Confusing day with night. Why does the child not want to sleep at night? How to provide comfortable conditions

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What to do if the child confused day and night? Why is this happening and how to fix it? In fact, the little baby still does not distinguish between the concepts of day and night, because 9 months of intrauterine existence did not have such distinctions. Over time, the baby begins to get used to the alternation of the day / night rhythm of existence, and his mother should help him in this.

Reasons for staying up at night

If the child does not sleep at night, the reason may be the most banal: the baby had a good night's sleep during the day. If you sleep all day, you will also spend the night in an active form. Tell yourself honestly: were you glad that the baby was sleeping, and you could redo a lot of useful household chores? Here comes the hour of reckoning.

Other reasons for staying up at night can be:

  • pain in the tummy;
  • malnutrition;
  • uncomfortable clothes;
  • hot room;
  • excitement before sleep.

At night, the baby can not sleep and catch up all day because of fatigue and exhaustion. If this process is not corrected, then the child will continue to lead a nocturnal lifestyle. After all, for him there is no difference yet - day or night. What to do? Try to normalize sleep / rest and accustom the little one to a night's sleep.

Work on mistakes

So, it’s not the newborn baby’s fault that he mixed up day and night. Take this as an axiom and try to eliminate the causes of night vigil.

tummy hurts

When the baby has indigestion from the wrong food or the intestines are bursting with gas, he will not be able to sleep peacefully at night. What should mom do? It is necessary to establish a food regimen and deal with gaziki on the advice of a pediatrician.

The main thing is not to overfeed the baby at night so that he can sleep peacefully.

Malnutrition

This is the second reason for a restless night's sleep due to an unbalanced diet. What to do? If you are breastfeeding, take breast milk for analysis: it may not have enough fat content. If the baby is fed formula milk, consult a pediatrician and replace the product with another one. Strictly observe the number of feedings of the baby and the amount of daily food eaten.

Uncomfortable clothes

The skin of babies is very thin and delicate, it is devoid of fat. Any seam on clothes can cause discomfort, so shape your baby’s wardrobe not according to the criteria of glamor and beauty, but according to ease of use. To make cotton undershirts soft for the body, wash them several times in a row and dry them. The new chintz fabric is made stiff for ease of sewing, and after washing, all additives disappear.

hot room

A newborn child does not have a well-formed system of thermoregulation, because in the mother's stomach there was no need for this. Therefore, the baby may suffer from heat at night and sleep poorly, and the mother thinks that he has confused day and night. Remember: when it seems to you that the room is cool, then for the crumbs this temperature is just right. A child up to six months is more difficult to tolerate heat than coolness.

Overexcitation of the psyche

You can’t play with the baby before going to bed, you need to prepare it for a quiet and peaceful night. Often guests gather in the evenings or grandparents come, everyone wants to chat with the baby. However, the baby does not yet have stable reactions of excitation / inhibition of the psyche and simply will not be able to calm down for a long time after the games, and then the mother worries: the baby has confused day with night.

Advice. Make sure that the bed for a night's rest is spacious and comfortable: the baby should be comfortable in it.

Little tricks

How to accustom the baby to the natural day / night regimen, what needs to be done for this? Let's look at some examples.

  1. In order for the child to sleep soundly and fall asleep quickly, try to fill his day with active games, walks and entertainment. Fatigue will come by itself, and the child will be tired in the evening.
  2. When the baby sleeps more than expected during the day, wake him gently. Sometimes this method helps to normalize the correct daily routine. If the baby cries upon waking, give him a bottle of formula or a breast.
  3. During the day, show your activity to the baby: talk loudly with him, play, turn on fun music. In the evening, reduce activity so that the baby feels a change in your mood. The night should be associated with the crumbs with peace and rest.
  4. With feeding, you can also cheat a little. For example, the penultimate feeding can be slightly reduced in portions so that the child is slightly undernourished. Then organize a pleasant bath and a hearty dinner for the night: the baby will sleep soundly and serenely.

When a child habitually wakes up at night and starts crying from lack of attention, try not to react. This rule does not apply to the case of an illness of the baby.

Teaching baby to fall asleep

Getting ready for bed should be like a ritual for you and for the little one. Let it be a pleasant ritual of going to bed and always the same. Remember the important components of the ritual:

  • always start at the same time;
  • always perform the same actions;
  • always be in the same mood.

For you, the ritual of preparing the crumbs for sleep should begin with airing the room and organizing bath procedures. Vodichka produces a calming effect on the little one, relieves excess tension and accumulated energy.

Important! If you arrange a game out of bathing, this, on the contrary, will cheer up and excite the little one before going to bed.

The child should get used to the fact that before going to bed in the room they turn off the bright light and leave a nightlight. This also needs to be done constantly. A feature of babies in the first year of life is the ability to learn everything that the mother shows. The child will quickly get used to the ritual and learn to distinguish the correct time.

