When you’re concerned about the overall health and well-being of your children, this should go as far as ensuring they enjoy a good quality of sleep. Especially after all of the physical activity they go through during the daytime, it’s just but fitting to provide them with ample rest come nighttime. It’s through sleeping that your child’s body gets to rest and recharge, refreshing the cells for another day ahead. It’s also during this sleeping period that certain facets of development may occur.
Helping Your Child Have A Great Sleep
If your child has been suffering from poor quality of sleep lately, then you’ve got to take action. Remember that sleep quality isn’t just about closing their eyes and falling asleep. It’s also about how long it takes to put your child to sleep and how long they stay asleep without getting agitated, waking up, or, if they’re young toddlers, asking for a night feed.
Try these tips to help your child sleep better through the night:
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Use A Sobakawa Pillow
A Sobakawa pillow is great for children because it’s made of all-natural materials. When you want the best for your child and you’ve got options for things that are natural and organic, then go for those. Also known as buckwheat pillows, a Sobakawa pillow can help keep your young be cool and comfortable during sleep.
Here are good reasons why you should invest in a Sobakawa pillow for your child:
- It may address sleep apnea. If your child has been diagnosed with a snoring problem, then no questions asked—you’ve got to get them a buckwheat pillow. Sobakawa pillows may work to be effective with sleep apnea because the hulls in the pillow compress in such a way that the head is kept raised. When your head stays in that semi-raised position during sleep, your nasal passages are relieved from any blockage, which reduces the symptoms and onset of sleep apnea.
- It drives away allergies. If your child has been suffering from allergies characterized by regular sneezing even when at home, then you may want to check your child’s pillow and mattress. Usually, the pillow is the culprit as it absorbs dust. The material used to make Sobakawa pillows, buckwheat hulls, can reduce your chances of getting an allergy as it repels bugs. Air can flow through the pillow without retaining humidity, which becomes the perfect breeding ground for dust mites.
- It provides pain relief. Children can also twist and turn in their sleep at night when they’re uncomfortable. Or, when they stay in one position for too long, they may experience pain. The type of pillow your kids use can contribute to this sensation of pain. Kids are better off sleeping on a malleable pillow, one of the many is the Sobakawa pillow. This helps to ease whatever muscle stiffness your child may experience in their sleep, improving their overall sleep quality.
With that in mind, watching the following can help you learn more about the Sobakawa pillow.
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Establish A Bedtime Routine
Children are like sponges. They easily absorb whatever information, discipline, and training you instill in them when they’re younger. So, while your kids still listen to you and can absorb what you’re instilling, make the most of that season in their life to establish a bedtime routine.
Having a bedtime routine helps set your child’s circadian rhythm in place. This refers to the natural sleep-wake cycle of the body. When this is observed, it’s easier and faster for your children to fall asleep with little difficulty.
If you haven’t established a bedtime routine yet for your children, here’s how you can get started:
- Be consistent. This is key to creating the routine. Soon, your child will be naturally inclined to remember that it’s already bedtime. If the child is younger, then you’ve got to start the bedtime routine earlier, typically at 6:30 pm. This includes bath time, putting them in their pajamas, reading a bedtime story, and topping it off with a sweet, good night kiss.
- Keep the bedtime routine short. If it’s too long, then it’ll be hard for your child to grasp the concept of setting a routine. The bedtime routine you create will only become long when you incorporate bath time into it. On average, you’ll want to keep the bedtime routine at 20 minutes maximum.
- Offer choices to make them look forward to the bedtime routine. You can’t let your child pick what time they can go to sleep. This one’s on you. But you can give them some options in the following areas: give them a choice of which pajamas they’d like to wear for the night or what bedtime story they’d like to read.
- Let your kids cry a little. If it’s just a few minutes of crying as you put them to bed or in the middle of the night, that’s alright. You don’t have to pick your child up right away. A little crying is okay, so they’ll learn to soothe themselves back to sleep.
- Stop stimulating activities before bedtime. There are certain activities your child may have gotten used to doing at night that aren’t good for their sleeping routine. These are stimulating activities which, rather than put your children to sleep, keep them alert and awake. Avoid TV time or playing video games at least an hour before your set bedtime routine.
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Create A Sleep-Inducing Environment
Your child’s bedroom plays an important role as well to help improve their sleep. Take a look around the room to see if it’s contributing well enough to be a good, sleep-inducing environment for your child. If it isn’t, then you may want to change things up quite a bit.
It’s about setting the perfect stage for sleeping such that at night, the room itself helps the child fall asleep. Think Roman blinds or curtains to block out the light and have a whole lot of silence.
