With the birth of a baby, parents have a lot of pleasant worries, but at the same time, many questions arise. The problem of sleep is considered especially pressing. Hoping for the long, undisturbed rest that most newborns experience, some parents find it difficult to fall asleep. Some have to rock the baby in their arms for hours, others have to lie next to him until he calms down. According to Dr. Komarovsky, difficulties are associated with individual characteristics nervous system, and not with a capricious character or spoiled behavior. Correct Actions Parents and their immense patience will help to cope with the situation and make the child falling asleep independently a norm of life.
When trying to teach your child to sleep in a separate bed or room, you need to take into account a number of factors: age, temperament, availability concomitant diseases, individual characteristics. In addition, it is necessary to develop a clear algorithm of actions that will help the baby calm down and get ready for sleep.
IN recent years experts are increasingly speaking out in favor of co-sleeping mother and baby. Undoubtedly, there are many advantages from such a vacation. But at the same time, there are a number of points that encourage parents to teach their child to fall asleep independently.
Due to the imperfection of the nervous system, babies get tired quickly, so they need full and high-quality sleep more than adults. But sometimes teaching them to fall asleep on their own is quite a challenge. complex process. When faced with such difficulties, parents are at a loss and cannot cope without outside help. Dr. Komarovsky, in conversations with young mothers, points out following reasons, according to which the child tries to capture the attention of the mother.
Children who are accustomed to a daily routine from an early age are considered the calmest. As they grow older, the routine gradually changes, which is associated with an increase in the period of wakefulness - kids can play for several hours a day. In the first trimester of life, the resting time of a newborn is constantly changing, due to adaptation to new living conditions. The presence of the mother at this stage is considered important point, so she should always be nearby. Children who are on artificial feeding. They tend to fall asleep with a pacifier.
When planning to teach a child to sleep independently, doctors advise taking an individual approach, taking into account the characteristics of the baby’s body.
Attention! You can start the process with one month old. The main thing is that the baby feels normal and does not suffer from illness. The optimal age is older than three months.
Dr. Komarovsky offers a good option on how to put a child to sleep without motion sickness. He advises placing a crib in the parents' lounge, first near their bed, then at a short distance. This will allow the baby to see his mother, but at the same time be in his own territory.
Starting from the fourth month, you should clearly determine what time you can put your baby to bed. Many grandmothers still advise putting the baby in bed no later than 21.00, and waking him up at 6-7 am. This is quite reasonable and justified. Total duration night rest is 9-10 hours, which is daily norm 12-15 hours is considered optimal. This schedule is convenient for both a child who will go to school in the future. kindergarten, and for the mother, especially if she is working.
Important to know! According to Western scientists, the period during which a child should be put to bed is from 18.00 to 20-30, and the morning rise is still scheduled for 7 hours. According to experts, it is during this period that babies produce the hormone melatonin.
It is considered ideal next time for falling asleep:
| Child's age | Laying time/hour. |
|---|---|
| Infant and three month old baby | 19.00-20.00 |
| 3-6 months | 19.00-20.00 |
| 6-12 months | 19.00 |
| 1-1.5 years | 21.00 |
| 1.5-3 years | 20.00-21.00 |
| 3-4 years | 19.30-20.00 |
| Preschoolers | No later than 20.30 |
However, taking into account the characteristics of their own child’s body, parents should independently determine the time of evening sleep, and stick to it every day.
Evening rituals are considered one of the methods of organizing independent falling asleep. By performing daily habitual actions in a certain sequence, the baby will learn to quickly calm down and fall asleep. Experts recommend forming this habit after 6-7 months, and offer a lot of options.
You can choose the most optimal one for your child experimentally, the main thing is to be patient. Typically, the following methods work:
With this approach it is much easier to put you to sleep one month old baby than a one-year-old. Positive results can only be achieved if the newborn is in normal health. Important! In the event of various types of ailments (teething, fever, colic) or more serious illnesses, it is recommended to exclude rituals from the daily routine for a while, and return to them again after recovery.
Today, there are several effective methods, each of which teaches parents how to put a two-month-old baby to sleep, or teach an older baby to fall asleep on his own.
