As my son transitioned into a toddler bed this week, we’ve reflected on his past sleeping habits. He’s always been an amazing sleeper (don’t worry, we fully expect if we have a second child, they will be the opposite and create havoc in all our lives).
During the first few months of my son’s life, we would get the constant question, “Does he sleep?” My husband would always respond with the same thing. “Yep, he was born with a circadian rhythm.”
We were told again and again during my pregnancy that when the baby was born, we wouldn’t get any sleep. So we prepared ourselves and did the research, yet this kid loved to sleep! Yes, we figured out what he liked and what worked to get him to sleep early, but I would often think back to that idea of him being born with a circadian rhythm. Was it possible?
What is a circadian rhythm?
A circadian rhythm is your internal daily cycle that responds to your environment. Sleeping during the night and being awake during the day is an example of this. You might have heard of the concept of a ‘biological clock,’ but it’s not a myth, as many think. Researchers have found very specific genes within living organisms responsible for making this ‘clock,’ and they help regulate our timing and produce a circadian rhythm.
There is also a ‘clock master,’ a group of 20,000 nerve cells known as the SCN or suprachiasmatic nucleus. It’s this that receives direct input from the eyes and produces melatonin – the hormone that makes you sleepy.
Do babies have a circadian rhythm?
Babies are not born with a circadian rhythm, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help it develop. My number one tip that I believe helped my son was that I never let him sleep in the dark during the day.
During nap times, I never put a blanket over his stroller or closed the blinds in his room. If anything, I would make sure there was as much light as possible because it is this light that tricks the body into waking up. This way, he would nap, but it would stop him from sleeping too long in one period. Secondly, a night light can help if your baby or toddler is anxious, but it can sometimes impact their cycle. Try to turn it off once they fall asleep!
Does a routine help with their cycle?
Children love routine. So do I come to think of it. So I was concerned this would be an issue for us. I’ve always tried hard to avoid an ordered bedtime routine. I was doing the same thing in the same order every night, like bath time, story time, milk, etc. Whatever it might be, I was so paranoid about doing it because I realized it would never end once this started.
The problem with it for us was that we love to travel. I knew a specific routine where we had to be in our house, and going through the motions to get him to sleep would not work for us. This lack of routine in this particular area of our lives worked for us. Nonetheless, even though I tried to avoid a routine, we have always been very specific about bedtime.
