The quality of sleep that your child gets regularly can affect their growth and development. Making sure that your child sleeps for at least eight hours every night can significantly improve their heart health. It can also keep their weight in check, and reduce their risk of injuries. Uninterrupted sleep can also increase your child’s attention span, allowing them to learn more in a shorter period.
Sleep For Children: Getting Quality Hours Of Rest for Your Kids
Getting enough sleep is always a must for children. However, merely telling them to go to bed early is no longer enough. With the number of distractions today – video games, toys, and their peers – introducing a healthy bedtime routine to your kid can become very challenging. Instead of tucking your child at the same time every night, you might even end up having fights with them as they would rather play with their toys than sleep.
Aside from checking out NightNod.com and other sleep-related websites, here are ways you can make sure that your child gets enough quality hours of rest every night:
1) Getting Sufficient Sleep Should Be A Family Priority
How adults behave can contribute to the thinking and behavior of children. What adults do within the household can also become the behavior of children over time. If your family loves to eat fruits and vegetables, and go on outdoor activities, your child will grow up and consider these as parts of their routine.
Getting sufficient sleep should also be treated as a family priority so your child can easily follow. If you want them to have a healthy bedtime routine, everyone in the family should do the same, too. Seeing how the adults in the family value sleep will encourage your kid also to do the same.
Doing this means that everyone at home should refrain from sleeping in the wee hours of the morning just to finish work or hang out with friends. As an adult, you should be the role model of your child.
2) Stick To A Regular Daily Routine
Your child can easily get stressed out if they are often placed in an unfamiliar or fast-paced environment. More often than not, they will not understand the changes happening around them, and because they can’t communicate their sentiments yet, they will end up keeping the stress to themselves.
Stress can become the reason why your child will end up twisting and turning every night, and, eventually, lose sleep. When left untreated, stress can also worsen and trigger mental health conditions that will make it even harder for your child to sleep well.
If you don’t want these things to happen, stick to a regular daily routine. You should have a set schedule as to when your child should wake up, eat their meals, nap during the day, and play with their peers. Having a regular daily routine will make your child feel comfortable and secure, as well as help them transition to a smooth bedtime schedule.
When formulating a regular daily schedule, make sure that it’s something applicable anywhere. Even if the family spends some time out of the country or at a friend’s place, your child should still stick to the same daily routine.
3) Strive To Remain Active During The Day
Children are naturally very energetic, to the point where their parents and guardians can no longer keep up with them. Even if your child attended school during the day, you would be surprised how they will still have the energy to run around your home and play with their toys until late in the evening.
Being energetic can be a tell-tale sign that your child is healthy, but, on the other side of the coin, too much energy will make it hard for them to get some shuteye at night.
To ensure that your days do not end this way, strive to remain active during the day. If your child attends classes in the morning, encourage them to play sports in the afternoon. With your supervision, allow them to run around your neighborhood or play with their peers. The more active your child is during the day, the faster they will doze off at night.
4) Monitor Screen Times
There are now different technological innovations that help your child accomplish more tasks during the day. They can use a tablet or a laptop to help them with their lessons or communicate with their peers. Although beneficial, digital screens can also have adverse effects on your child’s sleeping routine. Children always enjoy using different devices to the point where they lose track of time and stay up late.
Monitoring your child’s screen times is one of the most important responsibilities you have as a parent. This is especially true if you’re still in the process of introducing a healthy sleeping routine to your child.
For your child to get uninterrupted sleep at night, digital screens, such as tablets, laptops, smartphones, and TVs, should not be kept inside their bedroom. Ideally, these gadgets should be placed in another room of the house, somewhere far from their reach. All of these gadgets should also be turned off at least an hour before bedtime.
Create A Sleep-Supportive Bedroom For Your Children
All of your efforts will be useless if you disregard the importance of creating a sleep-supportive bedroom for your children. Doing this is a vital task because it’ll be easy for your child to fall asleep if they have access to a bedroom that encourages them to sleep.
Your child’s bedroom should have dimmed lights and a temperature that’s suitable to their liking. Avoid stuffing their bedroom with too many toys as these will only distract them from getting some sleep.
Sleep For Children: The Trial & Error Process
Being a parent or guardian will require patience and responsibility, and making sure that your child is well-rested every night is no exemption. This task can be tough as your child might not like the changes, but know that it’s completely doable.
If you want to be successful with your efforts, remember to try out different strategies for you to determine which among these suits your children. Consider tweaking some of the tips presented in this article based on the preferences of your child.