"Self-soothing." It consists of using soft tactile influence and pronouncing certain phrases, getting used to which the baby will learn to quickly fall asleep. You can speed up the process by forming evening ritual, creating comfortable conditions in the bedroom or children's room. It is important to follow the sequence of actions and try to refrain from close contact (picking him up when he cries).
"The Long Goodbye" Suitable for those parents who cannot stand the baby's crying. Having put him to bed, you should sit in the nursery, but each time increasing the distance between yourself and the crib. The result will be the child’s habit of intuitively feeling the presence of his mother, not suspecting that she is already outside the bedroom. He should be put to bed in a state where he begins to doze off, accompanied by gentle stroking and warm words.
"Fading". A fairly long-term method that involves putting the child to sleep with the help of a fairy tale or conversation. As you get used to it, reading should take less and less time until the baby learns to fall asleep on his own. If necessary, you can stroke it, make light massage or give milk or water to drink.
"Explanation". The technique is suitable for parents who do not know how to put a two-year-old child to bed on time. The method is to wean the baby off the breast, bottle or bedtime feeding, especially for three-year-olds and older. With the help of a made-up story about why there will be no more milk (food), which should be told several times during the day, bedtime will become easier and painless for the baby.
"Ferber Method". This training option is aimed at ensuring that the child does not react to the absence of the mother in the nursery during sleep. Having put him to bed, you should immediately leave the room. In case of any sobbing or crying, you need to go back, but each time increase the interval during which the mother is in the corridor. In the first days, such cycles can be repeated many times up to 20 times a night, but gradually they will slow down, and over time the baby will develop the habit of falling asleep on his own.
Advice! To teach your child to fall asleep without crying, you should read the book of the same name by Elizabeth Pentley.
From the first days of a baby’s life, parents strive to ensure that he gets proper rest, so they use fairly common methods that our grandmothers used.
However modern specialists they claim that this causes gradual addiction, and the child becomes dependent without trying to fall asleep on his own.
The most common option is rocking in a cradle, crib, or simply in your arms. The doctors' arguments against this method are quite reasonable and understandable. Due to underdevelopment vestibular apparatus In an infant, monotonous, repetitive movements increase the likelihood of dizziness. This not only negatively affects his well-being, but also often leads to loss of consciousness. To pump means to call psychological dependence, and the baby has a harder time getting used to falling asleep on his own.
The mother's breast is not only a source of food for the baby, but also a habitual way of self-soothing in any situation. stressful situation. He enjoys sucking, as a result of which he relaxes, calms down and falls asleep. But the habit of putting him down during breastfeeding over time creates problems for both the mother and the baby himself. As the baby grows older, the need for milk decreases, which is gradually replaced by adequate adult food. However, his addiction prevents him from falling asleep on his own, and he begins to get irritable and cry. Mom can’t rest properly either. On the one hand, due to the child’s lack of sleep, on the other, you have to take him to your bed.
A joint night's rest plays a huge role in the psycho-emotional development of the baby. Feeling the closeness of his mother, he, as a rule, quickly falls asleep and sleeps peacefully. Close contact is necessary for the baby in the first three months of life. Accustomed to intrauterine existence, it is difficult for him to be alone, without feeling the warmth and smell of a loved one. Therefore, it is necessary to gradually teach your child to fall asleep independently.
Doctors recommend, starting from the fourth month, that babies be taught to fall asleep in their own crib for hygiene purposes. This also takes into account the fact that being in the same bed with both parents is harmful to his health, especially if dad drinks alcohol, the vapors of which can cause suffocation.
It is easier for a child to learn to fall asleep on his own if the training procedure begins at an early age, but this process should not be used as a disciplinary measure. It has been proven that every change and innovation in a child’s life is accompanied by stress. However, patience and affection from loved ones will help him adapt to his own bedroom and enjoy sleep in a comfortable bed.
Girls, I’m writing this post due to popular demand))) I’ll warn you right away, it will be long with a bunch of tips and techniques that helped us learn to fall asleep on our own)))
As many of my girlfriends know, since birth we have big problems with sleep. At 10 months. my son could wake up up to 40 times.
