A number of recent studies have looked at sleep behaviours and routines in both adults and children and throughout the investigations one thing has been highlighted as singularly important, and that is, routine.
Adults have a short pre bed routine which they complete regardless of where they are, at home, away on holiday or on a business trip. We all have a short pre bed routine which cue's our individual body clocks. This is our reminder to ourselves that it is time to sleep, time to rest and renew so that we can face the coming day. Adults can rationalise their behaviour, children are at the mercy of their parents.
We are our children's teachers and teaching children the cues to help them sleep and rest at appropriate times is one of life's important lessons. Children learn very early in life to expect certain things to follow from parents actions. Routine is part of a child's security in the environment and helps the processes of learning about the world and one's place in it. Children associate certain actions with outcomes and as they grow and gain awareness they find reassurance in the stability of home through the routines learned there. This makes the pre bed routine particularly important because if it is a good routine it encourages sound sleep. All is well with the world.
Children who have no regular pre bed routine are slower to relax into sleep and often wake regularly in the night. Sleep deficit in a child makes for confrontational behaviour, poor concentration and increased irritability. Some children who have had a long history of sleep deficit are even occasionally misdiagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Yet, once a simple pre bed routine is introduced and maintained, all the irritations of living with a sleep deprived child dissappear and an altogether much more social and pleasant being emerges.
The greatest difficulty for adults seems to be the introduction and maintenance of such a routine. This is why it is so much easier to start building a routine with a young child, even at 3-4 months children can recognise the difference between night and day, which makes this is a very good time to start a pre bed routine.
If you have a child who has a sleep deficit contact Dream-Angus we can help you resolve the issues and improve your child's sleep.
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