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Is bedtime stressful around your house? Having a bedtime routine can certainly make it easier for you and your little one who has graduated to a "big bed". Here's a great article on bedtime routines:
Does your child need a bedtime routine?
Do you struggle to get your child to bed at night? We sure did with our daughter. She would refuse to go to sleep in her bed and wanted to hang out with us until we were ready for bed and of course then she would want to sleep in Mama’s and Daddy’s bed.
That all changed when we finally sat down and established a bedtime routine. It helped our daughter establish healthy sleeping habits and got us back into ours. On top of it, we now have a little time to ourselves at night.
Maybe you have heard on TV or read in a parenting magazine that your child needs a bedtime routine. Or you are just plain tired of having to run to her room 20 times before she finally dozes off. For whatever reason you decided it’s time to start setting up a bedtime routine. Where do you go from here? Obviously you are not going to change your child’s habits from one day to the next. Consistency is going to be key, which is why we started by drawing up a basic little plan.
Take out a pen and a piece of paper and jot down the following:
How much sleep does your child need What time does he/ she need to get up in the morning
What are his/her favorite calm activities (reading a book, taking a bath, cuddling with you, talking about your day, going for a stroll through the yard, putting on pj’s)
From this list, come up with an action plan. Figure out when you need to put your child to bed to make sure she gets enough sleep. This will be your final goal. What time does she go to bed now? Plan on moving her bedtime back about 30 minutes every few days to give her some time to adjust in between.
Pick a few of her favorite calm activities and spend about 30 to 40 minutes on those while also getting her in her pj’s, teeth brushed and off to bed.
Expect some initial resistance to the new routine. Kids can be pretty creative when it comes to excuses why they can’t possibly go to sleep just yet. My little sister once insisted that her doll just had to blow her nose. Try to anticipate those excuses and last minute requests and make them part of the bedtime routine. If you know your child is going to ask for a sip of water, keep a glass on her night table. Make other requests part of your bedtime routine. If she usually asks to say goodnight to the family pet, have her do that before you put her in her PJ’s and tuck her in.
Another good tip is to give her choices in the routine. It is usually best to limit those choices to 2 or 3. Ask her if she would like to take a bath or a shower, if she wants Mom or Dad to tuck her in, if she wants you to read “Goodnight Moon” or “The hungry little caterpillar”. Let her pick the red or yellow pj’s. Only give her options that you can live with. That way you both win. She feels like she is having some control over her life and you get her to do what needs done.
Above all stay calm and patient. Getting to sleep is a hard task to master for a child. She needs your help to establish healthy sleeping patters. If she keeps getting up for the next few nights, put her gently but firmly back to bed and tell her that it is time to sleep. Offer to come back and check on her in a few minutes and follow through. It will make her feel more secure and chances are she’ll be sound asleep by the time you walk back in there.
Susanne Myers is the founder of www.kinderinfo.com, the one-stop online children's resource center. Here you will find all kinds of answers to help you with your family, including information on child care options and locations, educational resources, sports and recreation, home-based activities, party and event planning, even quick and easy recipes. We seek to answer all kid-related questions!
(3-5 years) Preschoolers typically sleep 11-13 hours each night and most do not nap after five years of age. As with toddlers, difficulty falling asleep and waking up during the night are common. With further development of imagination, preschoolers commonly experience nighttime fears and nightmares. In addition, sleepwalking and sleep terrors peak during preschool years. Sleep Tips for Preschoolers: • Maintain a regular and consistent sleep schedule.
Children aged five to 12 need 10-11 hours of sleep. At the same time, there is an increasing demand on their time from school (e.g., homework), sports and other extracurricular and social activities. In addition, school aged children become more interested in TV, computers, the media and Internet as well as caffeine products – all of which can lead to difficulty falling asleep, nightmares and disruptions to their sleep. In particular, watching TV close to bedtime has been associated with bedtime resistance, difficulty falling asleep, anxiety around sleep and sleeping fewer hours. Sleep problems and disorders are prevalent at this age. Poor or inadequate sleep can lead to mood swings, behavioral problems such as hyperactivity and cognitive problems that impact on their ability to learn in school. Sleep Tips for School-aged Children • Teach school-aged children about healthy sleep habits.
