Best Way to Help a Child Sleep

Isn’t sleep wonderful?! Your child may be exhausted at the end of the day, with aching muscles and drooping eyelids, but you know she will wake up fully refreshed after she’s had a good night’s sleep. Sleep is a way to replace lost energy, a way to recharge her batteries. Yet nobody knows exactly why people need sleep. Scientists have proved the following:

• Physical changes take place during sleep. For instance, a child’s pupils become very small; the rate at which saliva, digestive juices, and urine are secreted drops sharply; the volume of air breathed diminishes; heart rate slows; electrical brain waves change their patterns; and consciousness is lost.

• Sleep is essential for physical and mental health. A child who does not get regular sleep at night will become irritable and depressed, difficult to manage, and will not be able to con­centrate in school. She may also lose her appetite, start to lose weight, and eventually become ill.
• Nobody can go without sleep indefinitely.

A new baby

• sleeps up to 80 percent of the day;
• takes seven or eight naps every twenty-four hours;
• dreams during 50 percent of sleep time;
• sleeps anywhere and at any time;
• drifts imperceptibly in and out of sleep;
• has her own individual sleep patterns. Some babies simply don’t need as much sleep as others.

As your child grows older, she will develop a more pre­dictable sleeping routine, although not every child has settled sleep during the night. In fact, night waking—defined as waking up one or more times during the night, at least four nights a week—is the most common problem reported by parents when their baby is between the ages of twelve and eighteen months.

More than 20 percent of one-year-olds wake up four or more nights each week; at eighteen months, 17 percent wake that frequently. Encouragingly, the rate of night waking then begins to decline, although at four years 10 percent of children are still reported by their parents as waking regularly each night. In addition, at each age, about 10 percent of children wake two or three nights a week.

You can help your child have untroubled sleep, by using strategies involving the following:

• Comfort. An uncomfortable child will not sleep, even though she’s tired. Make sure your child isn’t hungry, thirsty, sick, in pain, cold, or too hot.
• Contentment. Your child won’t fall asleep unless she feels loved and secure. Soothing cuddles before bedtime relax her; reading a short story to her will also have a settling effect.
• Routine. Your child is more likely to sleep well when she fol­lows a predictable routine each evening—for example, undressing, followed by bath time, followed by story time, followed by lights out.
• Security. Your child may be unable to get to sleep in the dark. A night-light can be useful—once your child falls asleep, you can turn the light off.
• Following are some thing you should try to avoid:
• Naps. Cut out unnecessary naps during the day. Most chil­dren older than three or four should play quietly when tired in the afternoon, rather than take a daytime nap.
• Background noises. Your child may be disturbed by outside noises, such as heavy traffic, barking dogs, noisy neighbors. Eliminate these sounds where possible, and reassure your child they aren’t harmful.
• Unhappiness. A troubled child won’t get to sleep easily. Worries that keep children awake include arguments with friends, fights between parents, and anxiety about starting playgroup or school. Ask your child what worries her.
• Bear in mind that each child is an individual, and that some children need less sleep than others. These individual differ­ences are normal, and should not be a cause for concern. Here are some common concerns:
• My child doesn’t get enough sleep. If your child isn’t irrita­ble and tired during the day, then she probably does get enough sleep. What matters is that your child’s bedtime and sleep routines should be consistent, and that she should feel refreshed when she wakes up in the morning.
• My child wakes up too early. Some children are early risers. The only difficulty with this is when your child makes a lot of noise and wakes up everyone else, too. Make sure your child has plenty of toys, games, and books near her bed so that she can play with them (quietly) until the rest of the household stirs.

• My child likes to sleep late. Again, this is a normal pattern in many children. There is nothing to worry about unless your child sleeps late because she has gone to bed too late the night before. As children grow older, they learn to appreciate the benefits of sleeping late, and previous pat­terns of early rising may disappear.
• My child likes to sleep with us in our bed. This is a matter of personal preference—some parents specifically encour­age this behavior, and don’t expect a young child to sleep in her own bed. If you want to change this habit, do it very gradually, encouraging your child to spend an increasing amount of time in her own bed before coming into yours.

Ensure that you get enough sleep, too, during these critical early years.