After bathing, you need to feed the crumbs, give him breast or milk formula. Some babies fall asleep right at the breast or with a bottle in the crib. Some babies value toys they fall asleep with. Mom should study the nature of her little one and take into account all needs.

Some babies need to sing a lullaby, but always the same one. Try not to change anything in the ritual of falling asleep so that the child quickly gets used to a certain sequence of actions. The kid must understand that at night before going to bed:

  • the room is dark and quiet;
  • mother bathes in a warm bath;
  • after the bath there is always milk;
  • mother sings a quiet song;
  • favorite toys are nearby.

If you accustom the baby to such a pattern, he will learn to distinguish between day and night.

Before giving a sedative to a baby and destroying his body with medicines, listen to the wise advice of grandmothers. Sometimes unexpected actions correct a deadlocked situation in a dramatic way! So, folk remedies for insomnia:

  1. Tight swaddling. Our grandmothers knew that the baby is afraid of his hands for the first time, until he got used to them. If you twist the baby with a cocoon (not tight!), He will quickly calm down and fall asleep.
  2. Turned out clothes. This sorcerer's tool helps to calm the baby, who mixed up the time. Clothes turned inside out knock down the scent of "evil spirits" - remember Christmas carols. What do we have to do? Either turn your baby's day clothes inside out and put them in a chest of drawers, or let him walk around in the sliders inside out during the day - and before going to bed they need to be turned back on the front side.
  3. Conspiracy drink. To make the child sleep soundly, give him a drink of charmed milk: “Milk-milk, put my child to sleep! So that he does not walk at night, he sleeps soundly in the cradle. The words of the conspiracy can be anything, the main thing is to pronounce them with faith in success.
  4. Put the baby in the crib, who mixed up the correct time, protect. Usually grandmothers are advised to hide scissors under the mattress with the sharp side towards the door or a bay leaf.
  5. You can put a charmed water at the head of the cradle. To do this, pour water into a clay, glass or crystal cup and read the plot to sleep. This water will protect the baby from anxiety.
  6. In emergency cases, when the child does not calm down in any way, a crap diaper is thrown out the window. But you can do this not at any time, but exactly at midnight.
  7. When the baby comes in crying and is not going to sleep, turn him over in the crib. That is, in place of the head should be legs. Sometimes this method helps (perhaps the child has become a victim of an attack by dark forces). To believe or not to believe is your right. The main thing is the result.

Old people said that the child did not sleep well because of the midnight. The midnight woman, in their opinion, looks like a tall, thin woman who disturbs the children's sleep. To get rid of it, a bowl of water was placed under the cradle, and any sharp iron object was placed under the mattress. At the same time they said:

“Sinister midnighter, there is a lake on you - drown yourself!
Knife (nail, scissors) stab!
Turn away from my child!"

In the morning, water was poured over the threshold (you can pour it into the toilet and flush it). This rite helped to improve sleep: a child who mixed up the time began to sleep peacefully at night.

There are children who delight their loved ones during the day with their calmness, smile, sound sleep and angelic look. But with the advent of the night, as in a horror movie, the cute little one turns into a tyrant. He screams, demands attention, and absolutely does not want to understand that mom and dad also need to rest. Such a child in a matter of days is able to bring the whole family to a nervous breakdown and moral exhaustion.

The child confused day and night, grandparents talk about such a baby and sigh sympathetically. The famous doctor Yevgeny Komarovsky tells what to do if this happens, and how to establish a normal daily routine for a baby.

This is not uncommon

Approximately every sixth baby confuses day and night. At the same time, during daylight hours, there are no complaints, tantrums, or anxiety. And at night - the expressed activity. Such a regimen does not cause any problems for the child himself; this does not affect his health. But the baby needs a healthy mom and dad, and that's the only reason the problem should be solved without delay.

Why is this happening

The need for sleep in a child is great, it is much higher than in an adult. But high-quality children's sleep becomes only when several important factors coincide at once:

  • The higher the activity during wakefulness, the higher the energy consumption. Sleep is stronger and better;
  • The stronger and better the baby slept in the previous period a few hours ago, the less likely it is that he will fall asleep just as soundly this time;
  • The more satisfying the baby ate before going to bed, the faster he falls asleep.


Thus, the reasons why the baby does not sleep at night or sleeps restlessly are obvious - he spent little energy, he was not tired, he slept during daylight hours, or he is hungry. Regarding the latter reason, says Komarovsky, everything is ambiguous. Sometimes children refuse to sleep because of the opposite - from overeating. If the baby is overfed, his stomach may “swell”, and there is clearly no time for sleep.