How it all started: severe colic from birth, refusal to breastfeed, fell asleep only in a chaise longue while rocking, then they taught him to use his hands and a fitball. Then everything began to get worse and, in addition to the fitball, he began to need breasts, that is, I rocked him on the ball with the breast in his mouth. When the rocking grew into the whole night, I began to wean him from rocking, always giving him a breast every time he woke up. After 3 days, he learned to fall asleep lying down with her))) But he still woke up very often.
At 10 months We contacted a somnologist-consultant at the Institute of Somnology via Skype (my husband agreed). She questioned us thoroughly and began working with us. At the same time, I attended free webinars with somnologist Katya Granit (she can be found online). All the advice was practically the same and I followed them carefully.
So, to improve sleep, you need to separate eating and falling asleep and teach your child to fall asleep on his own, so that when he wakes up at night, he can fall asleep on his own and does not require any specific conditions.
Step 1. Observe the signs of fatigue and the biological regime of the child. For about a week we moved away from all regimes and put Yarik to bed as soon as he started rubbing his eyes or yawning, became less active, etc. All somnologists advise putting the child to bed at 8 pm (we now do this at half past 10). Allegedly, they have such biological rhythms that they fall asleep better at 8 than at 9, and better at 9 than at 10, etc. But this mode is categorically not suitable for us and we have adjusted it a little to suit ourselves. Note: even if the child woke up an hour and a half ago and began to show that he wants to sleep, he must be put down. This week we carefully wrote down everything: when we got up, when we fell asleep, how long we were awake. Example Mode We had one and Yarichek himself already adhered to it))))
Step 2. Introduce rituals before bed. The next week we introduced rituals. About 30-40 minutes in advance (preferably an hour in advance) the advice is to dim the lights, put away musical toys and turn off the TV, come from a walk and say goodbye to guests, play calm games)) Then before bed (for us personally) porridge, bathing, hygiene procedures , a fairy tale from dad, a kiss, draw the curtains and go to sleep. During the day it’s almost the same: shower, a short story (which we have now removed), a kiss, curtains and sleep. During the introduction of rituals, you can adjust the regime, but not deviating too much from the child’s biological regime.
Step 3. Learn to fall asleep on your own. After a week of introducing rituals, you can remove breasts, pumping, etc. There will be tears. We can’t live without them (we still have them). It's better to start with a night's sleep (we started with everyone at once). You put the baby in the crib, kiss him and sit next to him. From 4 to 6-7 months. You can pat it, then you don’t need to, otherwise it will get used to it. For the first couple of days I patted my butt)))) We sit on a chair nearby and wait, we don’t take the child out of the crib, you can give your hand and constantly talk, talk, reassure so that the child listens. Somnologists advise repeating one phrase, like “Now mom will teach you to fall asleep, you will sleep soundly all night” or something similar. I quickly got tired of it and I just chatted all sorts of soothing nonsense)))
Every day I wrote down how many minutes it took him to fall asleep. And every day this time was reduced.
Step 4. Move the chair back. In theory, after another week, you can start to slowly push back the chair and walk to the door and leave, but I immediately moved away from the crib so that Yarya wouldn’t see me, but continued to talk, falling silent when he didn’t cry. And, lo and behold! He began to fall asleep on his own)))
So, what do we have now))) It took us about a month for all the training) From 11 months. Yarik sleeps and falls asleep himself. I wouldn’t say that this somehow greatly affected our sleep, but I began to wake up less often, and at night I gave him breastfeeding out of habit, then it became easier for me to reduce nighttime feedings, and now at the age of 3 we easily completed our breastfeeding ( post about it here) and sleep all night, waking up 1-2 times to cry for a couple of seconds or sit or stand)))) Usually this is in the morning after 6 o’clock)))
How we fall asleep now: we no longer dim the light, but the ritual is the same)) Calm games they don’t attract him - he rushes around until lights out))) During the day, the only ritual that takes place is a shower and a kiss))) When I put him in his crib, he cries for half a minute - at most 2 minutes (I asked the somnologists - he’s just indignant), then he mutters and grumbles something to himself under his breath, turns around and falls asleep)))
That’s our whole story, I’ll be glad if our experience is useful to someone)))
There are times when sleep does not go well. Unnecessary thoughts creep into our heads, we become fixated on them, toss and turn, but we just can’t fall asleep, despite the fact that we’ll have to get out of bed in a couple of hours. Probably everyone has encountered this, and many would probably like to be able to fall asleep easily and quickly. We have selected several of the most effective techniques, in our opinion, that will allow you to quickly plunge into the shackles of morphea.
