5 Reasons Your Baby Doesn’t Sleep Well

It is very likely that by the time your child is six months old he will be able to sleep through the night, however on occasion you may notice that he is not sleeping as well. 

And although the reasons may vary, it’s better for you to know that everything has a solution, and that sometimes everything is very simple. It just requires patience and love, two qualities that parents must cultivate in large quantities.

Know the 5 reasons why your baby doesn’t sleep well

Can’t sleep alone

Learning how to sleep is a task that babies are achieving little by little. Sometimes they can sleep quickly, but for some reason they wake up and don’t know what to do to get back to sleep.

This is a very common problem, and in some cases it affects not only babies, but adults as well. We can admit that most people wake up during the night because the sleep phases are cyclical. So we wake up every time a cycle ends, but immediately go back to sleep unless something keeps us awake.

The same thing happens with babies, and when one of the sleep cycles ends, they may wake up from a noise, from the heat, from having wet their diaper or from feeling hungry. Most of these needs will be expressed through crying. Crying also serves to express the fear of feeling alone in your crib.

Whatever the need, try to meet it soon, and put him to sleep in your arms again. You will see how little by little it will stabilize your sleep routine.

learned to sleep out of the crib

There are also children who can only sleep outside their crib. This sometimes happens because they have learned to associate the time of rest with, for example, being on the sofa in the living room or in their parents’ bed where they sleep without realizing it. The problem appears when they wake up when being taken to the crib or bed.

This bad habit can be modified by helping the baby to associate his crib with the pleasant time of rest. Make your crib a nice, comfortable place and try to put it to sleep before it’s already fallen asleep elsewhere in the house. It is very likely that he will cry at first, but try to be patient.

What a beautiful night for home life, for the lips and song of the child! If I had a child, I would tiptoe over to watch him sleep in his crib. -Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera-

Tenderly explain that this is where he should sleep and that he can feel safe there because you will always be taking care of him. Another advice is to try to use the crib just so that the child sleeps, do not use it for other activities such as playing, so it will be easier to associate your crib with the time of sleep.

Start playing at bedtime

If your baby is over 7 months old and wants to play when he should be getting ready for bed, then it turns out he’s not tired enough.

If this is an occasional situation, then take a walk at the end of the day, as stimuli from another environment can help you relax and also make you more tired. However, if this problem is frequent, in addition to walking, it is necessary to review your schedule, because it is possible that he is waking up too late and you are putting him to bed too early.

the child feels alone

There is something called “separation anguish” that manifests itself when the baby is too scared not to see his parents around, this usually happens when the baby is about 7 or 8 months old. But don’t worry, this anguish disappears when he realizes that despite not seeing his parents, they are close to him.

Therefore, as a good mother, answer as soon as possible when he cries and try to calm his anguish with caresses and words, even if he is very small, he will understand and feel better.

Some parents give a teddy bear or a blanket so the baby can be comforted by its scent. What happens with these objects is that the child learns to associate them with his parents and feels safe when he realizes that he is alone in his room. For this trick to work you need to play with it for a few minutes.

asks for things when in the crib

Many babies when they start to talk start asking for things when they lie down in the crib. This is very common among one-and-a-half-year-olds; if this is the case with your baby, there is a strategy you can use with him:

Take him to bed after all his needs have been satisfied, and when he starts asking for things, remind him that he’s already eaten, he’s drunk, and he’s done everything he should have done. Talk to him only once. It is very important that you be firm and that you try to change these habits that sabotage your sleep routine little by little. Patience, your baby will learn to sleep alone in no time!