A 9 month old child sleeps restlessly at night. A child (9 months) does not sleep well at night: how to help your baby sleep? Lack or excess of physical activity

If a child at 9 months does not sleep well, this does not always indicate the presence of health problems. More than 25% of children suffer from insomnia at night or during the day, for different reasons.

Such manifestations adversely affect the well-being of the baby and his parents, because there is no opportunity for quiet rest.

The need to adhere to the regime

For every nine-month-old baby, there are rules for falling asleep and waking up. Guided by them, parents try to create a proper sleep routine. It must include several stages that require execution. If you don't do this, you can undermine the emotional background.

Sleep norms and routine

As the baby grows, it spends less and less time sleeping. An alternative is outdoor games and exploring the world around us.

If the child is feeling well, he or she should sleep at least 13 hours throughout the day. At the same time, at night - up to 11 hours, and during the day - 40 minutes 2 or 3 times. If he gets up 2 times during the day, the duration of sleep will increase to 2 hours.

Parents assume that falling asleep occurs according to established norms, but this is far from the truth. Time intervals are just an approximation.

Due to the individual characteristics of the body, the biological rhythm is formed in different ways. Night sleep is sometimes interrupted: the little one may wobble and moan. But these are normal phenomena, because at this moment the phases are rearranged. Parents need to calm their child down by talking to him or petting him.

But if the child often wakes up at night, and a heightened emotional state becomes the norm, then the cause of what is happening should be established. It is different for each baby.

What prevents a 9 month old baby from falling asleep?

A 9-month-old baby does not sleep well at night for physiological, psychological or pathological reasons, and therefore parents begin to worry about the child’s health. Nerve problems can also cause insomnia during the day or night. However, in general such conditions have disorders of a different nature.

Physiological reasons

A 9-month-old child does not sleep well at night due to physiological characteristics or some irritants. However, you can get rid of them without much effort.

  1. At nine months, some babies may overexert themselves. The reason lies in knowledge of the world and hyperactivity; there is a need for quick perception of new things. But the nervous system is not fully improved, which is why you often feel tired. This is why stress is produced, which prevents normal sleep.
  2. When preparing your child for bed, you should make sure that acceptable humidity and temperature in the room are maintained. Also, clothing and bedding should be made from high-quality materials that allow the skin to breathe.
  3. Sore throat, acute respiratory viral infections, otitis media, teeth growth are the causes of restless sleep.

Babies as young as 9 months have difficulty falling asleep due to various factors. Frequent problems include high emotionality and activity. But such conditions can also manifest themselves for other reasons.

Psychological sources of sleep disruption

Most infants actively develop with the help of games, as well as walks in the fresh air and get acquainted with new objects. If a child has a lot of energy, it is not always possible to spend it during the day. As a result, the child may wake up at night to play.

Pathological impact on a child's rest

Problems falling asleep can occur due to reasons such as:

  1. Problems with the nervous system are not a dangerous disease, but appear in young children. They are more susceptible to infection than adults. Due to their tense state, babies are unable to fall asleep immediately.
  2. At this age, children should have their own daily routine. It includes: food intake, wakefulness, physiological activity, daytime sleep, contact with adults. If it is not distributed by hour, then difficulties arise in actions in a specific period. Lack of routine leads to anxiety, so the child has poor sleep.
  3. No specific sequence has been identified when falling asleep. Parents are required to perform specific actions before putting their child to bed: this could be bathing, reading a book. At this moment, the child forms certain associations through which he will fall asleep more soundly.
  4. Sometimes inexperienced parents have no idea how to lay their baby down. At the same time, frequent awakening is a harbinger of specific problems: a dirty diaper, a feeling of hunger, the presence of a large number of foreign objects in the sleeping area.

If your little one starts waking up at night, then you need to take action. First, observe, and then, with the help of specialists, discover and eliminate the cause.

Emotional background and psychology

If the parent is tense, depressed, or other negative emotions are present, the baby will have difficulty falling asleep. This is due to the fact that the mother’s condition is well felt and adopted by the little person.

Important! Emotional outbursts of parents, and especially mothers, develop restless sleep in her child.

When should you sound the alarm?

