In Africa and Kenya in particular, our culture influences how we train our babies to sleep. Most of us soothe our babies and will only put them to bed once they are completely asleep. But just as children learn how to walk, they also learn how to fall asleep. It is important to ensure that you train your baby to sleep as this is a skill that has implications that affect us for our entire lives.
Here is a chart on sleep guidelines for your baby.
Age Nighttime Daytime
1 – 3 months 8½ hrs – 10 hours 3 naps (total of 5 – 7 hours)
6 – 9 months 11 hours 2 naps (total of 3 – 4 hours)
12 – 18 months 11¼ hours 1 or 2 naps (total of 2 – 3 hours)
2 years 11 hours 1 nap (90 minutes – 2 hours)
3 years 10½ hours 1 nap (90 minutes – 2 hours)
Here are a few tips to help sleep train your baby
1.1. Establish a Consistent Bedtime Routine and schedule
Human beings learn through their daily experiences and through repetition. Establish a bedtime to routine that you strictly follow. Your baby will soon start expecting the ‘usual’ and you will have fewer fights at bedtime
Ensure that:
- Come up with a particular activity that should come before bedtime e.g. read a story, sing a lullaby, say a prayer.
- Should last 15 to 60 minutes at night time, and about 10 to 15 minutes before a nap.
- Do routine in the same room where your child sleeps.
- Do approximately the same activities each time in the same order.
- Put your baby down when they look a bit sleepy and not when they are very tired as they might be too stressed to go to sleep. This way it is easier for them to drift off to sleep.
1.2. Teach your baby to fall asleep on their own
Though is quite natural for you to rock or feed your child to sleep. This, however, prevents your baby from sleeping through the whole night and therefore they cannot fall asleep on their own. These disruptions are often caused by their dependence on certain conditions, or “sleep associations” – anything your child associates with falling asleep, including being held, rocking, suckling or falling asleep with a parent. Throughout the night, your child drifts into lighter sleep phases to check out her environment. During these wakeful moments, they’re not fully conscious and as long as nothing has changed significantly since they fell asleep, they return to deeper sleep. But for many children, if something is different, this raises a red flag and they will need you to recreate the same conditions that were present when they fell asleep in the first place. Not all associations are bad; what’s important is that your child can recreate them on their own and put themselves back to sleep
1.3. Have a Good Sleep Environment
Your child’s environment plays a very important role in the ability to sleep well. Your baby needs to be protected from disruptions that can prevent them from settling to sleep, sleeping deeply, and sleeping for the right length of time.
Here are a few pointers
- Your child’s cot or bed should be all about sleep, and whatever doesn’t contribute to sleep should go.
- Ensure that your child’s room is very dark and doesn’t have light passing through, as darkness stimulates deeper sleep.
- Protect your child from distracting sounds.
Make sure your child is comfortable. Check the temperature; what is comfortable for you might be chilly or too warm for your child.
