Sleep is a critical time for each individual to maintain good physical and emotional health. It is the body’s time to rest and restore energy levels and is essential for adults, children, and infants alike to maintain a healthy stress free existence.

Sleeping Time
Adults spend, or should spend, approximately 1/3 of their day sleeping which equates to 7-8 hours a day. Your newborn baby will sleep an average between 16 and 20 hours per day. This number only tapers off slightly as your baby gets older. Providing your baby with a healthy sleeping environment helps him or her to establish a regular sleeping pattern quickly.

Benefits of Sleep
Sleep is considered to be as essential as nutrients from food to your baby’s growth and development. For example, high quality and sufficient sleep provides your baby’s brain an opportunity to develop, and this is directly correlated with his ability to concentrate.

Healthy and sound sleep is when growth hormone absorption for your baby is at its peak. Growth hormone is important to keep your baby healthy because it stimulates immune system cell reproduction. Growth hormone also facilitates amino acid absorption which is vital for your baby growing healthy and strong.

Finally, sleep is when the body produces the melatonin that, amongst other things, stops tumors from growing, prevents viral infections and stimulates your baby’s immune system, and increases antibodies in baby’s saliva.

Reduce Toxic Exposure while Sleeping
Your newborn will be averaging 44 breaths a minute while sleeping compared to adults that average less than 20 breaths per minute. All those extra breaths make it important to ensure that your baby’s lungs aren’t being filled with toxins from the nursery or cribs. Rather, sleep is the time that your baby deals best with removing toxins from his body. As a parent, the last thing you want to do is expose your baby to more chemicals during this important recovery period.

Dose and duration of toxic chemical exposure are the two major factors to think of for baby’s exposure to unhealthy chemicals. As a parent you should try to do everything in your power to keep the dose low because the duration is going to be so high. With so many important functions of growth and recovery taking place for your baby while sleeping it is imperative that you provide the absolute healthiest environment possible.