A child may not sleep well due to the fact that the bedroom (and usually, this is the parent's bedroom, where the crib was placed) is stuffy. The window in it is closed (after all, there is a baby in the house!), The heater is working, and, in addition to the little one, mom, dad, cat are actively breathing. A good night's sleep requires fresh, cool air.

If for some of the above reasons the child did not manage to get enough sleep on one of the nights, then this will certainly lead to the fact that the little one quickly compensates for the lack of sleep in the light of the sun. And if parents allow this to happen, then such an inverted regimen will become commonplace for the baby.

All the rules of children's sleep, including the topic when children confuse day and night, Dr. Komarovsky will tell in the next video.

How to fix a mode violation

Even the most modern pediatricians can offer nothing to parents in order to return the child to the correct mode. There are no pills, powders, drops and potions that could regulate the sleep time of the crumbs. No sedative, herbal teas with a sedative effect will help, says Komarovsky. But this does not mean that parents themselves will not be able to cope with the problem.


The first thing parents should do is visit a pediatrician who will answer the main question - does something hurt the child. If the child is healthy, then you should proceed to the second point - creating optimal conditions for healthy sleep.

All carpets and soft toys that accumulate dust are removed from the room., wet cleaning is more often done, the air temperature is 18-20 degrees, humidity is 50-70%. In such a climate, it will be much easier for the child to fall asleep and sleep soundly through the night.

Then a real hell begins for the mother, who will have to mercilessly wake her baby in order to prevent him from sleeping during daylight hours. No matter how sorry the baby is, this must be done! For the crumbs of the first year of life, it is quite enough if he sleeps 2-4 times (depending on age) for 2 hours. The rest of the time the child must be actively entertained so that he does not fall asleep from boredom.

During the day, the child should lose as much energy as possible. To do this, you need to walk more, do gymnastics, move. In the evening, the penultimate feeding should be made lighter so that the child only slightly “starves the worm”, and at the last meal before going to bed, you need to feed the baby from the heart.

Evening bathing should be a mandatory procedure. It is better to bathe the baby in a large bath, and not in a small bath filled with cool water (according to the Komarovsky method), before bathing, make a light relaxing massage, and then feed and send to bed.

Usually, if all these recommendations are followed, it is possible to cope with the problem of confused day and night in 2-3 days. For many babies, one day is enough to start sleeping at night and stay awake during daylight hours. If you continue to feel sorry for the baby, let him get enough sleep during the day, make each feeding dense (after all, you can’t underfeed your own child!), Then the problem of a confused regimen can stretch for years.

Most new parents face problems with children's sleep. Fatigue and inability to sleep are provided if the newborn has confused day with night. The reason for such a change in the child's rest regimen can be not only a physiological process (adaptation to the outside world), but also anxiety (colic, regurgitation, temperature, as well as emotional upheaval).

Reasons why a newborn is awake at night

An active child at night is a guarantee of lack of sleep for his parents, so you should find out why the baby mixed up the time of day and try to help him establish a calm day and night. The causes of poor sleep at night in a newborn are:

  • pain in the tummy (adaptation of the gastrointestinal tract to the external environment, colic);
  • fever or other types of pain (headache, articular, if the baby suffered from birth injuries);
  • uncomfortable bed (crumpled sheet or diaper, too hot blanket);

    If a newborn has confused day and night and is naughty, something is probably bothering him! Determine the reason for crying.

  • uncomfortable clothes (perhaps the baby is freezing or overheating, and it is important to monitor this, especially in the first month of life);
  • the baby is overexcited (if during the day he received too many emotions, guests came or paid too much attention to the baby);
  • perhaps the baby is simply hungry (feed the newborn properly before bedtime)
  • teething can also affect a baby's sleep (discomfort and toothache are known to worsen at night).

Advice to parents! If a newborn has confused day and night, behaves quietly in the dark (does not act up, but is awake), then nothing disturbs him. Over time, proper sleep in a baby will improve by itself.

How to fix the regimen if the newborn has confused day and night? E. Komarovsky's recommendations

E. Komarovsky advises parents to calm down first of all. No matter how difficult it is, it is extremely important to exclude all nervous disorders. It is known that while the parents are emotionally tense, one should not expect calm behavior from the crumbs - perhaps it was because of this that he mixed up the time of day. Next, you need to follow these tips.

If the baby does not sleep at night, but at the same time is not naughty, then he needs help to establish a sleep and wakefulness regimen.

