How much should a baby sleep at 1-1.5 years old?

Without delving deeply into the nature of sleep, we can only say that it is necessary to protect the nervous system from exhaustion, since it ensures the restoration of energy destroyed and wasted during wakefulness. And given that the nervous system of children is exhausted faster than that of adults, the duration of sleep, naturally, should be longer. Moreover, the longer the younger the child. If in the first months of life, to restore the functionality of the nervous system, a child must sleep during the day 3-4 times for 2.5-3 hours, then from 9-10 months he can already sleep during the day only 2 times, and after one and a half years, the child usually sleeps once. At the same time, the duration of daytime sleep decreases with age: from 3-2.5 hours to two hours, and by 5-7 years it usually does not exceed 1-1.5 hours.

The efficiency of the baby's nervous system depends not only on age, but also on the individual characteristics and health of the child. Often, children of the same age need different amounts of sleep and duration of periods of wakefulness. For example, children with increased excitability of the nervous system spend more energy and get tired faster than calm children. Therefore, for them, periods of wakefulness have to be shortened, daytime sleep has to be increased, and they also need to be put to bed earlier in the evening. There are children who do not need more sleep, but more frequent rest. Therefore, they need to be given two daytime sleeps longer than others.

In addition, it is important to remember that children who are weakened or suffer from any chronic diseases also become exhausted faster. Naturally, they are not only less active, but also get tired faster.

It is currently established that children up to 18-19 months should sleep twice during the day, and the duration of the periods of wakefulness should not exceed 4.5 hours.

Parents should remember that the discrepancy between the duration of wakefulness and sleep periods for a certain age (taking into account individual characteristics) not only affects the child's behavior, but also disrupts the normal functioning of the entire body. For example, if your child has not yet developed a need for rest, he will not be able to fall asleep for a long time. Then, in order not to disrupt the feeding regime, you wake him up, and a sleep-deprived, awakened child usually eats poorly. Naturally, this negatively affects the child's physical development.

The nature of sleep in a child is somewhat different from that of an adult. A healthy child falls asleep faster than an adult, and his sleep reaches its deepest depth faster. But the period of uninterrupted sleep in children is shorter. Thus, the duration of uninterrupted sleep in a newborn does not exceed 3.5 hours. But by the end of the year, sleep is interrupted less and less often and the child sleeps without waking up, longer and longer. At the age of one year, children need fifteen hours of sleep, at 2-4 years - thirteen to fourteen hours.

You have already partially familiarized yourself with the requirements for a baby cot. Let's get back to this topic: each child should have a separate bed. He should not sleep with his parents, not to mention sleeping with brothers or sisters in the same bed!

The bed should be spacious enough. It is necessary to keep in mind that in the first years of life the bed is not only a place for sleeping for the child, but also an arena for active activity. In fact, in most families the crib acts as a playpen, where the child spends quite a long time. Based on this, the length of the crib should be at least 1 m 20 cm, and the width - at least 65 cm. The material from which the crib is made should be easy to wash.

And the last thing. After a walk, after active, exciting games (that is, after strong excitement), children usually have trouble falling asleep. Therefore, you need to try to make sure that sleep is preceded by a short (20-30 min) period of time for calm, non-stimulating activities - the child needs to calm down before going to bed.

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