If your baby has trouble falling asleep and starts tossing and turning and crying in the crib, then there is nothing wrong with that. Such changes characterize a change of phases; they have not yet been properly formed.

However, if the symptoms recur daily, and even for a long period of time, then you should turn to professionals. The cause may be a serious illness - epilepsy.

If there is creaking of tooth enamel, which lasts about 7 days, it is necessary to undergo an examination. With such symptoms, jaw disease or neuralgic disorders are detected.

If the first signs of changing behavior are observed, the child should be examined by a specialist, and then sent for the necessary studies of the body. Correct and prompt identification of the cause gives the best chance of maximum recovery.

Often, parents are able to eliminate sleep disturbances in their infant without outside help. In order to realize your plans, you need to re-examine your daily routine, and then get rid of factors that have a bad effect on falling asleep.

The doctor, in programs and books, covers many problems occurring in the children's body. However, the basic rule used to solve this problem remains unchanged: it is worth reconsidering the time spent on daytime and nighttime sleep. Komarovsky is sure that young children feel tired or overly stressed. The doctor recommends that parents teach their child to fall asleep on his own. But first you need to delimit the time for eating and entertainment.

Important! The main cause of disturbances in sleep phases is severe overwork.

If a 9-month-old baby does not sleep well during the day, then the problem may be due to incorrect adjustment of the biological rhythm. It is possible to change the situation, but this requires the help of specialists. Other factors can also prevent you from falling asleep: light rays entering the room, dirty or wet laundry. In general, it is recommended to put babies to sleep in a dark room, protected from extraneous noise. However, in order to accustom a child to sleep independently, you need to put him to bed in a wide-awake or half-asleep state.

A little person is an inquisitive, but not fully formed personality. That is why various factors can disturb his sleep. But if you follow the recommendations of specialists, and also act under their control in case of problems that arise, then this problem can be easily solved.

Healthy rest is necessary for the baby for normal mental, mental and physical development.

Often you may underestimate the importance of this process, but it directly affects many aspects in the baby’s life. Constant lack of sleep can cause developmental delays and lead to behavioral problems.

To ensure healthy rest, you need to know how much your baby sleeps at 9 months.

Age characteristics at 9 months

During this period, intensive physical, neuropsychic, and social development occurs.

During this period, all organs and systems of the child are preparing to master a new skill. Walking is an important stage in a baby’s development, which affects the development of his independence and, unfortunately, can greatly affect the child’s sleep quality for the worse.

How many hours does a 9 month old baby sleep?

  • A baby at this age sleeps from 12 to 15 hours a day;
  • About 10 hours are spent sleeping at night, the rest of the time - during the day;
  • During the day, a 9-month-old child sleeps 2 times, the duration of sleep is from 1 to 2.5 hours.

Know! If a child gets up early, between 6-7 am, then he may have 3 naps during the day. Two of them are longer, and the third is very symbolic, can last from 20 to 40 minutes.

Why is it important for a child to sleep:

  1. During rest, the child’s brain develops and grows;
  2. Strength is restored, energy accumulates;
  3. The information for the day is organized, new knowledge and skills are absorbed and consolidated;
  4. In the first 2 hours of night rest, the greatest amount of growth hormone is produced;
  5. Psycho-emotional stress decreases;
  6. During deep sleep, the immune system is strengthened;
  7. A rested baby wakes up in a good mood, he is more collected and active.

Watch the course posted on the website to understand how to communicate and raise a growing child. Follow the link My beloved baby: secrets of development of raising a child up to one year >>>

Information on how much sleep a baby needs at 9 months is presented in the table:

Nine month old baby's naps

The physical load on the child has increased, he crawls more, tries to get up and learns to walk. It is very important that he gets enough rest. Monitor how much your child sleeps during the day at 9 months, has his sleep changed, does he wake up alert and rested?

I came across an opinion when doctors and relatives told the mother that at 9 months the child can rest once during the day, sleep for 2-4 hours and, if the baby is not capricious, actively plays all evening, he has enough rest.

This is wrong.

We don't need to give the nervous system one big sleep. It is important that stress and stress alternate evenly during the day, ensuring calmness of the nervous system.

