Newborns sleep up to 17 hours daily on average. Most of their sleeping time is during the daytime. Hence, they are mostly awake at night. This is because newborns have yet to establish their natural body clock. Hence, you need to create a sleeping routine to help your baby get used to the hours outside the womb and get the sleep they need.
Creating a sleeping routine for your baby is not easy. After all, every child is different. What works for some may not work for another. To add to that, sleeping patterns are also affected by developmental milestones and underlying health issues that can be causing discomfort.
But one thing is for sure: there is no harm in trying. Who knows, maybe the routine you are trying to impose on your child might work. In the end, both you and your newborn can have your much-needed rest.
Using red light for better sleep
Humans’ evening routines mainly revolve around daylight. That is how much sunlight plays a big role in our day to day lives. That is also why babies need to be exposed outdoors during morning time to help them adjust to natural hours.
That said, one thing that can come in handy when settling your child down to sleep is to use red light therapy devices. These machines emit low-level radiations of therapeutic red light to help increase the body’s melatonin levels.
Melatonin is the hormone that is responsible for regulating sleep-wake cycles or circadian phases. Therefore, the more your body is exposed to red light, the more melatonin your body produces. As a result, you will have a better and longer sleep.
That is why turning on a red light device during your newborn’s nighttime sleeping hours can be helpful. By doing so, you are technically inducing your child to go to sleep through light emissions. As long as you keep your device on through the night, the longer your baby will have a night of uninterrupted sleep.
Is red light therapy safe?
The color red usually implies danger or heat. That is why it is understandable that you might think that incorporating red light therapy in your baby’s nighttime routine may cause harm to your child.
But no, LED light therapy is not harmful at all—especially if it is red. A study confirms that staying under red light through the night helps lessen sleep disorders. This is because, unlike artificial blue light, red light has a lower temperature that does not suppress melatonin production.
To add to that, exposing your child to red light will lessen their risk of baby acne and eczema. Newborn skin is sensitive. A little change in the environment or even their mother’s breast milk can cause irritations to the skin.
Red light therapy is a known non-invasive solution to treating skin inflammation. In fact, the treatment came about to be what it is today because NASA incidentally discovered that red light could heal skin lesions. It is also known to penetrate deep within the skin to aid muscle and tissue recovery.
So, again, if you are worried that you are putting your newborn at risk by exposing them to LED light, you are not. Red light is a therapeutic solution for holistic body concerns. Hence, you are not only helping your child sleep, but you are also improving their overall health.
Importance of sleep in newborns
The reason why babies sleep a lot is that they simply need to do so. Babies sleep in order to grow and develop. This is because sleep promotes and enhances the secretion of the growth hormone for our bodies. And without this hormone, your child can develop muscle and bone problems. They will even fall behind the expected height requirement for their age. Now, no parent would want that.
Aside from that, sleep also helps them better your newborn’s immune systems. Besides the growth hormone, the body also produces cytokines, which are proteins that are in charge of immunity, inflammation, and stress. Hence, when your child sleeps more at night, the less chances of them getting germs that can cause sickness.
That said, imposing a sleep routine for your newborn as soon as they come out of the womb is important. Doing so will not only help them develop their body clocks fast, but it will also aid their overall development.
Most importantly, helping your child sleep throughout the night using red light therapy is also beneficial for you. As a parent, you need enough rest to cater to the needs of your child. When your newborn learns a definite sleeping routine, you can easily know when is the right time for you to relax as well. After all, you need to take care of yourself first before you can take care of your newborn.
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