ABSTRACT
Sleep is a physiological function but it is affected by emotional states, and babies' ability to get into regular patterns of sleep is influenced by their parents' care. This chapter shows how to understand what might be happening if a baby does not sleep well and how to cope with parents' and baby's feelings. New babies need long hours of sleep, to recover from the experience of birth and to help them grow. There are two kinds of sleep problems for babies. Either waking up several times in the night; or having trouble getting to sleep in the first place. People begin to see how, when disturbances in babies' sleep lead to loss of sleep for parents, their own ability to deal with the problems is impaired. Researchers say that sleeping apart is a sensory deprivation, and that parents and infants respond to each other's breathing and movements. Physical contact may have a mutual calming effect on baby and parent.