See also my video lesson on the sleep patterns of a baby at 9 months:

Nine month old baby's night rest

No matter how many times the child rests during the day, at night it is advisable to go to bed before 21.00

  • The duration of night rest is about 10-11 hours;
  • If the baby is breastfed, then he still wakes up for night feedings and usually does this about 3-4 times (read the article on this topic How long should you feed your baby at night?>>>);
  • If a child hangs on his chest all night, then this is an indicator of severe overwork of the child.

You need to spend time establishing your baby's sleep, correcting the daily routine, introducing the right sleep mindset, and perhaps working with the number of night feedings. On the first points, you can take useful information from the article Bedtime Rituals >>>

Know! In order for the baby to go to bed for the night without protests and hysterics, you should not give him the opportunity to fall asleep after 17.00 in the evening. .

Sometimes the child’s routine gets confused, the baby is awake at night and sleeps during the day. A baby who has rested during the day does not want to go to bed in the evening; this can become a habit. There may be several reasons for this:

  1. Poor conditions for relaxation (hot room, too dry air);
  2. Inappropriate clothing or bedding;
  3. Low daytime activity;
  4. Disease;
  5. Too active games in the evening.

Causes of poor sleep

Sleep disorders can be different. The child may sleep in short intervals and refuse both daytime and nighttime sleep.

  • A common cause of poor rest can be overwork;

Having played enough during the day and received a lot of new impressions, the child may be so tired that the night’s sleep will be restless. Being overtired makes it harder for him to fall asleep, going to bed will be later, and his routine will be disrupted.

This problem can be solved by limiting activity immediately before rest. Calm games, bedtime rituals, and close contact with parents will help reduce mental stress and put the child to bed at the right time.

Important! There is such a thing as “sleep regression (or crisis). It manifests itself as poor sleep, frequent awakenings, refusal to rest, and whims. This is not a disease and, with the right approach to sleep, goes away in 2-4 weeks.

How to achieve healthy and sound sleep

In order to normalize your baby’s sleep, you need to create good conditions:

  1. Ventilate the room before resting. The optimal temperature is 18-20 degrees;
  2. The child's pajamas and bedding should be made of cotton. It is better that pajamas do not have buttons, tight elastic bands, or ties. Before resting, the bed must be straightened so that there are no foreign objects or folds;
  3. Create pleasant bedtime rituals. Carrying in your arms, lullaby, stroking will help relax the child and help him fall asleep;
  4. Do not play active games with your baby before bedtime, do not show him educational cartoons. Try to ensure that dad, who comes home in the evening, does not provoke the baby before bed. Otherwise, it will be difficult for the child to relax and fall asleep;
  5. At 9 months, the baby should already be receiving complementary feeding and eating decent amounts of food. 30-60 minutes before bedtime, give your baby a light dinner, and then breastfeed.

Food affects a child's sleep, so a good appetite is the key to good sleep.

Be careful! Healthy sleep is very important for a baby's development. If there are problems with falling asleep, the duration of daytime or night sleep, you need to analyze and find errors that prevent the child from sleeping well.

There is no need to wait for sleep to improve on its own or blame everything on teething. Mothers come to me for consultation who have been waiting for 3, 6, 9 months for the teeth to come out and the child to start sleeping well, but no miracle happened.

But when we eliminated gross disturbances in the organization of the child’s sleep, then sleep improvement occurred.

We deal with the sleep of a child during breastfeeding as part of the course

A nine-month-old baby is a real explorer. He already knows how to crawl, some babies even make their first attempts at learning to walk. The baby plays educational games with interest, watches cartoons and actively gets acquainted with the world around him. At this age, children begin to perceive more and more consciously, their temperament is formed. A poor night's sleep can overshadow the progress of a toddler's development. This disorder negatively affects the well-being of children and parents, because the whole family is deprived of proper rest. Let's look at what causes this phenomenon and how to deal with it.

Sleep norm for children 9 months

As babies grow older, they need less and less time to sleep. Instead, they begin to acquire new skills, develop them, and get acquainted with the world around them. If everything is in order with the child’s health, then in total he should sleep 13-16 hours. Night sleep takes approximately 9-11 hours, and daytime sleep takes place in 2-3 stages of 40 minutes each. If the toddler prefers to sleep 2 times, then rest should last at least 2 hours.

