Weird Sleep

Have you ever noticed how a child goes to sleep?

We adults go to sleep in a standard manner: we get into a comfortable position, grab a blanket or a pillow or anything cosy, we close our eyes, and wait until we sort of “lose consciousness.”

Babies do it differently. I dunno if this is only my son, or if it applies to all babies, although I believe the latter is more likely.

When they’re sleepy, they can’t calm down. They need to be calmed down, one way or another. If you’re lucky, your child gets to calm himself down easily. If your child’s like mine, you’ll learn many ways and in the end will be extremely creative and witty and tactical about sleeping stuffs, and eventually have an easier life ^__^

Anyway, once they’re calmed down, they don’t close their eyes just yet.
If they’re lying down, they’d roll over here and there once in a while, chitter chatter quite some, stare blankly to a direction, and then, after a while, very slowly, their eyes start to blink slowly, heavily. After some slow, heavy blinks, back open ever briefly, and then blink more slowly and more heavily, their eyes finally close.
When that happens, babies need some 3 minutes or so to go into deep sleep, and after that mommies can leave (or put them in bed if they were carried and swayed) and enjoy “freedom.”

I think it’s weird. Isn’t it MUCH easier and faster to just close their eyes and relax BEFORE falling asleep instead of AFTER?
Sometimes I want to try and keep my eyes open for as long as I can before I fall asleep just like that. But I’ve never succeeded doing that. Because naturally, when I’m really really sleepy, there’s nothing else I want to do, but to close my eyes and surrender. That’s the very best part of sleeping. The ultimate relaxation.

I wonder how long babies do that. Darren is nearly 18 months, and he’s still doing that weird stuff before falling asleep.