The only way to know if a certain amount (or lack) of sleep 'causes' a specific condition such as ADHD, as might seem to be suggested by research showing a correlation between children who consistently slept less overnight and ADHD, would be to set up a randomised controlled study. They are also correlations, not causations. Many of these longer-term findings, however, involve school-aged children, not babies. A lack of sleep has been associated with cardiometabolic risk factors, an increased risk of ADHD and low cognitive performance, and with poorer emotional regulation, academic achievement and quality of life.

Throughout the following century, although these suggested amounts declined, recommended sleep consistently ran around 37 minutes more than the actual sleep babies were getting, paving the way for decades of concerned parents.Įxperts agree that sleep is crucial for babies and young children (and, for that matter, for adults). The first 'scientific' guidelines date as early as 1897, when, in a book on sleep for the London-based Contemporary Science Series, a Russian physician recommended that newborns should sleep 22 hours a day. Worrying about whether babies are getting enough sleep isn't new.

'And that affects the way in which we think about what babies should be able to do, and how babies should be treated.' (Read more about how sleeping through the night is a relatively new phenomenon, even for adults.) 'But that's what people in Western societies have become accustomed to. 'The way in which we sleep now in the 21st Century is kind of odd, in an evolutionary sense, because we weren't evolved to sleep like we're dead for an eight-hour period, and not wake up, in total silence and total darkness,' says Helen Ball, professor of anthropology at Durham University and the director of the Durham Infancy and Sleep Centre. Taken too far, it can cause a great deal of anxiety and stress for parents – and even be unsafe for the babies themselves. Even some paediatricians warn parents that, if these goals aren't reached, children are less likely to get the sleep they need to grow and thrive.īut not only is this idea of independent, uninterrupted baby sleep far from universal, it is also very different to how human infants have slept through most of our species' history. Particularly in the West, an industry of sleep coaches, books and articles has sprung up, promising to help families achieve what many see as the holy grail: a baby who sleeps in a crib, alone, all night, and has several long naps during the day. Mention you've had a baby, and almost everyone will ask one thing: how is she sleeping?Īfter all, many exhausted parents look forward to the time when their baby finally sleeps through the night.

Must sleep now