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The baby won't sleep? That's just his personality By Ofri Ilani Tags: Child development Parents tend to be greatly concerned by their infant's sleeping patterns the first few months after birth. Many fail to understand why some babies sleep through the night while others repeatedly shatter the night with their cries. And many also blame themselves if their babies don't sleep soundly, worrying that sleeping difficulties could hamper their children's future development. But concerned parents can rest easy, according to Dr. Gali De-Marcas, a psychologist and lecturer at the Gordon College of Education in Haifa. De-Marcas has found that the main factor affecting babies' sleeping patterns is their temperament, not their parents' behavior. "We found that with a significant portion of the babies, the sleeping difficulties do not stem from a problem with education, but from the congenital behavior with a biological base," she said. Advertisement "Sleeping patterns belong to a group of behavioral attributes that we classify as temperament, with which the baby is born," said De-Marcas. "There are babies who enter the world with a difficult temperament, and they will have problematic sleep habits. Babies are very different from each other; if we take three babies and expose them to the same sensory stimuli, one of is likely to have a strong reaction to very moderate stimuli, and another will barely react. Babies born with high responsiveness to sensory stimulation will also generally have more problematic sleep patterns." Sleep patterns undergo accelerated development in the first year of a child's life, and most babies sleep through the night by the time they are 1 year old. But surveys based on reports from parents show that between 20 and 30 percent of babies wake up several times in the night for extended periods. Parents could end up paying a heavy price for the disturbance to their own sleep, which may manifest itself as fatigue, tension within the family, difficulty functioning, or even a negative attitude toward the child who just won't sleep through the night. De-Marcas' study, conducted at Tel Aviv University under the guidance of Prof. Avi Sadeh and Dr. Yair Bar-Haim, is the first to measure the developmental aspect of a connection between children's sleeping capabilities and their temperament. The study followed the sleeping patterns of 100 babies for a full year, starting a short time after their birth and examined their responses to voices and lights. The babies' parents also filled out questionnaires about their infants' temperaments The study shows that a difficult temperament causes lack of sleep, said De-Marcas, but she added that sleep difficulties do not necessarily affect the baby's behavior. "The research reinforces the assumption that a problematic temperament causes problematic sleep, but not the opposite," said De-Marcas. She expects her findings to offer solace to parents who blame themselves for their babies' difficulties sleeping. However, she notes that the study does not indicate that there is no need to find ways to help babies with sleep difficulties. "Parents still have the option of acting in a way that is more correct or less so," said De-Marcas. "There is something to the question of how we act toward children with a difficult temperament, and how it is possible to reduce their level of sensitivity." Nonetheless, the study found that too much parental involvement in putting the child to sleep can hamper the development of good sleeping patterns. "Parents who encourage the baby to soothe himself and interfere less in the going-to-sleep process allow for the development of better sleeping patterns," said De-Marcas. "A parent who goes to the baby's crib several times in the night is liable to establish problematic sleeping patterns for the baby." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Fo shizzle ma nizzle American rapper Snoop Dogg slated to perform in Ramat Gan. Late date Scientists revive 2,000-year-old date seed found at Masada.

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