Recognizing the baby's sleep cycle, from in the womb to after birth

Have you ever thought about what babies do while in the womb? Babies can move, kick their mother's stomach, hear and learn sounds around them, and also fall asleep. Among all that, however, babies sleep more. This has an effect on the sleep cycle after the baby is born. Then, how do you organize the baby's sleep cycle so that it becomes normal?

Babies spend their time sleeping in the womb

When gestational age enters the age of seven months, babies spend a lot of time sleeping. Even at 32 weeks, babies can sleep nearly 90 to 95 percent of each day. Several hours were spent in deep sleep, some of which also experienced REM (rapid eye movement), and also chicken sleep. This is caused by the hormone melatonin, which affects the sleep and wake cycles of not yet mature enough in the baby's brain.

Around the 7th month of fetal development, the baby's rapid eye movement (REM) will be seen for the first time. The development of the baby's brain at that time will cause an alternation between REM and non-REM sleep that lasts 20 to 40 minutes. However, this sleep cycle is still being debated in research.

The sleep cycle of the baby in the womb actually affects the baby's sleep cycle after birth

Human sleep patterns are controlled by the body's biological clock, which is called the circadian rhythm. This clock shows a cycle repeatedly every 24 hours from light day and until dark. When the eyes feel darkness, the brain will release the hormone melatonin and make you sleepy.

However, in infants, the hormone melatonin is not produced completely until the baby is three months old. In the womb, babies rely on signals from the biological clock from the mother's body. Melatonin from the mother will flow to the placenta and this affects the baby's sleep patterns and baby movements.

When born into the world, because babies don't have the perfect melatonin hormone, they will have irregular sleep cycles. In fact, the sleep cycle is not much different from the sleep cycle in the womb. Fortunately, the hormone melatonin, which is produced from the mother's body, can be passed through breast milk. This can help the baby to develop a biological clock in his body.

Newborn babies will sleep for 16 to 18 hours per day. However, a baby's restful sleep is only four to six hours. Once around two weeks of age, you can begin to teach the difference between the darkness of night and the light of morning and day. Until the age of three months, then the baby will have a regular and normal sleep cycle, which is spending more time sleeping at night.

How to organize a newborn's sleep cycle?

In the early weeks of your baby's birth, you may have a little trouble sleeping well because babies often wake up at night. For that, the following tips can help you train your baby's sleep time to be normal because the sleep cycle is still messy.

First, often take the baby for a walk outside the house to enjoy the sunshine. Reporting from the Science of Mom, a study looked at babies aged 6 to 12 weeks who had better sleep at night because they were exposed to more sunlight in the morning and evening. This shows that the hormone melatonin in babies develops after being dried in the morning sun, so that the sleep cycle is better.

Second, get into a consistent sleep routine, so your baby can adapt more easily to a regular bedtime. Then, create a comfortable sleeping atmosphere at night, so that the baby doesn't wake up easily.

Third, when the baby takes a shower in the afternoon, give a light massage to the baby's body to relax the baby's body so that the baby wakes up refreshed the next day. At bedtime, you can give breast milk while holding the baby's body so that it is warmer and falls asleep faster at night.