  1. Night and daytime sleep should be different in time. Try to shorten the daytime rest if the baby sleeps too long. The normal duration of infant sleep is no more than 2.5-3 hours. At this time, do not turn off the TV or talk in a whisper. It would be nice to teach a newborn to sleep in a stroller during the day.
  2. Increase the time of walking in the fresh air, it does not matter at all whether it is winter or summer outside. Talk to the baby, tell what you are doing, this will help him to be active with you.
  3. Try not to put the baby to sleep again if he woke up and began to act up. Feed the child, give him the opportunity to "talk" with his parents. You can play with it or interest in something (there are special developmental exercises for babies from birth).
  4. Before a night's sleep, it is worth accustoming the child to a certain ritual. At the same time, bathe your baby in warm water (you can add soothing herbs or essential oils directly into the water). Give the baby a massage, stroke the back and tummy, turn on slow beautiful music or sing it yourself, perhaps the baby will not confuse his rest and wakefulness regimen.

    So that the newborn does not confuse day with night, you should practice sleeping in a crib at night

  5. Putting the baby to sleep at night is under the breast or practicing motion sickness. At night, teach your baby to sleep in a crib.
  6. As soon as it gets dark and you put the newborn to bed, turn off the light, leave only the nightlight on. Speak in a whisper and teach the rest of the family to do the same. The baby should not be disturbed by anything.

Note! A newborn who has confused day and night should go to bed at the same time at night, which can be adjusted as the baby grows.

Newborn confused day and night, what to do? Folk remedies

“Grandmother’s” advice regarding baby sleep in the first months of life is still popular. They help well if the baby has mixed up the time of day. Most of these recommendations have been tested by generations, read the reviews in our article to prove this.

The kids are talking! Walking with my sister and daughter. Tanya, pointing to a building with a fancy roof, asks:

Mom, don't you know what's there? - There's a Moscow bank, - I answer, - only it doesn't work anymore. - Why Moscow? We live in Astrakhan!

  1. Change your newborn's clothes daily, and before you wash them, turn them inside out and put them in a closet for a day or throw them over the threshold of the room in which the baby sleeps.
  2. The top vest and sliders turned inside out should be put on the child at night.
  3. Try to turn the baby in the crib with his head to the place where the legs were previously directed.
  4. You can use charmed water, for this, wash the baby with it before going to bed. ("Midnight woman! Here's a lake for you! Drown yourself in it! Stab yourself with a knife! Turn away from my child! Amen." ).
  5. On one of the forums, there was advice: to throw a pumped-up diaper out the window at exactly 00:00 (however, this method was not true or not, it was not possible to find out).
  6. At the head of the newborn's bed, place a bowl of holy water that you were given after the sacrament of baptism.

You need to play and walk more with the baby, then his sleep and wakefulness regime will stabilize itself

“My daughter is one and a half months old. Sleeps great during the day. But from 12 at night until 5-6 in the morning he does not sleep at all. Our strength is running out. Help with advice on what to do so that the child sleeps at least a couple of hours ... ”(from the comments)

The situation with inverted mode in infants is quite common, it occurs in 20% of families. The health of the baby does not suffer from such a change. Parents, in a state, have a hard time, because in addition to caring for a newborn, they need to fulfill their other duties.

In the article: a baby confused day and night, the causes of poor sleep, we learn to distinguish between day and night, how to improve night sleep, 10 rules of Dr. Komarovsky.

Reasons why a child does not sleep well at night

Abdominal pain and colic are in first place.

Help the little man by massaging and warming the tummy, give dill water.

Hot, dry, stale air in the children's room.

The system of thermoregulation in a newborn is not formed; he endures heat more difficultly than coolness. Monitor the temperature and humidity, ventilate the bedroom in a timely manner.

Feeding- the most important aspect for a good sleep.

The baby will not fall asleep all night if he has not eaten. Mom, when breastfeeding, should take her milk for analysis to see if it is fatty enough.

If you are breastfeeding, give up foods that stimulate the central nervous system: coffee, cocoa, chocolate, spicy foods, overripe vegetables and fruits (especially bananas), fermented cheeses.

Overeating also does not improve sleep, provokes pain in the tummy and gas. Strictly adhere to the number and volume of feedings.

Babies up to two months tend to fall asleep immediately after eating, and starting from the 3rd month, sleep shifts by about 1 hour.

Insufficient daily activity.

Load the baby in proportion to his age, so that by night he gets tired: massage, laying on his tummy, gymnastics, songs, counting rhymes, entertain, let him get positive emotions.

Uncomfortable clothes or bed.

Any seam on a vest, a crease in a diaper, a prickly blanket - everything can disturb a delicate body. Sleeping accessories (diapers, bed linen) and clothes choose from natural materials that are safe and pleasant for the body.

Baby wakes himself up throwing up arms and legs when moving from one stage of sleep to another.

My opinion: you should sleep at night, and study during the day. You need to swaddle at night until the baby's neuromuscular connections are formed.

About why, how and for how long to swaddle - in the article, and this topic is discussed in the comments.

Overexcited psyche.