If you’re meaning to make changes in your child’s room today, you can start through the following:
- Create a tidy bedroom. This means after the afternoon playtime, your child should learn how to pack away their toys. The presence of toys around the bed or floor during your kids’ nighttime routine may only distract their focus and teach their minds to stay excited and active.
- Have a night light ready. Yes, you’ll want the room to be as dark as possible. But especially for younger children, total darkness can be scary and intimidating. Having a small night light can give your kids that sense of security, but not too bright so as to keep them awake for long before falling asleep.
- Put in some soothing scents. If you’re up for this, some parents swear by having essential oils. Using the right soothing scents such as lavender may help your kids (and even yourself) fall asleep better and faster.
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Practice Regular Sleeping And Waking Times
Whether you’ve got a school kid or not, it’s also a good idea to practice regular sleep and waking up times. Keep this consistent as much as possible with only a little room for distractions along the way.
Practicing regular sleep and waking times for your children is a good way to train their bodies. By doing so, your child’s body feels naturally inclined to doze off at a certain hour and wake up at a particular time as well.
The younger your child, the earlier the bedtime should be. But on average, keep your young children asleep by eight in the evening. This gives them ample time to complete the eight to ten-hour sleep requirement even if you may have an early riser.
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Help Drive Away Your Child’s Fears
Another factor that may be contributing to your child’s sleep difficulty is the fears they may be thinking of at night. As their parent, you’ve got a big role to play in helping drive away your child’s fears. It’s normal for children to have night fears like ghosts, bed monsters, and creepy crawlies, among many other things going through their minds.
So, if your child happens to bring these up with you, give them all the comfort and assurance you can that there’s no under-the-bed monster.
If there’s any toy or blanket, for instance, your child considers giving security, then use it as their ‘security’ object. Eventually, your child will be able to develop the emotional and mental aptitude on their own to dismiss those thoughts as they grow.
Most importantly, as a parent, the biggest role you’ve got to play is to be mindful of what your children are watching. The truth is there are many television programs and movies which may not be children-friendly. And if you don’t monitor what they’re watching, your child may have already been going through programs that aren’t suitable for them. These can contribute to the night fears they may be having, so avoid these as much as you can.
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Be Smart About Napping
Most children typically drop naps at around three to five years old. If your child is younger than that, then you won’t have to worry about napping as they’ll still need to sleep in the afternoon.
If your five-year-old still naps, however, you’ll want to limit it to at least half an hour. These are older children who may start primary school soon and are already able to stay focused until the afternoon. So, be smart about your older kids’ napping schedules.
Otherwise, if they nap for too long, they may find it hard to sleep at night simply because they lack the physical movement and activity during the daytime to warrant their body the rest it needs to recuperate at night.
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Have Knowledge About Sleep Disorders
Are you sure your children just have trouble falling asleep? Or do they have a possible sleep disorder that needs to be raised with their pediatrician? If you feel your child has the latter, then talk this out with your doctor. They may recommend a sleep consultant with you who can verify whether or not your doubts are correct.
Some of the most common signs of an impending sleep disorder in children are the following:
- Consistent difficulty in sleeping even if you’ve already tried all you can to help them sleep better;
- Night tremors or constant waking up at night;
- Snoring or breathing through the mouth when asleep.
Children aren’t exempted from sleep disorders. The earlier you diagnose these and have them treated, the higher the likelihood of these conditions being solved.
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Avoid Meals Two To Three Hours Before Bedtime
Kids’ dinner time has to be early. If your child sleeps at eight in the evening, as is recommended, then you’ve got to serve dinner as early as five in the afternoon.
Meals have to be avoided at least two to three hours before bedtime, and they should be given before you start your kids’ bedtime routine. Digestion of food, particularly those with sugar, can keep your kids up at night. So, along with keeping your kids’ dinner time early, you’ll also want to avoid sugary food at night.
Depending on how old your child is, most will still ask for milk before sleeping, so you don’t have to worry about their bedtime being too early. The night feed of a bottle or glass of milk is enough to keep them full until morning. Plus, especially if the milk is warm, this may help your child fall asleep faster.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many things you can do to train your child to have a better quality of sleep. When it comes to your children’s health, their sleep should always be a top priority, along with their nutrition. It’s during their sleep that children grow and develop; and given the active beings that they are, they need the rest to be refreshed for the next day. When your kids have trouble sleeping, then you can’t sleep, too. The tips above can help you put a stop to the dilemma, and you’d see your kids have better sleep.