Often mothers think that children sleep according to established data, but this is far from the case. The numbers given above are not a rule, but a guideline. Each baby is individual and has its own biological rhythm. Night sobbing, twitching in sleep and moaning are also the norm, as children transition from one phase of sleep to another. Mom just needs to gently stroke the baby and speak quietly to him, and sleep will return again.

However, there are situations when nightly hysterics and vigils are repeated almost every day. In this case, you need to find out why a 9-month-old child sleeps poorly at night.

Causes of the disorder

Parents, exhausted by their children's insomnia, often begin to panic, because it seems to them that something is wrong with the child. Disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system can indeed negatively affect a child’s sleep, but in most cases the reasons are more banal. Let's take a closer look at what keeps children from sleeping at night:

A mother's emotional disorder always leads to insomnia in children.

  1. Health problems. At 9 months, babies may still be bothered by digestive problems and teething. Infectious and inflammatory diseases also often appear in children of this age. This can cause insomnia, moodiness, tears and loss of appetite.

Parents' actions

In most cases, parents can cope with their child's insomnia on their own. To do this, you just need to review your baby’s daily routine and eliminate all negative factors that could disrupt his sleep.

Let's look at how to return your child and other family members to a normal night's rest:

In conclusion

Babies as young as nine months old may have trouble sleeping for a variety of reasons. Most often, the violation is associated with the child’s sudden maturation and an excess of emotions in him. However, there are other factors that can negatively affect your baby's night's rest.

Parents must provide the most comfortable conditions for the little one to sleep so that he can fully develop and be happy.

What to do if a 9-month-old baby has trouble sleeping at night? On this score, Dr. Komarovsky, a famous children's doctor, TV presenter and author of many books on children's health, has his own opinion.

Dr. Komarovsky’s main postulate for problems with falling asleep in young children is the following: if it is difficult for a child to calm down before bed, you should pay attention to the time allotted for putting the child to bed - what time you start putting him to bed and how much time it takes. Komarovsky believes that children may have difficulty calming down, either because they are very tired or because they are overstimulated. The doctor strongly recommends that parents teach their baby to fall asleep on his own. This should be done after establishing a sleep-wake schedule and.

At first, it will be difficult for parents to hear the baby cry, but in fact, he can learn to fall asleep on his own quite quickly. Before you go into your child's room and check how he is doing, look at the clock - do not leave him for more than 15 minutes. Once your baby learns to fall asleep on his own, he becomes more relaxed and happy.

In order for the child to calm down on his own, you should not allow the child to fall asleep at the breast or with a bottle in his mouth - this way he can then sleep restlessly. It's better to do this: If the baby falls asleep during feeding, you should put him on the changing table and change the diaper (diaper) so that he wakes up. He will go to bed not asleep, but at least half asleep. Remember: the child should go to bed while awake.

The main reason why children do not sleep at night or sleep poorly is extreme fatigue, as strange as it may sound.

Another reason is the child’s excess contact with adults before bedtime. Due to the fact that all the adults want to caress him, take him for a walk, and lisp, the child becomes overexcited. In addition, active activities and games should be avoided with children older than six months. With children, you should try not to talk a lot before going to bed, speak in a calm and quiet voice, use the same words, such as “Good night, doll and bear, good night, Andryusha.”

After you put your child to bed, leave the room and wait for about 15 minutes, no need to come back to check if the baby is sleeping. If the child is crying, wait a couple of minutes and only then come in. A child may cry due to incorrect associations with sleep. Children quickly learn to fall asleep on their own - literally in a few days, give them this opportunity.

If sleep and daytime feedings are properly distributed, children gradually become physically and mentally able to sleep through the night without waking up. Healthy children can wake up at night, and this happens for the following reasons.

  • The child slept a lot during the day.
  • The child has knocked down the blanket and is cold.
  • The child got his legs stuck in the crib bars.
  • The child is used to being fed before bed, rocked to sleep, and suddenly he is deprived of this.