How to help your child sleep better?
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Sleep is very crucial to ensure that your child tackles the next day with vigor and enthusiasm. Good sleep also helps your child maintain good attention for school activities. Sleep ensures the maximization of the physical and mental development of your baby. However, some factors can deprive your baby of a good night’s sleep. Memory consolidation as a result of your child’s active brain can be a factor to consider. Sleep disorders may occur when your child finds it hard to sleep or stay awake. Staying asleep can also be a challenge to many children.
Therefore, to help your child sleep better, you can incorporate some of these steps:
Have a plan
As a parent, you should have a routine to ensure that your children get adequate quality sleep. The procedure of the plan will involve consistent waking and sleeping time. To avoid sleep disorders, you should encourage your children to sleep early.
Teenagers might stay up late at night and try to catch up on sleep the following morning. It would help if you discouraged the behavior by ensuring they are off to bed very early. If your child is still an infant, afternoon naps are essential to ensure enough sleep.
However, these afternoon naps must not extend in the late evenings. These naps will likely cause difficulties in sleep during bedtime. You should also ensure that these afternoon naps are long enough and consistent.
Reduced screen time
Blue light continues to stimulate your child’s brain even after falling asleep. As a result, your child inadequately produces melatonin, the hormone that induces sleep. Therefore, you have to come up with ways to help your children relax before bedtime. According to Children’s Network, breathing exercises can be very effective in ensuring relaxation. You can also encourage your child to listen to gentle music or go through a book instead.
You should also ensure that their bedrooms are free from devices that can keep them busy. Technologies that track the sleep performance of your children can be an exception. However, they should not act as indicators of sleep disorders. These technologies may be misleading when used for diagnosis.
Communicate with your child
It is vital to communicate with your child before they go to bed. Sometimes children feel scared of the dark. As a result, children may need your intervention to cope with the situation. By talking to your child, you will get an apparent reason why they are afraid.
Children may also experience physical difficulties that limit them from sleeping. These may include breathing issues or aching of their body parts. These issues may sometimes need you to seek medical intervention. Look for local specialists like TMJ treatment in Raleigh NC.
Specialists state that poor sleep causes common physical symptoms. Therefore, you must visit a physician and get a check-up.
Avoid food before bed
You should also ensure that your children eat hours before going to bed. Eating before bedtime can cause your children to experience discomfort when asleep. You should also ensure that your child won’t be hungry when bedtime approaches. Hunger will increase the child’s alertness and delay sleep. Sugary foods are what you should entirely avoid.
Know how much sleep your child requires
Different ages have different sleep requirements. As your child grows, they need less sleep for them to recharge their energy. By researching, you can establish how many hours your child needs to refresh entirely.
The standard hours according to age requirements are as follows:
- Two months and below- 9 to 18 hrs
- Two months to 1 year- 12 to 13 hrs
- One year to 3 years -11 to 13 hrs
- Three years to 5 years – 11.5 to 12 hrs
- Six to twelve years- 9-10 hrs
- 12 to 18 years-8.5-9.5 hrs
Mental or physical issues affecting your child’s sleep need proper addressing. Always provide a conducive condition for them to relax and feel safe before bed. Some sleep disorders will always need you to seek medical intervention.