The 4 Stages Of Your Child’s Sleep Cycle
Adults and babies both sleep. But a baby’s sleep cycles differ greatly from an adults! The biggest difference being the length of each sleep cycle. Babies naturally wake more often throughout the night in order to ensure their survival, whereas older children and adults are able to stretch those sleep cycles a little bit longer.
It is common to hear parent’s excitedly announce that their baby is “sleeping through the night!” However, it is important to understand that this is not actually what is happening. In reality, their baby has now learned the skills of self-soothing and independent sleep so that they are able to transition through the partial arousal between sleep cycles without help from an outside source. And that is exactly what the goal of sleep training is! We work to minimize the need for interaction and/or help from an outside source during the night so that your child is able to take long, uninterrupted, and restorative sleep!
Once you understand the sleep cycles, a baby’s sleep will make a bit more sense, so let’s chat about it!
Before we dive deep into the 4 different phases, let’s talk about the difference between Non-REM & REM sleep.
Non-REM = the resting/restorative phase of sleep
REM = lots of brain stimulation, processing & building neurological connections
Non-REM Phase 1:
This phase is made up of very light sleep that is easy to wake from.
It can almost be considered the “relaxation” phase and is the beginning stages of sleep.
Non-REM Phase 2:
This phase involves the start of the biological functions of sleep such as:
slowed heartbeat, lower body temperature, and muscle relaxation.
Non-REM Phase 3:
This phase is the “deep sleep” phase in which it is difficult to wake up.
REM Sleep:
This phase is what we call “active” sleep due to the intense brain development that happens during this stage.
Blood flow increases, which allows for increased neural stimulation, and the opportunity to create new brain connections. Every leap and milestone that your baby reaches is created during this stage!
You will know your baby is in this phase when their eyes start fluttering or moving.
Okay, that was a lot of information! So let me give you an example…
You are holding your baby and rocking them to sleep. Their eyes begin to close and they appear to be sleeping, but there is a small noise (the phone rings) and their eyes pop back open! Non-REM Phase 1
All is good and they close their eyes once more. You cross your fingers for no more interruptions, and notice that your baby seems to be relaxing more. Their body is getting heavier and sinking into you but you know that if there was another loud noise it would likely wake them. Non-REM Phase 2
They continue relaxing and start taking heavier, slower breaths. You decide to do the “sleep test” and pick up their arm and drop it. They don’t even budge! They are sound asleep! Non-REM Phase 3
At this point you have managed to transfer them to their crib and they have stayed sleeping. Woohoo!!
Now typically we don’t stand around and watch our baby’s sleep - we’ve got things to accomplish! However, if you were to stand and observe them you would notice their eyelids start fluttering, and after closer inspection you would actually see their eyes darting around as if they were looking at things. REM Sleep
Now this cycle happens fairly quickly… every 30-45 minutes! *exact time varies for each baby
If they have independent sleeping skills and are able to self-soothe, you won’t even be aware of the partial arousal and the transition to a new sleep cycle. However, if your child is dependent on you to put them to sleep, they are not going to be able to transition through the partial arousal and they will call out for you to help them, which is where we see the dreaded 45 minute nap happening.
But don’t panic if your child is struggling with this transition… reach out here to work with me and get your family back to a place of feeling rested!