The essence of all such methods is the same - create conditions for the body and brain characteristic of the condition. And when the brain feels that all the requirements have already been met, it itself will give a signal that it is time to fall asleep.
In order to understand that it is time to sleep, the main condition is necessary - the body must be completely and absolutely relaxed. You can do this in the following way. After you get into bed, tense every muscle as if your body has turned into a compressed spring. Then release it, and in a moment of relaxation, imagine yourself falling into bed. Imagine sinking into the mattress, its softness and comfort enveloping all parts of your body. This technique will help the body to completely relax, after which falling asleep won't be difficult.
In addition to the relaxation of the body, Sleep is characterized by a slowdown in physiological processes, in particular this concerns breathing rate and heart rate. You can influence your heart rhythm with correct breathing. So, you need to breathe slowly and deeply, and the exhalation should be 1.5 times longer than the inhalation: this is how we breathe during deep sleep. Try to concentrate on the process of air circulation itself, and not on the sounds you make.
The essence of this method is simulate the natural position of the eyes during deep sleep. If the eyelid of a sleeping person is slightly opened, you will find that his pupil is rolled up. The same thing happens with the eyes and during loss of consciousness. That's why if you want to fall asleep faster, roll your pupils up, under closed eyelids, as if trying to look at the top of the head from the inside. The facial muscles should not be tense. At first you may feel slight discomfort, but over time this will pass and you will feel your eyes drooping. And the brain will do everything to ensure that the position of the eyes corresponds to the required state.
You can fall asleep easily and quickly using the following technique. Remember your favorite movie that you know literally down to the last detail, and play it in reverse order. This will help intensify right hemisphere brain, which dominates during sleep. This method forces the brain to generate visual images - just like during dreams. So, falling asleep in this way, you may well be smoothly transported to the scene of your favorite movie. In addition, the brain will be busy with pictures and will not get hung up on thoughts that prevent you from falling asleep.
Another technique is designed to put your brain into alpha rhythm - this is the rhythm that is characteristic of the brain when falling asleep. The point is this: you need to alternately imagine 7 colors of the rainbow in your mind's eye, starting with red and ending with purple. So, give yourself a setting: I begin to dive into the alpha level, and when I reach the purple tier, I will immediately fall asleep. You can imagine that you are going down a spiral staircase with colored walls. The first level is red, it gradually gives way to orange, then yellow, then green, then blue, blue and finally you find yourself in a lilac room where you fall asleep safely, easily and naturally. It is important to paint very bright colors, and until you clearly see one color or another in your mind, do not move on to the next one.
Another interesting method that will help you relax and fall asleep quickly. The point is this: lying with eyes closed, after certain intervals (5-10 seconds), open your eyes for a moment and close them again. This reverse blinking will prevent you from getting carried away by extraneous and unnecessary thoughts and, in addition, promotes immersion in a trance. If you're lucky, you can enter a lucid dream.
The effect of ways to fall asleep quickly will be greater if you experiment with falling asleep regularly and with due seriousness. It is also worth considering that we are all different and for each of us one or another technique will be more or less effective than another. And if you use other techniques that help you fall asleep quickly, please tell us about them in the comments. Sweet dreams.
Do you know the feeling when you lie in bed and just can’t sleep? All known methods Have you already tried the fight against insomnia, but still no sleep?
According to statistics, every person at least once in his life he experiences some kind of sleep problems. This is why it is so important to know methods of combating insomnia, even if at the moment it seems that you do not need them at all.
We have collected for you best techniques falling asleep quickly which do not require special training and are suitable for absolutely everyone.
1. Change of focus.
This one is simple and effective method fall asleep quickly is based on the concept of "far focus". It is especially suitable for those who perceive information primarily through visual images, the so-called. "visuals".
