[Slickscientist (OP)]

Hi,
Why do babies go to sleep almost instantly, while we have to wait for sleep to come after we go to bed? This question popped in my head just now, as I am watching my niece seep upstairs through the baby monitor. Could it be because of the phases of sleep; it would be nice to know.

Yours sincerely,
Slickscientist, 13.

[evan_au]

Babies need to spend more hours asleep every day than older children or adults.

Sometimes babies do go to sleep easily - but sometimes they don't.
Or sometimes they wake up in the middle of the night, and don't go back to sleep after being fed.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

True

[alancalverd]

Part of going to sleep is unwinding all the background thoughts and worries that you accumulated during the day, right up to the point where you decided to stop. At which point you worry about whether you have switched off everything that should be switched off, put out the dustbin, locked the door, set the alarm, paid the bills....And if you prefer the relaxed, gentler pace of country life, have I closed the chicken coop? locked the gun case? was that a fox barking? where's the dog?.....

Babies eat, sleep and defecate. Any problem with any of that, shout for mum. Then eat, sleep, or defecate.

[Slickscientist (OP)]

Part of going to sleep is unwinding all the background thoughts and worries that you accumulated during the day, right up to the point where you decided to stop. At which point you worry about whether you have switched off everything that should be switched off, put out the dustbin, locked the door, set the alarm, paid the bills....And if you prefer the relaxed, gentler pace of country life, have I closed the chicken coop? locked the gun case? was that a fox barking? where's the dog?.....

Babies eat, sleep and defecate. Any problem with any of that, shout for mum. Then eat, sleep, or defecate.

That's true as well.

[charles1948]

Why do human babies cry so much.  Don't their cries attract predators.