We all know how great a full night’s sleep feels—and this is for your children as well. Your children’s sleep cycle is important for children’s overall well-being and is essential for their development and nutritional health. Good night’s sleep makes it easier for children to wake up feeling refreshed physically and mentally. The consistent and high-quality sleep cycle of your children helps children remain alert and concentrated during the day. They will improve their ability to focus, remember what they learn, solve problems, and enjoy daily physical activity. On the other hand, children who do not get enough sleep are likely to be moody, irritable, easily irritated, and more upset or sad over social interactions.
If bedtime is a struggle, or if your child has sleep-related problems, you’re not alone! The percentage of children with sleep problems ranges from 20% to 43%. Parents and other adult guardians play an important part in ensuring that children get sufficient sleep and build healthy sleeping habits. This guide provides information on your children’s regular sleep cycle of all ages, advice on improving good sleep patterns, and how to solve sleep-related problems.
Help your child to create a perfect sleep cycle of your children by following these basic steps now:
- Recognize the Signs That Your Baby Is Tired
Your baby is going to let you know if they need to sleep. Look out for these common signs of tiredness:
- Eye rubbing
- Yawning
- Looking away from you
- Fussing
Don’t wait until your kid is exhausted to get them to bed. An overtired child has further trouble falling and remaining asleep. Try to keep a step ahead by looking for signs that they will get sleepy until they’re fussy and cranky.
- Set Day-Night Sleep Cycle of your children
Starting when your child is 2 weeks old, try to teach them, “Nighttime is when we sleep, and daytime is when we have fun.”
Keep it stimulating and active for your baby during the daytime hours. Play a lot of them. Try to keep them awake after you feed them, but don’t worry if they’re going to have a nap.
Become a lower-key parent with your baby when it’s dark. Feed them in a semi-dark room. Cut all stimulation off. For, e.g., keep the lights low and the noise soft. Gradually, they’ll learn that daylight is a fun time and that nighttime isn’t, so they may as well sleep when it’s dark outside.
- Separate Eating From Sleeping
After the first month, you don’t want your baby to fall asleep while you’re feeding or rocking. So, you want them to find out how to put themselves to sleep.
They could eat a little, doze a little, then eat a few more a couple of times. When they feel sleepy while you’re feeding them, stop and put them to bed.
Some parents seek to push more formula, breast milk, or baby food to try to get a baby to sleep on time or to sleep longer. This isn’t safe for the sleep cycle of your children. Much as you did when you ate so much, your over-nourished kid won’t be comfortable enough to have a good rest.
Note: Never put a baby bottle in your baby’s mouth when you put it to bed. It could be leading to choking, ear infections, and cavities.
- Relax before bedtime
Encourage your child to rest before bedtime. Older children would prefer to wind down by reading a book, listening to soft music, or breathing for calming. If your child needs more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, your child can need a longer wind-down time before the lights are switched off to go to sleep.
- Do not wake your baby to eat after 2 months
If your kid is getting weight properly, you don’t have to wake them up for eating at night. Your kid needs to find their sleep cycle. When they feed more in the daytime, they don’t have to get up and eat at night.
Here are several instances where you can wake your child up:
- They sleep more in the day than at night, and their normal meal is incomplete.
- Don’t let them go without feeding for longer than 4 hours. You may need to wake the baby up to eat at night, so it’s much better to try to change your child’s daytime habits than to continue to wake them up every 4 hours at night.
- The pediatrician of your child will give you advice about your child. You may need to change the feed for premature or special-needed babies.
- Keep older children’s nap early and short
Many children stop napping at 3-5 years of age. If your child is more than five years of age and still sleeping during the day, try to keep the nap no longer than 20 minutes and no later than early afternoon. Longer and a later nap will make it difficult for children to get to sleep at night.
- Check noise and light in your child’s bedroom
It is important to have a quiet, dimly lit room for your children’s good sleep cycle. Check if your child’s bedroom is too light or too noisy for sleep. Blue light from televisions, computer screens, phones, and tablets can reduce melatonin levels and delay sleepiness. Blue light from electronics will keep children from sleeping, so it is best to switch off all televisions, laptops, or other electrical devices at least 90 minutes before bedtime. Use lamps or night lights instead of overhead lights.
- Make sure that your child feels safe at night
Whether your child is afraid of going to bed or being in the dark, you should encourage and reward your child whenever they are brave. Avoiding scary TV shows, movies, and video games can help, too. Many children with sleep-time fears feel better when they have night-light.
The Bottom Line
After the age of four, parents have to teach their children how to sleep. This means taking them back to bed when they wake up at the wrong time and helping to soothe their fear after a bad dream. Don’t despair if you need to use bribes at this age. It’s just a phase, and you’re all going to make it through soon enough.
And if you’re confused, speak to your pediatrician or call a sleep specialist to help you develop your children’s sleep cycle that you can stick to. You don’t need a major issue to see a sleep specialist. Sometimes making an expert weigh-in to help determine why a child wakes up will help you relax and sleep better.
