1. Recognize sleepy signs of children
Before starting to create a sleep pattern, observing to understand your child's body language is an extremely important step. If parents miss the "golden hour" when the child is just starting to fall asleep, the child will oversleep, leading to fussiness and difficulty falling asleep.
Recognizing signs: When starting to be sleepy, children often show signs of yawning, rubbing their eyes, scratching their ears, reduced agility, lethargy or appearing irritable, crying for unknown reasons.
Timely action: As soon as you see your child show the above signs, parents should take their child to a dark, quiet room to prepare for them to go to bed immediately, avoid waiting until the child cries because they are too tired.
2. Establish a "Eating - Playing - Sleeping" cycle (EASY)
One of the most scientific methods to train newborns to sleep on time is to create a regular daily routine for children.
Separate eating and sleeping: Create a habit for your baby to eat right after waking up, then play, do light exercises (tummy time, chatting, massage) and finally sleep next. This helps the child not be dependent on the habit of biting and sleeping.
Balancing wake-up time: Newborns under 3 months old usually only wake up for about 45 - 90 minutes between sleeps. Understanding the maximum wake-up time suitable for each age group will help parents proactively put their children on the bed at the right time.
3. Help children clearly distinguish day and night
Newborns at birth do not have a concept of time and circadian rhythm. Parents need to be companions to help their children set up this biological clock.
During the day: Keep the bedroom with enough natural light. When your child sleeps during the day, parents do not need to keep the space completely silent but can still maintain normal daily activities such as talking, listening to the small TV, or cleaning. When your child is awake, actively interact, chat, and play with them.
At night: Keep the bedroom completely dark or only use dim yellow light night lights. Minimize chatting and joking with children when feeding or changing diapers at night. Every gesture needs to be done gently and quickly in silence so that children understand that nighttime is only for sleeping.
4. Building procedures before bed (Wind-down)
A series of repetitive daily activities before bedtime will send a strong signal to the child's brain that: "It's bedtime".
Steps to take: Parents can bathe their children in warm water, gently massage with gentle essential oils, wear comfortable clothes, wrap pupae, read a short story or sing lullabies in a gentle tone.
Create an ideal sleeping environment: Ensure that the room temperature is cool (about 22 - 26°C depending on the weather), airy and clean. Use white noise to help children fall asleep easily and overwhelm sudden sounds from outside.
