Although you can blame your child’s genes for how long he or she sleeps at night, a good nap time depends on his or her environmental wellness. This is according to a new study in twins, published online in the journal Paediatrics, which found that genes may play a big role in babies’ and toddlers’ night time sleep wellness, while environment is key during nap time. This is based on data from nearly 1,000 twins, who were followed to the age of four. So, can you control how much sleep your little one gets at night, or is nap-time the only period you have power over?
According to study leader Evelyne Touchette, of Laval University in Quebec, Canada, you ‘should not give up on trying to correct inadequate sleep duration or bad sleep habits early in childhood.’ This is because environment was still found influence babies’ and toddlers’ night-time sleep, even seemingly overshadowing genes by the age of 18 months. Touchette noted that the reasons for the study results remain unclear, but she surmised that environment may take over genes at 18 months because the maturation of the brain may be key in infants’ ability to sleep for longer stretches at night. However, after this point your child’s genes take charge of their wellbeing once more, and for this there is clear explanation, Touchette said.
Hawley Montgomery-Downs, an associate professor of psychology at West Virginia University in Morgantown who was not involved in the study, commented that it’s impossible to break down children’s sleep into “nature or nurture” questions, noting, ‘Everything is a complex interaction between genes and environment.’ She added, ‘We’ve still got a lot to learn about children’s sleep.’ Still, what can you, as a parent for whom bedtime is anything but peaceful, take away from this study?
It’s often a battle to get your child to settle down and fall asleep, especially when you have so many questions about getting it right. How much sleep does your child need? Is your child waking up too often in the night or is that normal? Does your child nap enough, too much or too little? Unfortunately, Montgomery-Downs said that there are no clear-cut answers, but experts do have some general advice, based on what’s typical for young children. The National Sleep Foundation notes that babies from the age of three to 11 months tend to sleep for nine to 12 hours a night, albeit not straight through. These infants also take an average of one to four naps a day, and this number decreases as they approach a year. According to the Foundation, toddlers have an average of 12 to 14 hours of sleep over 24 hours, with most taking at least one daytime nap.
But what do those stats mean to you as a parent? Should you be worried if your child is a stubborn napper, or sleeps less than other kids their age? ‘Just because most kids average a certain amount of sleep doesn’t mean that’s the “normal” amount,’ Montgomery-Downs explained. ‘We know that with adults, there’s a lot of individual variation in how much sleep a person needs.’ And so the same might be said of your kids, although the research isn’t there to know for sure. However, Touchette advised against feeding your child each time they wake, as her team discovered that this make five-month-old’s less likely to sleep for six straight hours at night. She added that staying with your child until he falls asleep and picking him up each time he fusses are not good ideas, either, but Montgomery-Downs recommended setting a routine, including a consistent bedtime and a soothing activity such as reading a story.