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Early years

10th Jun 2023

Babies who don’t sleep through the night are smarter

HerFamily

If you have a baby, chances are he or she has woken up at least once during the night.

It’s a natural thing, babies won’t sleep for six or seven hours like we will, and although it’s incredibly unfortunate it’s also just something we’re going to have to deal with.

Some babies, however, wake up a lot more than other babies do.

Like, a lot. Like, barely sleep at all.

As it turns out though, there may be a benefit to all that severe lack of sleep you’ve been getting – the less your baby sleeps, the smarter they might be.

Well, if they’re not sleeping at all that is absolutely an issue, but waking up a good bit could actually mean that they’ve got some serious brains.

According to Professor Peter Fleming, babies who wake up more during the night may have an intellectual advantage over those who don’t.

He told Buzzfeed that when a baby wakes up, they have more time to develop themselves as there are fewer distractions.

“From a biological point of view what the baby is doing is completely normal and sensible. It just doesn’t fit in with our 21st-century expectations,” he said.

“Biologically that’s a big advantage because they will have more attention from their two primary caregivers at that time of day than at any other because there are fewer distractions.”

He also added that there is no evidence that sleeping longer is of any benefit to a newborn baby.

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