Turn off the lights and lie down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and focus on the darkness you see. It will be something very close, like reverse side century After this, imagine that there is a dot far ahead in front of your eyelids. She, too, is in the dark, but it is “distant darkness.” Turn your attention to this point and try to hold it for at least a few minutes. You won’t even notice how you fall asleep.
2. The film is in reverse.
This method of falling asleep quickly is based on consciously transferring the brain to a state of visual images. A similar effect, for example, is produced on a child’s mind by bedtime stories, but the “Reverse Film” method is designed specifically for the adult mind.
Choose your favorite movie that you know well. Start remembering it from end to beginning, sequentially playing all the scenes in your head, as if you were rewinding a film. The more details you can remember, the more detailed the scenes, the sooner you will fall asleep.
1. Abdominal breathing.
Belly breathing - physiologically the right way breathing. This is how small children and animals breathe, but by adulthood most people move on to a more superficial, chest breathing. However, it is the filling of the air in the lower lobes of the lungs due to the downward movement of the diaphragm that allows the blood to be most fully saturated with oxygen.
Lie down comfortably, leaving your stomach completely free and without squeezing it with anything. Begin to inhale slowly through your nose, trying to let the air go into your stomach. Then exhale just as slowly, lifting the diaphragm up and as if squeezing out the air.
This may be difficult at first. Some even begin to experience painful sensations when the lungs open. This is due to the debt of not using their lower share. That's why the first few times this method falling asleep will not help you right away - first you need to get used to breathing this way. However, after 5-10 times you will feel that you have begun to relax much faster, and your breathing itself has become even, deeper and slower.
2. Smooth counting breathing.
This method is known to those who suffer from unexpected fears or respiratory attacks of an allergic nature.
You need to start inhaling slowly and evenly, focusing on the regularity of this action. To quickly fall asleep, it is recommended to make exhalations and inhalations of equal length. It is most pleasant to do this on 4 counts, in which each number corresponds to 1-1.5 seconds.
1. Falling asleep “out of spite.”
There are techniques for falling asleep quickly that seem absolutely incredible. This includes falling asleep “out of necessity.” However, many parents of small children know: if you tell your baby that during quiet times you must try not to fall asleep, within a couple of minutes the child will be snoring sweetly in the crib. Surely you also remember how, as a child, you wanted to wait for Santa Claus and courageously fought against sleep... each time you quickly lost. This technique is based on this feature.
Turn off the lights, lie down in bed and focus on the thought that you absolutely need to stay awake. It is important to find a truly reliable reason for such wakefulness, for example, to call friends who live many time zones away from you, etc. Repeat to yourself “I must not fall asleep”, “It is very important that I do not fall asleep.” Surprisingly, most people fall asleep within the third minute of such beliefs.
2. Muscle relaxation.
This technique is usually used in conjunction with other methods of falling asleep quickly.
When lying in bed, make sure you are comfortable. Wrap yourself in a light blanket or blanket to create an additional feeling of comfort and security.
Start alternately tensing and relaxing your body muscles. Start with your feet. Focus on them, and then tense and release the tension a few times. You will feel this part of your body relax. Do the same with all the other muscles, moving from bottom to top, and finish with the muscles of the face and eyes.
When the body is completely and effectively relaxed, the brain will very quickly go into sleep mode.
3. Relaxing music.
We have already written several times about the amazing power of relaxation and soothing music and its effect on sleep. This method can be used in conjunction with any other technique for falling asleep quickly.
Select a few of your favorite songs in advance, burn them to disk and set a timer for playback. Let the music stop on its own after 20 minutes.
More often than not, even the best techniques and methods work for all people with different effectiveness, so try all the methods of falling asleep collected here and choose 2-3 that suit you personally. They will become your true help in case of insomnia.
Now many people suffer from sleep disorders. This is not surprising, given the frantic pace of life. But everyone’s problems are different, some often wake up in the middle of the night, and some simply cannot sleep. Is it possible to learn to fall asleep quickly if you know some tricks and effective techniques.
The first thing you need to do is find out what prevents you from falling asleep quickly and waking up fresh and rested the next morning. There can be a lot of reasons, but here are just the most common ones:
It only seems that after drinking a dose of alcohol a person sleeps soundly. Such sleep is superficial and the body is unable to fully recover.
