Newborn (0–3 months) – 14–17 hours/day

On the other hand, sleep is essential for myelination (the coating of neurons that allows electrical signals to travel quickly) and for the formation of billions of synapses. Typically, they spend almost 50% of their sleep in REM sleep, as they need to process basic sensory stimuli.

Six signs it’s time to see a GP about your sleep, according to experts.

Good quality sleep is vital for our long-term health, adds Dr Ginny Ponsford, GP and menopause specialist at The Women’s Hormone Clinic.

“It reduces our risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia, and plays an important role in our emotional and physical wellbeing. Poor sleep can become a vicious cycle as it lowers our mood, reduces mental resilience, increases stress levels and fatigue,” she notes.

“So we then compensate by taking naps or drinking caffeine, eating sugar or stopping exercise (because we feel too tired) which all further compound sleep disturbance.”

If you’re suffering from mild to moderate sleep disruption, it’s worth taking some initial steps to try and address the root cause, Dr Ponsford suggests.

“Like reducing caffeine, keeping to regular sleep and wake hours, stopping screen time a few hours before bed and using stress management techniques.”

If you are still experiencing disturbed sleep, you should speak to a health professional, usually your GP, as a first port of call. Here, experts share some sleep-related issues that should never be ignored.

My son kept drawing the same man – one day, he knocked on our door

For six months, my eight-year-old son kept drawing the same man — tall, smiling, always wearing a bright red hat. I thought it was just a bedtime story that had stuck in his imagination. Until the morning, someone knocked on our door.

My name is Patience van der Merwe, and my son Victor has been a fighter since the day he was born. He arrived eight weeks early, tiny and fragile, barely heavier than a bag of sugar. The doctors rushed him straight into the NICU, and I remember standing outside the glass, feeling completely useless. Machines breathed for him, and wires monitored him.

I whispered promises through tears, telling him to stay.

We didn’t have money for something like that. I was working one job back then, barely keeping up with rent. The hospital bills came in thick envelopes I couldn’t even open without shaking.

So I did the only thing I could do — I asked for help.

I made a small fundraiser online. I wrote about my baby boy fighting in an incubator. I wrote about how I didn’t know how I would afford to bring him home.

And strangers helped.

Most gave small amounts. 50 bucks. 100 bucks.

But one person — a man whose name I never learned — covered everything we couldn’t.

He even visited the hospital once. I barely remember it clearly. I was exhausted. But I do remember a tall man standing quietly near the window, wearing a bright red cap. He didn’t stay long. Just nodded politely and left.

Fashion