Adequate sleep is important for the overall development of children. However, researchers have documented that more and more children are not getting enough sleep. Sleep-deprived children are more are cranky and irritable throughout the day and are more prone to accidents. They are also deprived of sleep-related long-term memory consolidation which might adversely affect their learning. Researchers have found that sleep routine and environment have a lot to do with good sleep in children. Therefore in this article, we bring to you scientifically proven and expert-recommended healthy sleep habits so that your child can sleep well. These are also termed as sleep hygiene.
Healthy sleep habits for your children
1. Establish a bedtime routine:
What is a Bedtime routine?
What do you and your child do as you go to bed?
Do you do something daily or on most of the days? That is your child’s bedtime routine! Bedtime routines are nothing but a set of activities that you and your child perform before going to bed.
There could be various types of bedtime routines that parents may adopt. Most commonly followed bedtime routine includes a routine related feeding (e.g., feeding, healthy snack), hygiene-related(e.g., bathing, brushing teeth), communication-based (e.g., reading, singing/lullabies, praying), and physical contact (e.g., massage, cuddling/rocking,).
What are the benefits of a bedtime routine?
Research has shown that following a healthy bedtime routine is associated with an early bedtime, quicker onset of sleep, longer sleep duration, decreased nighttime waking, and overall better sleep quality. It is also shown that the more the number of nights your child follows the consistent bedtime routine, the more sleep benefits your child gets. That means it is quite necessary to make a good bedtime routine and follow it every night. Apart from sleep-related benefits bedtime routine is associated with outer benefits related to the activity chosen. For example, brushing your teeth before bedtime helps keep your teeth healthy. Interactive activities like storytelling or your child sharing what happened at school could boost imagination, improve parent-child bonding and pose an opportunity to teach emotional skills. Praying at bedtime could be a great way to practice gratitude which may hold the key to happiness for your child.
What are the characteristics of a good bedtime routine?
A good bedtime routine should have the following qualities:
1. Should be adaptive:
That means it should allow a child to cool down from an active daytime routine to a lesser activity level sleep-mood. Watching television or playing with electronic gadgets keeps them hooked and hampers such a transition. Also, high activity or excitement games also don’t allow such transition to happen. These are called maladaptive sleep routines and should be avoided.
2. Should not get ‘addicted’ to it:
Nursing to bed, bottle-feeding before sleep, and rocking to sleep is some sleep association forming routines. Over time your baby may get so used to it that it may be difficult for your baby to go to sleep without it. This, in the long run, can cause distress to your kid.
3. Should be interactive:
Interactive routines like conversations, storytelling, praying, etc are a very important part of a healthy sleep routine. Apart from the sleep-related benefits, they also have other advantages like enhancing parent-child bonding.
What would be an ideal sleep routine for my child?
An ideal sleep routine should include provision for nutrition, hygiene, and communication which will help your child’s overall health and development apart from having a good sleep.
1) Offer healthy snacks like fruits or a glass of milk.
2) Brushing the teeth is a good hygiene-related component.
3) Storytelling or praying could be a good interactive or communication-based component.
Some of the activities that may have a high association may include nursing to sleep, bottle-feeding before sleep, or rocking to sleep. These may be acceptable in infants below 6 months but as the baby grows to try to transit to other less habit-forming sleep routines.
2. Maintain a Sleep Schedule:
Maintaining a normal sleep schedule helps in maintaining the circadian rhythm (biological rhythm) and helps your child sleep well. You should maintain a particular sleep and wake up time and experts recommend that it should be the same during weekends too.
3. Maintain a healthy sleep environment:
Remove the clutter:
A bedroom without clutter is what works best for a child’s sound sleep. Don’t keep the child’s toys and picture books in the bedroom. Your child may want to play with some toys stored in the bedroom and may refuse to go to bed. We have also discussed that any exciting activity is not good before going to bed. Keep only the teddy that your child wants to hug as she/he goes to sleep or the storybook that you are going to read to them.
Keep it Cool!
You should keep the room temperature of the bedroom cool and comfortable. A temperature around 65-68F ( 18 -20C) is ideal. However comfort level may differ depending on where you live. In a warmer climate, you may want to keep the windows open to allow fresh air 5n or use a fan to keep the air circulating. You may also use air coolers or air conditioners. In cooler temperatures, you may need room heaters or central home warming.
Dark is Best
It is best to go for dim lights at least sometime before bedtime and make it totally dark as your child goes to sleep. This allows for melatonin (a sleep hormone) secretion by the pineal gland. However, if your child doesn’t like it or is scared of the dark, you may keep the dim light or lamps on.
Curb Noise Nuisance
A noisy room is not conducive to your child’s sleep. Your bedroom may have a source of noise as such. But be mindful of noise coming from other parts of your house. It may be that your TV in the living room is too loud or people are talking and laughing at the dining table. If you live in a noisy neighborhood that the traffic noise or you have noisy neighbors, it may disturb your child’s sleep. Keeping windows or doors closed might help.
Get Rid of Gadgets
Keep all electronic gadgets out of their/your bedroom. Watching TV or playing with mobile before sleep is never a good idea. The light coming from the screen keeps the brain active and stops it from going into sleep mode. Also blinking light of a phone or the ring of the call or messages may disturb your child’s sleep. A bedroom should be a no-media zone as per your family media plan.
So, what does your child’s sleep routine involve? Let us know in the comments below. Also, don’t forget to share if you liked this article.
Leave a Reply