Every beginning is difficult - not least when it comes to baby sleep. Just as you make your baby fall asleep at last, you never have to get out of bed again at night and you can hold a happy baby in your arms during the day.
In the first weeks and months of a baby's life, the topic of "baby sleep" can become a dominant family theme. Good to know things will get better soon.
In the first three calendar months, babies sleep an average of 14 to 18 hours a day from 24 hours a day, evenly distributed over about five to six sleep phases. But it's also important for sleeping: Every offspring is different, and differences from the average are absolutely commonplace.
Some babies are real "marmots", others are only to be put to sleep with great effort. Some sleep early, others need a little longer - and others sleep longer for a period of time and then suddenly they don't sleep anymore.
A few differences in the child's sleep behavior are inherited: The need for sleep is in a way put into the cradle for us and the sleep duration may differ enormously from baby to baby. As with adults,"late risers" and "short sleepers"also exist in babies: some need only nine to twelve hours of baby sleep, while other babies can reach up to twenty hours!
In the first weeks and months of life, a baby must learn to adapt to the transition from day to night and develop regular periods of rest and eating. Just like the need for sleep, the moment when a sprout finds its way to a fixed sleep-wake rhythm varies from individual to individual and does not depend on a biological maturation process (growth and specialization of the brain). Some babies also tend to be anxious and find it difficult to find their sleep-wake rhythm, which can be particularly challenging for parents.
Already in the womb, approximately from the 36th week of pregnancy onwards, the embryo experiences various phases of sleep, dreaming and waking. The sleep-wake cycle, which the unborn baby has at the end of pregnancy, is continued by the newborn baby after delivery. During the first few weeks of life, the nighttime rest and waking phases are still spread evenly over the day and night. During the first year of life, the proportion of growth and experience is constantly increasing.
At around four to six weeks, sleep patterns gradually become more continuous and the offspring begin to gradually adjust to a day/night cycle. The majority of babies sleep in the evening at about the same time in this age and wake up at about the same time in the night and in the morning.