In the evening, you do not need to amuse the baby, play with him, allow communication with the guests who have come, especially strangers.

10 rules for good children's sleep Dr. Komarovsky

1. We prioritize correctly.

The child should not sleep valuable parental insomnia. A full sleep of the whole family is the main task.

2. Decide on a sleep pattern.

Convenience, first of all, for mom and dad is the main criterion, which follows from the work schedule, biological rhythms, etc. What time is convenient for parents to go to bed, this should be the baby. Once you make a decision, stick to it strictly.

3. Where and with whom the child sleeps.

The doctor suggests organizing sleep so that the child sleeps in his own crib and in a separate room, if possible. does not allow mom and dad to rest properly.

4. We are not afraid to wake up sleepyheads.

If he sleeps for a long time during the day, and then walks at night, do not let him get enough sleep, wake him up.

5. We optimize feeding.

Children react to food individually: one is drawn to "exploits", the other tends to sleep. If your option is the second, make the last feeding before bedtime enough satisfying.

6. The climate in the bedroom.

The optimal air temperature for sleep is 18-20 degrees, humidity is 50-70 percent.

7. Bathing.

Vodichka 36-37 degrees, it is desirable to bathe in a large bath. A cool bath is tiring and stimulates the appetite.

8. Bed.

Give preference to a hard mattress, dense and even. Children under 2 years of age do not need a pillow.

9. Diapers.

High-quality disposable diapers allow babies and parents to sleep throughout the night, which means you can’t save on them. They should be well fixed, be comfortable, allow the body to breathe and absorb moisture well.

10. Being active during the day helps you sleep better at night.

Make sure that the baby is active during the day, gets physical activity and emotional relaxation.

Teaching kids to distinguish between day and night

To do this, we develop sleep associations:

Day - light and noisy.

During daytime sleep, you should not create perfect silence, turn off the sound of mobile phones and the doorbell, walk on tiptoe and talk in a whisper.

Such greenhouse conditions will subsequently come back to haunt not only parents, but also the son or daughter himself.

I can cite my own experience: I cannot fall asleep with sound and light, which often creates problems in the family. The fact is that my husband is an owl, and, at the time when I fall down from the desire to sleep, he prefers to watch TV. No sleep mask or earplugs can save me.

At the same time, the spouse falls asleep in any conditions, which I envy with white envy. We did not accustom our son to silence, he also falls asleep easily under any circumstances.

The night is dark and quiet. It is dark, only melatonin (the hormone responsible for the formation of biorhythms and health in general) is produced in sufficient volume. Turn on the night light for yourself when you get up to the little one.

How to improve your child's sleep at night

These measures will help bring the inverted mode back on track:

Walks in the open air before bed, weather permitting.

Maximize the time of daytime sleep.

Our task is to provide the greatest activity during the day so that the child spends energy and gets tired. And therefore, we do gymnastics, massage, put it on the tummy, sing, talk, say counting rhymes.

Reduce the amount of daytime sleep:

we remove one dream altogether, increasing the gap between the rest, and in no case lengthening them. After 2 hours, we gently wake the child.

For example, if we sleep three times, then we leave two. Or reduce the last day's sleep.

Turn off TV in the evening.

Its electromagnetic radiation inhibits the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.

Also, at night, there is no place in the children's room for a working computer, its effect is even more harmful.

Avoid emotional and physical stress before bedtime. Only calm games, conversations, caresses, subdued light.

Evening soothing baths with valerian root or motherwort contribute to a better sleep.

Bag of valerian roots put at the head of the crib (do not forget to remove in the morning).

Sleep better on a full stomach and comes easier. We do not lightly feed the baby in the interval between 18 and 20 hours, so that before night the baby eats enough.

Getting the baby ready for bed: do wet cleaning, wipe dust, ventilate. Favorable temperature for sleep is 18-20 degrees.

Developing dream associations. A bedtime ritual makes it easier to fall asleep

A sleepy ritual (the same actions repeated over and over again) forms a habit in a person and, like the instinct of self-preservation, helps to cope with life's adversities in the future. About necessity and benefit.

For the little ones, the sleep ritual includes:

Bathing.

We look at the reaction, if an ordinary bath excites, we transfer the procedure to daytime or morning time.

Feeding.

Lullaby.

Always the same. The habitual melody is perceived by the brain easier, setting the body to the usual setting - to sleep. A new song, on the contrary, makes the brain work, assimilating unfamiliar information. On the meaning and benefits of lullabies.

Summary

It should be understood that everyone in the family should sleep fully, and not just the beloved and beloved baby. Only well-rested and full of strength parents can raise a baby happy, in a sense of complete security.

If you are faced with a problem when a baby has confused day with night, you should be persistent and patient. Apply the recommendations from the article, and in a couple of days the rhythm of the whole family will return to normal.

