Teach & Learn: Baby Facts: Why Do Some Babies... Resist Going To Sleep? - Child Development | Wondertime

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why do some babies...resist going to sleep?

resist going to sleep?

If you had just landed in a world where everything you saw, touched, smelled, and heard were new to you, would you want to go to sleep? No way. I'll let you in on a little secret: Unlike your mother-in-law who suffers from insomnia, babies of all ages are of the firm opinion that sleep is overrated. Not only do they resist going to sleep, they resist staying asleep (unless you are holding them in just the right position — the one that makes your arm feel like it is about to fall off). And if they don't yet resist it, they will. My friend's newborn was a champion sleeper... until he woke up at six months of age and refused to sleep for the next two years.

Babies may also cry and protest at bedtime because they do not want to be separated from their parents and they feel scared or unprotected. Cross-cultural studies have shown that babies who live in cultures where they are carried most of the day and where they sleep next to their mothers at night seldom cry when it is time to go to sleep. Instead, they nurse to sleep or they become calm in response to the rhythmic breathing of an adult lying beside them. A human infant, like other primates, is genetically programmed to respond to adult care. If you lie down next to a baby at naptime or bedtime, you may notice a lot less resistance to going to sleep.

In the meantime, while you are walking around in a sleep-deprived haze, rest assured (tee hee) that your little resister is most likely getting the winks he needs.

Adapted with permission from "Why Babies Do That: Baffling Baby Behavior Explained," by Jennifer Margulis, published by Willow Creek Press. 2005 by Jennifer Margulis. All rights reserved.


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