Don’t Snooze on the science of Sleep 😉

Sometimes we get so caught up in the sleep coaching strategies

like “cry out” or “camping out”, and we can let the basics of Sleep Science

fall to the wayside. You’ll find me saying it again and again: having a really solid

sleep hygiene foundation is important.

I emphasize this because it’s how our body works. We know our bodies are incredible.

It coordinates 1 million things all at once for you to be able to grow your baby, feed your baby,

teach your baby! Let’s not forget your baby developing all on their own too…

so we need to give our bodies some credit and utilize what we know about

Sleep Science and what we know about our bodies to our advantage.

#1 We know that the body needs to stay awake a certain amount, to be tired

enough to fall asleep and stay asleep. This is called sleep pressure.

This is also where wake windows come into the picture. That being said

we also know that our bodies have many different internal rhythms and we

like routines. This means that sometimes, especially with kids 6-8 months and older,

going to bed and having naps at the same time, provides stability and anchors

for successful sleeps in the future. This routine trumps one random longer wake window,

for example.

#2 We know the light coming in through our eyes is directly linked to the

sleep centre in the brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus. We know that when light

comes into our eyes to this part of the brain, it signals arousal and it puts a

brake on our sleep hormone melatonin (this light, also signals arousal to the rest of

the body too)! We also know that when it starts to get dark, the opposite happens.

The body takes the foot off the break and lets melatonin start to circulate in

and puts a foot on the break of our alert hormones.

Real life example:

⛺️ I don’t know about you, but I always sleep a lot better when I’m camping. ⛺️

If I go to bed soonish after it gets dark, I usually wake up sometime when the

sun comes up and I feel refreshed in the morning! Our bodies are programmed to do this.

It’s naturally predisposed to want to follow the rise and fall of the sun.

#3 We know that our body temperatures drop when we sleep and then it

peaks through the day. It starts to drop around 7-8pm to get you a good sleep,

and then it starts to warm up around 6am to get you ready for your day.

Sooooo cooling our bodies down, preemptively in order to sleep better, makes a lot of sense!

#4 Maybe the trickiest and biggest one is that we know (pretty much the whole point)

that an infant’s brain and body are constantly developing minutes to minute, hour to hour.

This means that the way you settled them a week ago might not work this week.

It also means that they could have been great at putting themselves to sleep last week…

but this week they are needing a little extra help- and that’s normal and expected!

Just going with the flow is the best way I can put it. This constant change means they

are healthy and that their body is doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing.

Every child is so different, even between siblings.

We see this positive encouragement a little more when it comes to other developmental

milestones like encouraging crawling at their own pace, eating solids on their

own time so why do we treat Sleep any different?

Your child has their own rhythm of developing and learning, and this includes Sleep!

If you are unsure how to implement any changes, or just want to talk

through something… Please reach out! Book your free Discovery Call today

- Your Paediatric Sleep Consultant

Marina Godard-Simon 💚