In conclusion, I advise you to watch Dr. Komarovsky's video on what parents should do if the baby does not sleep well at night.


Elena Valve for the Sleepy Cantata project.

Just having been born, a newborn baby does not yet know all the rules of the new world.

After the first meeting, the crumbs cannot be explained the rules of life, he lives by his own rules: he sleeps during the day and stays awake at night. Read what to do if the child confused day and night.

A newborn baby sleeps a lot in the first weeks after birth, but constantly wakes up.

When mom establishes a day and sleep routine, parents breathe a sigh of relief. But sometimes the time of day is confused in a small head.

Among the most common reasons are:

  • The child is worried about something. Depending on the age of the child, the crumbs may begin colic, cut teeth, or show the first signs of a cold.

    Any pain will not allow the baby to sleep at night.

  • sleep conditions. Every factor is important: bed, blanket, pillow. But even room air and temperature conditions matter.

    If the room is cold or hot, the baby will cry and refuse to sleep.

  • What does the baby sleep in? It is possible that the mother early refused to swaddle the newborn, or pajamas have already become small crumbs.

    Pay attention to the quality of the material, choose natural cotton fabrics. Examine the blanket, pillow, or mattress. Even a tiny tubercle can disturb the peace in the nursery.

  • The child does not want to sleep. And the reason for this may be too long a night's sleep. Tired parents do not dare to disturb the peace of the silent child.
  • Unspent energy. If the baby leads a sedentary lifestyle, spends a lot of time in a sitting or lying position, then the energy simply accumulates in a small body.
  • Wrong laying ritual. Perhaps the baby was just overexcited before going to bed.

    The child should give up active games, excessive fun and vivid emotions an hour before bedtime. The nervous system of the baby will not be able to quickly calm down from the impression of the past day.

Finding the cause of such an incident is quite easy. The main goal of parents is to eliminate obstacles to establishing a normal daily routine. It will take only a few days to return to the correct rhythm of life.

Advice! Create a bedtime ritual. Reading a bedtime story or a lullaby every day will help your baby fall asleep faster.

How to fix the problem?

Once you find the cause of the violations, you can begin to solve the problem.

Recovery can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. To make sure the method chosen is correct, consult your doctor.

Important! Do not give your baby sleeping pills and sedatives without a doctor's prescription. Such methods are used in severe cases.

First, be patient and strong. At first, the child will resist innovation, so it is worth eliminating the cause as much as possible.

Try the most common methods to get your baby to sleep peacefully at night:

  1. Reducing daytime sleep. In some cases, when the child is already approaching school age, lunchtime naps can be completely abandoned.

    During the day, entertain your baby: read, play music, draw and have fun. An hour before a night's sleep, you should choose more relaxed games.

  2. Proper nutrition at night. A very clever way to lay babies. Make a light dinner, let the baby eat a little.

    Bathe the baby, arrange pleasant water procedures with soothing herbs. After the bath, feed a hearty meal and invite the baby to lie down in a warm bed.

  3. Normalization of the atmosphere. It is necessary not only to dim the light, but also to ventilate the room well before going to bed.

    Create an optimal temperature regime, the children's room should be fresh and pleasant.

  4. Don't worry if your child wakes up during the night. Do not open your eyes and do not show that you are awake. Make a sleeping look so that the little one goes to sleep.

Folk methods of treatment

In extreme cases, the advice of our mothers and grandmothers will come to the rescue. Folk signs say that a sleepless child may have damage or an evil eye.

If superstitions take over, then there are several methods of folk treatment that will help the little one sleep soundly at night:

  • Save your baby from unnecessary worries by simply putting a nightgown inside out on him. This method drives away anxiety and anxiety.
  • During the day, you can put the pants on the baby back to front and inside out, and in the evening put the child in the usual way.
  • Change location. Rearrange the crib or just lay the baby head in the other direction.
  • Fill a vase or large mug with water, place the dishes at the head of the crib.

Advice! Do not fall for children's provocations. They say you can't wake a sleeping baby? You can, just be careful.

Be persistent, do not go on about the child. The older the toddler, the more difficult it will be to establish the correct mode of sleep and wakefulness.

Repeat the rituals daily so that over time the baby gets used to innovations.

How long should children sleep?

They say that the child does not owe anything to anyone. Children develop individually and often go against the plans of their parents. The table shows the estimated values ​​\u200b\u200bof how much a child should sleep per day.

The first time after birth, the newborn does not distinguish between day and night. The work of his body is tuned only to adapt to the changed conditions of existence. Responsibility for the situation when the child confused day and night lies entirely with the parents. Improper care of the baby directly affects his sleep.

Why do children confuse day with night?

If a child has sharply confused day and night, you need to look for the reason in his state of health or external conditions:

  • The baby is worried about pain.

