The four myths that cause unnecessary stress for parents

From the idea that most infants sleep 12 hours to the suggestion that daytime naps can improve nighttime slumbers, we expose the biggest misconceptions that are troubling parents.
Few aspects of child development are as rife with misinformation as infant sleep – a space that’s largely been taken over by companies and books aimed at selling sleep programmes, coaching and advice. From the idea that babies should “sleep through” by six months of age to the belief that motion naps aren’t restorative, here are five common myths about infant sleep – and what the scientific research actually says.

1. No, most babies don’t ‘sleep through the night’
   While an infant or toddler “sleeping through” might be the holy grail for parents, it is relatively un-common, as large studies of young children frequently show. One study of more than 55,000 babies in Norway, for example, found that nearly seven in 10 six-month-olds woke at least once per night, while more than one in four 18-month-olds did.
   How frequently babies are waking, however, varies greatly. The Finnish researchers, for example, re-ported that at least one eight-month-old in the study woke up 21.5 times per night.
2. But night wakes aren’t always ‘normal’, either
   Sometimes, you hear that children will continue to wake at night until they’re taught not to. But this not only dismisses the fact that typically developing infants consolidate their sleep over time on their own. It also can overlook any underlying health conditions that can impact sleep. Iron deficiency, which affects some 15% of toddlers in the US, for example, can cause frequent night wakes, restlessness, and difficulty falling asleep in infants. Many other conditions have been linked to unsettled sleep or frequent wakes in babies and small children, including food allergies, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and ear infections.
3. For most infants, 12 hours of sleep per night is quite a lot
   Google “baby sleep schedule” online, and you might notice a theme: most will suggest that infants sleep about 12 hours per night. Ever since the “7-7” (19:00-07:00) schedule was popularised in Western and industrialised societies, anything less, particularly for babies and young children, has been seen as insufficient.
4. Yes, on-the-go naps are ‘restorative’
   It’s common to see claims online that motion naps – like being in a pram, carried in a sling, or driving in a car – keep babies in a light, less restorative type of sleep. But there’s no scientific evidence to this effect, and some research indicates the opposite may be true. A study of 64 two-month-olds found that the babies were more likely to fall asleep and less likely to cry when they were rocked at higher (but still gentle) frequencies. When babies with diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea were put on rocking versus non-rocking mattresses, meanwhile, it halved the number of obstructive events they experienced.
   No published studies have yet examined infants’ brain activity during motion naps, but some research haslooked at adults. These studies, which have used electroencephalogram (EEG) devices to monitor brain activity during sleep, have found that being gently rocked during a nap increases the amount of time in deep sleep stages, helps people transition into deep sleep faster, fosters the brain oscillations that help with memory consolidation, and decreases the amount of time in light sleep. Rocking even promotes sleep in mice.
5. No, sleep does not (usually) ‘breed sleep’
   It is true that, when some babies get too tired, they get more aroused and stressed – which can make it harder for them to settle at night. But the idea that the more sleep a child gets during the day, the more sleep they’ll get at night, isn’t usually borne out by the research.
   In fact, in older toddlers and preschoolers, most studies have found it goes the other way: after two years of age, children take longer to fall asleep at night, and wake more overnight, on days they nap.
   But one study that compared days where young infants napped more, versus days when they napped less found something a little different. Notably, the study used actigraphy, which uses wearable de-vices to monitor movements to assess sleep-wake patterns – a more objective measure of sleep than parent report.
   For babies at six or 15 weeks of age, napping longer than usual during the day didn’t affect their nighttime sleep. But when babies were 24 weeks old, it did – with longer naps meaning more shut-eye overnight. It’s important to note that this difference was slight: the six-month-olds had to sleep a full hour more in the day to get just 14 minutes more sleep at night.
   It’s also not clear whether the longer nap could explain why the babies slept a little more at night; they may have napped longer because they were having a growth spurt, for example – which may have been the same reason they then slept more at night, too. (BBC)