, they wake up, they wake us up, and little do they know that we have to get up early to go to work (they don't even know it, nor do they really have to know).
That is why many parents are tremendously happy when their children sleep through the night and that is why many parents wonder what they have done wrong or what they can do when suddenly a child who slept peacefully every night (what is said to sleep well) He wakes up several times: What do I do? Does my baby have a problem?
Children's dream evolves and changes
Children's dream, as we have commented on other occasions, is evolutionary. As soon as he can be waking up 6 times every night, he can hardly wake up, and as soon as he can be waking up once or twice as he can wake up almost every hour.
In Babies and more At six months, 38 percent of babies do not sleep even six hours at nightAn era in which this usually happens is about 3 or 4 months, at which time the children's brain makes a small "click", acquiring new phases of sleep and ultimately maturing. Babies have only a couple of phases, one of light sleep and another of deep sleep, but adults have several more, since our sleep goes from one to another several times during the night.
Some of those phase changes wake us up, though most of the time we don't even find out. At the most we change a little position, we cover up and a little more, and the next day we are not able to explain how many times we did that. Well, about that age that the children commented, they acquire many of these phases, with the difference that they don't know how to "go back to sleep" just like us, and They wake up to ask us to help them fall asleep again (That is, the mother offers her breast and barely gives a pair of lollipops, which is immediately asleep again).
Many parents complain about it and also add "is that it is not because of hunger, because he does not eat anything", and they are right, although in some of those waking up they do eat, others are only the complaint to accompany them back to sleep .
In Babies and more 11 tips for the baby to have sweet dreams (and we)Over time, as we accompany them in the process, the children end up falling asleep alone, as we do, without the need for us to be with them and for them in each awakening.
This may also happen later, perhaps towards the nine months, perhaps towards the year, ... usually it has associated some new milestone of the child. Something like "now that I've learned to crawl, I'm going to see if I know how to do it at night," and you find your son moving through the bed or cradle "but-where-is he going?" or getting out of bed to stand up with eyes closed "but-what-does?". Sometimes you may not train at night, but simply remember in your dreams everything you have achieved, learned and discovered and that All this does not let you sleep soundly.
Whatever the reason, nothing special needs to be done, but simply to accompany them in the awakenings so they can fall asleep again. Sometimes it is enough with our little hand touching them and a whisper, sometimes with putting on the pacifier, sometimes with giving them a little breast, sometimes with bringing them closer to our body so that they feel our warmth.
The case is don't let them wake up more and more, nor let them cry (I keep reading advice not to go, to wait, and I don't understand them, because many children have a hard time getting back to sleep, already revealed), but to help them patiently waiting for the day they alone go back to sleep, The day when you don't understand it too much, you get up one morning and realize that that night has not woken up once.
But what if the change is very abrupt?
Ok, I just said that a child who slept well can start to wake up at night, being something normal. However, there are times when the change is very abrupt, because the child may go from waking once to do so many more times, without just sleeping more than half an hour or an hour in a row. In such a case it should be ruled out that there was a cause (it could be normal as well, but it might not be).
This cause may be the experiences you have during the day, the relationships you establish with another child or with other adults and we should inquire to see if something has changed in your day to day It is affecting sleep. It would also be necessary to rule out some disease, some infection, as many children often wake up when something hurts or they feel bad, even though we have not yet been able to see that there is any pathology.
In that case, if we suspect that there is something that may be affecting our children's nights it is advisable to go to the pediatrician to look for that reason and, in addition, to look for a possible cause of his nocturnal discomfort in the child's day-to-day life. If then it turns out that everything is fine and that there seems to be no origin, we will act in the same way, charging us with patience, accompanying them in the awakening, and if it is also necessary in the sleep and wait for better times to come.
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