In infancy, the main cause of pain are: intestinal colic, fever against the background of a cold. The pain syndrome intensifies at night, disturbing the sleep of the newborn. Having suffered at night, the child, with a high probability, uses the daytime hours to fill the need for sleep. A rested baby is unlikely to sleep the next night, even if nothing interferes. The situation will become systematic - the child will confuse day with night.

  • Uncomfortable sleeping conditions.

An orthopedic mattress and a favorite toy are not enough for a quality rest for a newborn. Particular attention should be paid to the air in the room - it must be humid.

The problem of very dry air most often occurs in urban apartments during the heating season. Humidity will help to increase special humidifiers or water containers placed around the room.

Dry air dries out the nasal mucosa, making it harder to breathe. The drier the air, the more likely the appearance - for its hydration, the mucous membrane will work more actively.

The temperature regime is of no small importance. Most parents tend to wrap their child warmer, turn on room heaters, without thinking that he may be hot. The ideal temperature of the room in which the child sleeps is 22C, not lower - the cold also does not contribute to a comfortable sleep.

The desire to dress and cover the child warmer turns into another negative moment - the infant colic intensifies in the newborn. Both the baby and the parents fall into a vicious circle: the child confuses day and night due to poor sleep conditions, and mom and dad do not get enough sleep and often try to relax during the day, encouraging the child to sleep during these hours.

  • Rough clothes and bedding.

Any child is so sensitive that the slightest unevenness of the surface on which he sleeps can disturb sleep.

Modern manufacturers of children's bedding produce sheets with an elastic band, they hold firmly on the mattress and do not roll down during the child's sleep. They should be given preference.

It is important to pay attention to the clothes in which the newborn sleeps. Rough synthetic materials and rigid seams can disturb the child all night, as a result, he, exhausted, will fall asleep by morning. It will only “help” confuse day and night.

  • Long daytime sleep.

Many parents tend to put their baby to bed more often during the daytime to carve out some free time. Most of the day the child takes exactly sleep, but the child's body in the first months independently tries to establish a regimen. Parents, giving the child the opportunity to sleep during the day, probably will not be able to put him to bed at night.

  • Unspent energy.

What could be better when a child lies calmly in a crib or on a sofa and does not cry? Mothers, taking advantage of a good moment, rush to do household chores. It must be understood that the child's body will certainly require the release of accumulated energy. If the baby is not occupied in any way, she can go out at night.

  • Overexcitation in the evening.

The common belief that a tired baby will fall asleep faster rarely works for a newborn. The nervous system of the baby is not yet perfect, it does not know how to quickly switch from fun games to sleep. The situation is aggravated by guests who want to play with the child. Overexcitation will not let the baby fall asleep, or his sleep will be intermittent and restless. It is not surprising that an exhausted child will sleep later, confusing day and night.

What can parents do

If a newborn has confused day with night, it will not be easy to correct the situation. Doctors often prescribe mild sedatives, but this should be a last resort. The use of drugs is not always beneficial, moreover, their action can complicate the situation.

Parents should follow a number of rules to help the child return to their usual sleep patterns:

  • Reducing the duration of sleep during the daytime hours.

There is no need to exhaust the child to the limit, it is enough to distract him with songs, fairy tales, toys, etc. for as long as possible. If the child begins to actively protest, put him to bed. In the evening, active games should be excluded. You can give your child a relaxing massage, sing a lullaby, read a fairy tale, that is, prepare his body for sleep as much as possible. At the same time, you need to try to put him to bed at the usual time or a little earlier.

  • Feeding before bed.

The key to sound and healthy sleep is a well-fed and contented baby. At the penultimate feeding, it is recommended to reduce the usual volume of food by a third, let the child become more hungry by the time of the last feeding.

If the newborn used to fall asleep well after water procedures, you can take a bath before bedtime and feed the baby. A well-fed and relaxed baby is more likely to want to sleep.

  • Maintain humidity and temperature.

It is important to regularly monitor the temperature in the room in which the child sleeps. It is not necessary to dress him very warmly and cover him with a thick blanket - babies sleep better in a cool place. In addition, before going to bed, you need to ventilate the room for at least 15 minutes.

  • Do not run to the child as soon as he opens his eyes.
  • Organization of lighting, regulation of noise level.

When the child sleeps during the day, you do not need to curtain the windows, turn off the TV and sit still. The baby should be able to sleep in natural light and everyday sounds, these factors will help him not to confuse day and night in the future.

At night, on the contrary, nothing should distract from sleep: neither lamps, nor TV, nor conversations. During relearning, it is advisable to keep silence as soon as the child is in his crib.

  • Comfortable clothes.