Everyone has encountered one reason or another, but if they are systematically present in life, then a problem with sleep will definitely appear.
Many people don’t even think about how important getting ready for bed at night is. It is not surprising if immediately after watching an action movie or computer games go to the bedroom, the kingdom of Morpheus will not want to let you in.
Everyone puts their own meaning into getting ready for bed, but experts are confident that there are some rules that will help you fall asleep quickly and easily:
Don't use a pastel area to work or watch TV, as this place will induce sleep rather than awaken vigorous activity.
Trouble falling asleep may be caused by internal dialogues. The emotions experienced during the day provoke a stream of thoughts, so you can’t fall asleep. To facilitate the process, you need to develop the ability to distract your brain from the heated discussion of daily problems. This can be done if you use techniques to fall asleep quickly.
Any breathing exercise requires repeated repetition before it becomes a habit and is repeated at an automatic level. Practice should be daily, 2 times a day. After two months, for another 30 days, you need to do 8 repetitions every day. The technique looks like this:
Each time the exercise will relax more and more and fewer repetitions will be required.
The technique is named after the Harvard scientist Andrew Weill, who developed it. This "4-7-8" practice was borrowed from Indian yogis who used it to achieve maximum relaxation during meditation.
Andrew Whaley's method is as follows:
Vale assures that, despite the seeming absurdity of the actions, the technique works because it slows down heart rate and maximum relaxation.
While inhaling emotional state is activated, and exhalation provokes relaxation. This is the basis for lengthening the expiratory phase in many techniques.
The technique is as follows:
Those who have tried it on themselves claim that the desire to fall asleep comes quite quickly.
The technique consists of the following sequential steps:
Just a few of these cycles, and sleep will quietly overcome you.
You can develop the ability to fall asleep quickly with the help of auto-training. Several exercises are popular. One of them is “Ball”.
The sequence is:
As a rule, in the last stages of the exercise, a person feels very drowsy.
Another effective exercise is the “Ball”. There is nothing supernatural in the technique, you just need to lie down comfortably and close your eyes. Next, turn on your imagination and imagine a large ball in the vastness of the ocean, rocking on the waves. We must focus our attention on it and the vibrations of the waves emanating from it.
You can learn to quickly fall asleep at any time if you use the technology of special services. It is quite simple, it was practiced by the intelligence officer Suvorov. He described the method like this:
Everyone remembers the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” in which Stirlitz only had to fall asleep for 20 minutes and wake up cheerful and full of energy. The whole secret is that it is important to learn to distinguish when sleep overwhelms us during the day, but not in phases 1 and 2, but in phases 3 and 4, then there is no need to resist. If you allow yourself to fall asleep for 20 minutes a couple of times a day, then during the night for good sleep 5-6 hours will be enough.
If you are not a special forces soldier or a reconnaissance officer, then you should not practice this technique often so as not to disturb the nightly rhythm of sleep.
Not only adults suffer from sleep disorders, it is the same for newborns common problem, especially if the baby is used to latching on to his mother’s breast at night. For children, you can use fading as a method of falling asleep. But it may take more than one day to work it out. The technique is to breastfeed for a couple of minutes just before bed, and then try to distract the baby with a book, pleasant music or a fairy tale. Gradually, the baby will be able to fall asleep without the mother's breast.
Using this technique, you won’t be able to fall asleep instantly; you will need training. But after a while you can be convinced that you can actually fall asleep in one minute.
Our brain knows very well how to quickly switch off; it often demonstrates its abilities to us while watching a movie, especially after a hard day at work. Some training is enough to practice falling asleep instantly at the right moments. The brain does not turn off 100% even at night, the rhythm of work simply changes. When we start to fall asleep, it seems to be waiting for the choice of operating mode. If there is no stimulus, then the transition phase into deep sleep. The consciousness seems to be ready, but the subconscious mind does not give.
With a little practice, our brain will learn to accept commands from consciousness and instantly switch off. But it should be noted that the method will work if the body needs sleep.
Anyone who has problems falling asleep can choose for themselves effective technique. But sometimes it is enough to establish a daily routine, lead healthy image life and the problem disappears on its own.
