Baby Sleep Cycles

The other week I purchased, "The 90-Minute Baby Sleep Program", a new book on how babies sleep.  I was interested in it because the book is based on biology and internal body clocks.  The core of the book rests on the Basic Rest and Activity Cycle (BRAC), which has been shown to exist in humans.  In short, people's alertness and energy tends to rise and fall in 90-minute cycles.  The book applies this idea to a baby's sleep pattern.

In practice, once a baby wakes up from overnight or a nap, a new 90-minute clock will start.  At the end of the 90 minutes, a younger baby will often be ready to go back to sleep.  Older babies can sometimes string 2 or 3 consecutive 90-minute cycles of awake time together before needing a nap.  But if a baby is tired after one of these 90-minute cycles, then they should be helped back to sleep.  Otherwise, the baby has missed this opportunity for rest and will get cranky throughout the day and evening.  Also, the sleep or nap itself may not go in 90-minute cycles, but whenever the baby wakes up, a new 90-minute clock begins.

I tried this the other week with our baby and it was exactly right, almost down to the minute.  Amazing!  We then started tracking it, and it has continued to work very well.  I wish I would have had this book some months ago, it probably would have saved me a few headaches.

After reading the book, I realized that many babies are probably sleep-deprived.  Of course, this is not a good thing.  Sleep deprivation in adults contributes to obesity; who knows how it affects a developing baby.

I give this book the highest rating.  It's based on science and is in accordance with biology.  It's good for babies and will lessen the strain on parents as well.  For more information, the author's website is here.