What (and on what) a child sleeps directly affects his sleep. Clothing should be breathable, made of cotton. The softer it is, the better. Conditioners for washing baby clothes can help with this. Interfering decorative elements and rough seams in clothes should not be present.

  • Health problems.

If the reason why the child confused night and daytime lies in diseases, you need to contact a pediatrician. The sooner the newborn gets rid of the disease, the sooner the parents will take measures to return the normal sleep pattern.

Read also:

  • giving parents the opportunity to relax.
  • The reasons why a newborn baby is restless and sleeps poorly, read here -

Additional video

Most new parents face problems with children's sleep. Fatigue and inability to sleep are provided if the newborn has confused day with night. The reason for such a change in the child's rest regimen can be not only a physiological process (adaptation to the outside world), but also anxiety (colic, regurgitation, temperature, as well as emotional upheaval).

An active child at night is a guarantee of lack of sleep for his parents, so you should find out why the baby mixed up the time of day and try to help him establish a calm day and night. The causes of poor sleep at night in a newborn are:

  • pain in the tummy (adaptation of the gastrointestinal tract to the external environment,;
  • fever or other types of pain (headache, articular, if the baby suffered from);
  • uncomfortable bed (crumpled sheet or diaper, too hot blanket);

  • uncomfortable clothes (perhaps the baby is freezing or overheating, and it is important to monitor this, especially in the first month of life);
  • the baby is overexcited (if during the day he received too many emotions, guests came or paid too much attention to the baby);
  • perhaps the baby is simply hungry (feed the newborn properly before bedtime)
  • can also affect the baby's sleep (as you know, discomfort and toothache worsen at night).
  • Advice to parents! If a newborn has confused day and night, behaves quietly in the dark (does not act up, but is awake), then nothing disturbs him. Over time, proper sleepthe baby will get better on its own.

    How to fix the regimen if the newborn has confused day and night? E. Komarovsky's recommendations

    E. Komarovsky advises parents to calm down first of all. No matter how difficult it is, it is extremely important to exclude all nervous disorders. It is known that while the parents are emotionally tense, one should not expect calm behavior from the crumbs - perhaps it was because of this that he mixed up the time of day. Next, you need to follow these tips.

  1. Night and daytime sleep should be different in time. Try to shorten the daytime rest if the baby sleeps too long. The normal duration of infant sleep is no more than 2.5-3 hours. At this time, do not turn off the TV or talk in a whisper. It would be nice to teach a newborn to sleep in a stroller during the day.
  2. Increase the time of walking in the fresh air, it does not matter at all whether it is winter or summer outside. Talk to the baby, tell what you are doing, this will help him to be active with you.
  3. Try not to put the baby to sleep again if he woke up and began to act up. Feed the child, give him the opportunity to "talk" with his parents. You can play with it or interest in something (there are special developmental exercises for babies from birth).
  4. Before a night's sleep, it is worth accustoming the child to a certain ritual. At the same time, bathe your baby in warm water (you can add soothing herbs or essential oils directly into the water). Give the baby a massage, stroke the back and tummy, turn on slow beautiful music or sing it yourself, perhaps the baby will not confuse his rest and wakefulness regimen.

  5. Putting the baby to sleep at night is under the breast or practicing motion sickness. At night, teach your baby to sleep in a crib.
  6. As soon as it gets dark and you put the newborn to bed, turn off the light, leave only the nightlight on. Speak in a whisper and teach the rest of the family to do the same. The baby should not be disturbed by anything.
  7. Note! A newborn who has confused day and night should go to bed at the same time at night, which can be adjusted as the baby grows.

    Newborn confused day and night, what to do? Folk remedies

    “Grandmother’s” advice regarding baby sleep in the first months of life is still popular. They help well if the baby has mixed up the time of day. Most of these recommendations have been tested by generations, read the reviews in our article to prove this.

    The kids are talking! Walking with my sister and daughter. Tanya, pointing to a building with a fancy roof, asks:
    - Mom, do you know what's in there?
    - There is the Moscow Bank, - I answer, - only it is no longer working.
    - And why Moscow? We live in Astrakhan!
    1. Change your newborn's clothes daily, and before you wash them, turn them inside out and put them in a closet for a day or throw them over the threshold of the room in which the baby sleeps.
    2. The top vest and sliders turned inside out should be put on the child at night.
    3. Try to turn the baby in the crib with his head to the place where the legs were previously directed.
    4. You can use charmed water, for this, wash the baby with it before going to bed. ("Midnight woman! Here's a lake for you! Drown yourself in it! Stab yourself with a knife! Turn away from my child! Amen." ).
    5. On one of the forums, there was advice: to throw a pumped-up diaper out the window at exactly 00:00 (however, this method was not true or not, it was not possible to find out).
    6. At the head of the newborn's bed, place a bowl of holy water that you were given after the sacrament of baptism.

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