Sleep Patterns and a Broken Normal
- Laura-Ann Broggin
- Mar 29
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 7
We live in a time when "normal" is based on medically established classifications instead of physiological truths. For example, doctors refer to a standardized growth chart to determine if your uniquely designed child is growing appropriately. Furthermore, those charts are based primarily on formula-fed infants. (CDC, 2006) How ironic it is that the "norm" is determined by a man-made chart based on infants fed a man-made formula that has only been around since 1865. (Radbill, 1981)
Similarly, expectant sleep patterns of today's newborns are based on the same "broken normal", formula-fed infants. This isn't a dig at formula feeding at all, formula feeding was established to save infant lives when breastfeeding was medically impossible, mothers unexpectedly passed, or infants were born with complex issues that didn't allow them to latch to the breast. Formula feeding has saved lives! However, formula feeding has been proven to have life-altering disadvantages, and having only been around for approximately 200 years, it is extremely disturbing that we, as parents and medical providers, convince parents that their infants should grow or sleep, based on the general normalcy of modern day practices, instead of looking at the physiological normalcies of breastfed infants since the beginning of time.
Let's break this down: in today's society, mothers talk amongst themselves about their newborn's sleep patterns. I have personally heard stories like, "My 2-month-old isn't sleeping at all, I am exhausted, I just don't know what is wrong with her!" followed by another response such as "I would be concerned too, my 6-month-old has been sleeping through the night since 6 weeks old, maybe you should give a bottle, or start feeding rice cereal." I won't even get into the second half of the last quote, but let's examine what true "normal" is and why such stories can lead to a lot of distress among moms.
If you google how much sleep the average newborn gets/needs, you will get a wide variety of numbers from 14-20 hrs. The realistic truth is, yes, newborns sleep a lot, AND newborns wake often. Why? Because sleep is crucial to a newborn’s ability to learn, create memories, develop a healthy brain and nervous system, and develop important survival instincts. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine avoids providing official recommendations for sleep duration in newborns under 4 months old since there is so much variation. (Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(6), 785–786)
What does all of this mean for parents? This means that expectations should be more realistic. A broken, inconsistent sleep cycle is a normal, healthy part of a newborn's development. While unnatural patterns of longer, deeper sleep may have an increased risk, which may contribute to pathological changes in the cardiorespiratory response to exogenous stressors such as hypoxia or hypercapnia. (Ramirez, Ramirez,& Anderson 2018) Short, active sleep cycles, occasional deeper sleep cycles, frequent feeds, and short wake windows are the natural, normal, physiological way newborns should sleep and grow in early life.
If society put less pressure on newborn sleep habits and new parents' expectations, the stress and depression associated with the lack of "successful" sleep patterns would be limited. Parents are not failing because their newborns don't sleep through the night or even on a schedule. Rather, those inconsistent sleep patterns more appropriately emphasize a happy, healthy home life and an appropriately developing newborn. Our focus must be on what is heretidly physiological and not on a sleepless night.
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