While it is always important to allow playtime for your child, it is even more crucial you consider how many hours they sleep in a day to enhance physical and mental well-being. Bedtime can be really troubling when your child does not want to abide by the bedtime routine. If a child has problems sleeping, it also affects the care giver's sleeping patterns, which can lead into a difficult cycle of sleepless nights that can prove to be hard to break.
So how do you help your child get the sleep that you both deserve?
Create A Bedtime Routine
If your child is either a toddler, preschooler, or an infant, creating a consistent bedtime routine will help you put them to sleep. A good bedtime routine promotes self-sufficiency that enables a child to go back to sleep at night. This could include sending them to bed at the same time every night, hopping into their pajamas, and reading a book together to tire the eyes.
Help your child become an independent sleeper by developing routines that make them feel safe sleeping on their own. If you create activities such as bedtime stories, you set a perfect sleeping atmosphere, and your child relaxes and automatically become sleepy.
Reduce Stressful Activities Before Bedtime
Participating in engaging and stressful activities before bedtime can trigger the release of hormone cortisol that plays a role in sleep. Higher levels of cortisol means higher levels of energy. Always keep the environment quiet and tranquil to minimize the release of this stress hormone and help them get to sleep quicker and easier.
Create an Individualized Bedtime Schedule
It’s important to understand the sleeping patterns of your child for you to create an effective sleep and bed time schedule for them, and to do so, you must realize that children need different hours of sleep according to age. Although not all kids need or want the same amount of sleep, the usual rule of thumb is to make sure that they sleep between nine and eleven hours each night. An individualized bedtime routine will guarantee that your child wakes up refreshed despite the difference in sleep and wake-up times.
Power Down Electronic Devices A Few Hour Before Bedtime
Screen light from devices such as television can increase brain activity and inhibit the production of sleep-time hormones. High levels of melatonin and serotonin means that your child is ready to sleep. Ensure that your child participates in physical activities to drain their energy instead of watching children programs on devices. You can improve your child sleeping patterns by ensuring that the bedroom is a screen-free zone.
Create A Sleep-Inducing Environment
Although toys can provide protection and reassurance from bedtime fears, do not stuff the bed to make it easier for the child to sleep. Make the bedroom more comfortable by adding cozy bed sheets and regulating the room temperatures to their preferred sleeping environment.
Make sure that your child gets enough sleep to help them fight off illness and promote physical well-being. If you notice that your kids have trouble getting to sleep, or even detect irregular sleeping patterns, talk to their pediatrician for professional help.
*Although toys can provide protection and reassurance from bedtime fears, do not stuff the bed to make it easier for the child to sleep. Make the bedroom more comfortable by adding cozy bed sheets, and regulating the room temperatures to their preferred sleeping environment. For infants, it is recommended that they sleep on a firm, surface free of pillows and plush toys at least until their 12th month to reduce the risk of suffocation. The death of 8 babies due to inclined loungers led to products such as Boppy Infant getting recalled.
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