About sleep, Zdrowie - Health
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About sleep
By Raising Children Network
There’s more to sleep than meets the eye, with deep sleep, active sleep and different sleep phases. Understanding sleep and sleep patterns is one starting point for helping your child develop healthy sleep habits and a positive attitude towards sleep.
did you know
Dreams or sleep cycles: one theory about why your most vivid dreams occur towards morning is that your brain cultivates them overnight ... another is that you simply remember more because it's closer to when you wake ... and that you're more likely to be woken mid-dream in a light sleep.
Why sleep?
Humans will spend about one-third of a lifetime asleep, yet science knows remarkably little about why we need to sleep, what happens when we sleep, or why we feel restored by a good sleep.
What we do know is that sleep deprivation has serious consequences and that sleep is necessary for the brain and body to develop. Undoubtedly, this is one of the reasons why very young children spend so much time sleeping.
Although sleep is thought of as a time to rest and recuperate, a lot of activity takes place in the body and the brain during sleep. For example, when it’s dark, our bodies produce extra
Bedtime battles can be less of a problem with a positive routine in the 20 minutes before tucking young children in for the night.
A positive routine involves your child in a series of pleasurable activities in the crucial 20-minute period before bedtime. It helps to soothe and calm your child, and ready her for sleep.
A positive routine goes hand-in-hand with any efforts to improve bedtime settling difficulties in babies, toddlers and preschool-aged children. A positive routine is almost always recommended when other behavioural strategies such as controlled comforting or camping out are used.
Most routines involve a mix of pre-bed tasks (bath, brushing teeth) and quiet, enjoyable activities (reading a story). The aim is to keep the atmosphere positive, using positive attention and praise.
A good bedtime routine smoothes the way for good night sleeping habits. Without a good routine, it can be hard for a baby to settle to sleep.
A routine can involve any number of activities. The key is that they are similar activities completed in roughly the same way each night.
Here is an example of a routine that can begin after dinner and a bath:
· breastfeed or bottle-feed (outside the bedroom)
· quiet play for 15-20 minutes (may include reading a book)
· into bedroom
· brief cuddle and kiss
· into bed.
At the end of the 20-minute ‘positive period’, say goodnight. This is the time to be firm if your child resists. Be clear that it's now time for sleep and leave the room promptly.
Making a start: choosing the best bedtime
You may have an ideal bedtime in mind – somewhere between 7 pm and 8 pm for young children. But, when you are dealing with settling problems, the best bedtime to start with is one closest to when your child naturally falls asleep. For example, if you find that she finally falls asleep around 9 pm, set this as a temporary bedtime. This increases the chance that the routine will become firmly associated with the onset of sleep.
Moving your child’s actual bedtime towards your ideal bedtime
The final step of the positive routine involves bringing your child’s bedtime forward. This begins a week after introducing the ‘positive period’ and involves bringing forward the time at which you start (by five to ten minutes each week) until your child reaches your ideal bedtime.
How long will it take?
The length of time required for the positive routine to work varies according to how quickly the ‘positive period’ can be successfully shortened each week. Typically, the ‘positive period’ needs to be shortened gradually rather than quickly and the routine takes a few weeks to be effective.
Research has found that a positive routine not only helps with settling problems, it can also lead to broad improvements in the quality of parent-child relationships generally.
Preschooler sleep: in a nutshell
By Raising Children Network
A preschooler’s rapidly expanding imagination can sometimes get in the way of a good night’s sleep. By listening to her fears and helping her overcome them, you can keep the bedtime monsters away.
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If you like your information 'in a nutshell', download our Preschoolers book which includes this and other essentials on children aged 3-5 years.
Children aged from three to five need around 11-13 hours of sleep a night. Some may also have a day nap of about an hour. for their health, growth and development. If your child sleeps well, she will be more settled and happy during the day. Getting the right amount of sleep also strengthens her immune system and reduces the risk of infection and illness.
Night terrors and nightmares
As your preschooler’s imagination takes flight, she may start having or . Night terrors tend to happen in the first few hours of sleep when your child is sleeping deeply; nightmares usually happen between midnight and 4 am.
Here are some tips for dealing with nightmares:
· Explain that she had a bad dream and reassure her. A kiss and a cuddle might help her settle again. If she wants to come into your bed, that’s fine. Once she is comforted, you may want to return her to her own bed so that she does not get into the habit of sleeping with you.
· If she has dreamed about monsters, you could try explaining that monsters are only make-believe and can’t really hurt her.
· If you notice a recurrent nightmare, explore what may be causing it. Gently ask her about encounters with other children, television shows or other daytime experiences. If you find the culprit, you can reduce her exposure to it.
Bedtime routine
Some children fall deeply asleep very quickly. Others sleep lightly, fidgeting and muttering for up to 20 minutes, before getting into deep sleep. As your preschooler becomes more aware of the world, she may find it harder to settle to sleep. A bedtime routine can help. Most preschoolers are ready for bed around 7 pm, especially if they've had a big day at preschool.
A bedtime routine might look something like this:
Time
Activity
6.30 pm
Brush teeth, go to toilet, night nappy if needed
6.45 pm
Quiet time (read a book or tell a story)
7 pm
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