Is It Possible to Reduce Your Sleep by 3 Hours, and Have More Energy in Your Life than When You Slept 8 Hours or Longer? What Would It Be Like to Have 27 Hours in Your Day Instead of 24? There’s actually a method to optimize your body’s inner sleep system to sleep less, and have more energy in your life than when you slept LONGER. Sleep expert Kacper Postawski spills the beans in his fascinating new ebook “Powerful Sleep.” While most people think sleep is just “sleep,” it is actually a complex and fascinating system which you can OPTIMIZE in order to sleep less, and create an abundance of energy in your life. In this fascinating new eBook, Kacper Postawski shares with you: * The four most important elements which your inner sleep clock relies on to determine when to sleep, how long you sleep, and how energizing your sleep is. Discovering these principles will allow you to gain a firm understanding of how to gain control over your sleep and daily energy level. * How to optimize your Inner Sleep Clock so that it's possible for you to reduce your sleep by up to 3 hours, and increase the quality, and power of your sleep (If you don't do this, you will do more damage to your body than good by sleeping less.) * What really happens to your body while you sleep? While most people think sleep is just "sleep", your body is busier when you're sleeping than when you're awake. The inner sleep system is a complex mechanism which is affected by many things you do on a daily basis. (Most of them you're not aware of). This is a key understanding to optimizing your sleep. “Powerful Sleep - Secrets of the Inner Sleep Clock” can show you how to reduce your sleep by up to 3 hours, create more time, and an abundance of energy in your body by sleeping LESS! Not more. This system dispels the “8 hour sleep myth”, tells you what most people never realize about sleep, and what the drug companies DONT WANT YOU to know. Go to: www.PowerfulSleep.com to find out more about Powerful Sleep Aids. Get your free copy of Optimum Health Lifetime Sleep Cycles with sleep aid tips for all ages and a Bonus Section on how to prevent kids sleep problems as well. Back to Top of page ================================================= The self help sleep aid tips and sleep disorder contents are solely the opinion of the author and should not be considered as a form of therapy, advice, direction and/or diagnosis or treatment of any kind: medical, spiritual, mental or other. If expert advice or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought. The author and the Publisher assume no responsibility or liability and specifically disclaim any warranty, express or implied for any self help sleep aid and sleep disorder products or sleep aid and sleep disorder services mentioned, or any sleep aid and sleep disorder techniques or practices described. The purchaser or reader of this self help personal development publication assumes responsibility for the use of these self help sleep aid and sleep disorder materials and self help sleep aid and sleep disorder articles and information. Neither the self help sleep aid and sleep disorder author nor the self help Publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these self help sleep aid and sleep disorder materials. Description of site contents: This site contains self help natural sleep aids and sleep disorder resources, free e-books and articles listed for your convenient self help sleep aid and sleep disorder search in the self help sleep aids and sleep disorder subjects of: Sleep aid tips sleep disorder symptoms sleep quotes, sleep innovation articles about sleep apnea symptom and adult bed wetting for kid sleep tips and insomnia treatments including cause of snoring and home remedy snoring cure. Better sleeping guide for pregnancy insomnia and teen sleep, insomnia cures, insomnia symptoms and talking in sleep natural sleep remedy recipes for herbal pillow and how to interpret dreams, use sleep mask for insomnia cure. teen sleep, insomnia cures, insomnia symptoms, talking in sleep, sleep remedy, herbal pillow, interpret dreams, sleep mask, insomnia cure, bed wetting, sleep talking, sleep walking, natural sleep aid tips and sleep aids sleep studies and sleep aids articles and resources. | |