Sleep is vital. It allows our bodies to rest, recharge, and refresh, and our minds to process the events of the day. Good sleep can make us healthier, happier, and more productive. Poor sleep can make us irritated and exhausted in the short-term and mentally and physically ill in the long-term. Despite this, many of us continue to accept that sleeping poorly is inevitable in our modern lives.

However, getting a good, restful night’s sleep is not only possible, but it is necessary for our well-being. To improve sleeping habits, you need to analyze your current sleeping routine and figure out what needs to change. It’s also important that you do this for your family and especially your kids because they may not even realize that they are not sleeping well enough. Here are the areas you should be looking at.

Schedule

First of all, you need to figure out whether your problem is poor sleep or simply not enough of it. The National Sleep Foundation advises adults get seven to nine hours of sleep a night, with children needing more. Check out their recommendations by age to find out how much sleep your kids should be getting.

For Adults: Make a note of when you go to sleep for a week, and see whether you are within the recommended range. If you aren’t, you need to set a bedtime and stick to it. If you simply aren’t sleepy at that time of the evening, you need to consider stimulants that may be keeping you up (see below).

For Kids: While it is relatively easy to monitor a young child’s sleep schedule, it becomes harder when they’re older. According to CNN, teens are getting on average seven hours of sleep, which is two less than the recommended amount.

If your children are going to bed late, ask them why. If they are doing homework until very late, it may be because they have too many things in their schedule. If it’s the latter, ask them what you can do to help and reevaluate their extracurriculars.

Sleep Environment

Next, you need to make sure your sleep environment - including your mattress and room temperature - is optimally designed for you to get a good night’s rest.

For Adults: Consider the quality of the environment in your bedroom, including your mattress and bedding. Ideally, you want to sleep in a cool bedroom with as little light as possible. For your bed linens, you want sheets and a comforter that provide enough warmth or that help you stay cool. When it comes to your mattress, if it’s older than 10 years, it’s most likely past its prime, which means it’s time to start shopping around for a new one. If budget is a concern, there are plenty of affordable mattresses on the market that will also suit your sleep type. If you’re shopping as a couple, look for mattresses with solid edge support and that have motion transfer control.

For Kids: A young child will not be able to identify differences in air quality, so focus on the humidity in your children’s bedrooms. A humidifier can help maintain the right levels of moisture in the air, help prevent your child’s skin from drying out, and can help when your child has respiratory issues.

External Stimulants

Lastly, you should consider whether you are making things harder for yourself by stimulating your body before sleep. The main things to watch out for are caffeine and blue screen light from technology. Both can make it difficult to fall asleep, and both should be avoided in the hours leading up to bedtime.

For Adults: It’s a piece of advice you have probably heard before, and that’s because it works. Leave phones, laptops, and tablets outside of the bedroom so you aren’t tempted to use them before bed. If you use your phone as an alarm, simply buy an old-fashioned alarm. This may take some time to get used to, but it will do wonders for your sleep.

For Kids: Consider making a ban on night-time technology a family thing. Your kids are more likely to comply if they know you are doing it, too, and it’s good for everyone. You should also watch out for how much caffeinated soda your kids are drinking, and especially watch out for your teens consuming energy drinks.

If you or someone in your family have tried all of the above and still can’t go to sleep, it may be a case of insomnia or another sleep disorder. Visit your family doctor, who will discuss your options. A lack of sleep is a health problem like any other, and there are plenty of treatments available that can help you get some well-deserved rest.

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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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