Why do babies wake frequently from sleep?

(Adapted from The science of healthy baby sleep - BBC Future)
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Why do babies wake frequently from sleep? Their own protection! When young babies slip into deep sleep, or “slow wave sleep”, they can stop breathing. Babies have a built in protection: simply waking up. 

​If we prematurely (i.e., before they are developmentally ready) push a baby into this deep sleep, the risk of SIDS increases. One way parents were encouraged to create deep sleep was to put babies to sleep on their stomachs, something that is now considered dangerous. In fact, SIDS rates plummeted once world-wide campaigns advised parents to place babies on their back to sleep. (Stomach, or “prone”, sleeping makes SIDS 13 times more likely).

Many parents worry that deep sleep is necessary for the healthy development of their baby, but scientists have NOT found a correlation between frequent waking and cognitive development, psychomotor development, behaviour, or emotional regulation. The total amount of sleep is important, not the amount of time a baby can sleep without waking.

So, you might be exhausted, but there’s no need to worry!

Want to read more?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513387/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673603153238
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051431/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27492858/
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/142/6/e20174330/37494/Uninterrupted-Infant-Sleep-Development-and
https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/130/4/643/30241/Five-Year-Follow-up-of-Harms-and-Benefits-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext

As always, if you are concerned about your baby’s behaviour or need advice, you should talk to your family doctor.