New parents discover its vital importance those first few weeks. The quality and quantity of an infants' sleep affects the well-being of everyone in the household. The fact is that Infants are not programmed to sleep through the night. Because they don't have the capacity for large quantities of food, they need nourishment at regular intervals around the clock. There are no short cuts to lengthen an infant's sleeping schedule, but you can encourage nature's own sleep transition, which occurs at about 5 months of age.
Babies can eventually learn to put themselves to sleep.
But it takes time and your patience. Toddlers and Preschoolers Toddlers and preschoolers usually need 10 to 12 hours of sleep each night During the toddler years, children make the change from two to one long nap, and usually sleep about eleven hours at night. This difference is not easily apparent to toddlers either. Their feelings are just as strong whether they awake at midnight scared by an unusual noise or mad because there's no one to play with. Throughout childhood, but particularly in toddlerhood, the child's need to be able to count on the parents can at times conflict with the child's need to learn competence and independence.