Not really a surprise.

A recent study of 8,000 children, published in a suppliment of the Journal of sleep and presented last week at a Professional Sleep Societies Conference, found that children with a regular bedtime perform better in a range of developmental measures.

Researchers found getting adequate sleep – at least 11 hours a night – was an important factor in four-year-olds’ development in the use of language, literacy and early maths ability, and a consistent bedtime resulted in the highest outcomes.

If you need help to improve your child's sleep, Contact Dream-Angus.com

Preventing Sleep Problems

In infants as young as two months, a definate sleep wake cycle has been demonstrated. Traditionally it is expected that from about three months of life, infants have a recognisable sleep wake pattern. How can parents help infants to develop an understanding of a good sleep pattern?

Babies learn to tell night from day when they are offered naps in normal ambient daylight with normal household noise. Your infant has listened to your breathing, heartbeat and digestion during their time in the womb. To suddenly have a silent world is strange and worrying. Background noise helps make sudden loud noise less upsetting. Don't close the curtains and darken the room at nap times.

Decide when you want your child to go to bed and when is a good time to wake up. Most families work on a 7am-7pm sleep wake cycle but there is nothing wrong with an 8am to 8pm pattern. Your child will live in your home in your lifestyle. Choose the times that best suit that lifestyle and develop recognisable routines so that your child can learn to anticipate what happens next. This makes the child secure and confident.

Young children have a very small window when they will settle to sleep quickly. Miss this opportunity and settling is a prolonged and difficult process. Learn to recognise your child's sleepy signals and to settle your child quickly.

Your routine before bed should consist of three things which you could do anywhere on the planet. These should be completed in the same order at the same time every night. Children learn by demonstration and repetition. This routine should not be longer than 30 minutes. Your child will quickly learn the order of this routine and know what is expected of them once it is completed.

Put your child down to sleep when they are calm and drowsy. If your child learns to settle by themselves you won't need to spend a lot of time with them to get them to go to sleep.

If you need help and support to teach your child to settle or stay asleep,
Contact Dream-Angus.com

Believing you can sleep

Many children believe that they cannot sleep unless their parents do specific things to help them relax and settle to sleep. These things which may include being rocked to sleep, being held with ot without added movement, being fed have become part of the child's touchstones, because they have never learned to fall asleep without them.

Every child can learn to go to sleep by themselves. As parents this is one of the most valuable lessons we can teach them.

Children's sleep is not a quiet still loss of awareness of the world. Children can be very noisy in sleep, babbling to themselves, moving round in their bed or crib. They also experience lighter and deeper sleep. As adults when our sleep is lighter, we may alter our position in the bed, become aware that we could wake up, but realise that it is too early, and return to sleep. For children who have developed the need to have mum or dad hold them, or be present, this lighter sleep can result in waking and not returning to sleep, because the association that they have developed, requires the presence of a parent to ensure a return to sleep.

Children who have developed associations and cannot sleep without them need to unlearn these bad habits so that they can settle by themselves. It is very important however, that one association is not replaced by another as this is not a solution.

Any alteration in behaviour needs to be consistent and repeated many times before it becomes accepted as a normal part of life. Following a sleep plan requires repetition for at least ten days before it can be reviewed and evaluated. Most behaviours, in healthy children can be resolved within four to six weeks. Children with specific health needs may require a prolonged repetition of a few months before any progress is made.

If you need help to alter your child's sleep associations contact Dream-Angus.com

Did you know?

Here are a few things you may not have known about sleep.

1) Your body's internal alarm enables you to wake up spontaneously at the time that you feel is right for you, is triggered by the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. The levels of this hormone may occasionally rise an hour or two before an expected wake up call to prepare your body for waking up. Sometimes this works "too efficiently" and you wake half and hour or an hour before the time you had in mind.

2) In a study, completed over six years, and looking at a million adults, it was demonstrated that people who get only six to seven hours of sleep a night have a lower death rate than those who get eight hours.

3) The Spanish, possibly because of their "Siesta" in the afternoon,sleep an average of 40 minutes less per night than other Europeans. This is balanced by the fact that Spain also has the highest rate of workplace accidents in the EU, and the third lowest productivity rate. In a gesture to integrate Spain into the EU a campaing was launched to eliminate these afternoon naps/siestas.

4) Oxford University researchers, in 2002,unsurprisingly concluded, that the traditional practice of counting sheep is an ineffective cure for insomnia. This mental activity is so boring that other problems and concerns inevitably surface.

5) During REM sleep, every 90 minutes or so, there are bursts of electrical activity through the brain stem. These are related to dreaming. During an average lifetime, the ordinary person spends more than six years dreaming, clocking more than 136,000 dreams in all. The reasons why we dream have been speculated on for many years, but no one has yet identified the reasons for dreaming.

Separation Anxiety in Childhood

Many mothers believe that their child has anxiety about being separated from their parent or parents. It is normal for children of 8-10 months to be visibly concerned about leaving parents or carers. Current research tells us that 90% of 10-month-old infants will become upset if a stranger approaches them in an unfamiliar room. Only 50% will become upset if the child is given time (10 minutes) to become familiar with the room. This suggests that, in new situations, infants cope better if they come across new things gradually.

Small children cope better when adults take time to allow the child to get to know them first. Seating a child of a few months on mum or dad's knee, facing a new adult and allowing the child to observe the interaction between the adults first, can help the child become more confident in the new adult and then interaction between the other adult and child is more acceptable. The infant will still look for mum or dad's reaction to their interaction with the visitor and will probably only accept a short interval of direct contact without seeking a return to mum or dad. This is entirely normal.

Separation Anxiety peaks at between 14-18 months and decreases through childhood. Children need to socialise and they need the security of knowing that their parents are there for them. Offering a series of short separations over time will help a child cope with being away from mum and dad.

Allergic or Intolerant?

Many people mistakenly think that they, or their children, are allergic to a particular food substance. A recent report commissioned in the USA, found the field of diagnosis of food allergies is rife with poorly done studies, misdiagnoses and tests whose results are misleading.

So how do you know you have an allergy? True allergies can be demonstrated in a rise of Immunoglobin E antibodies. That said, there are many people with Immunoglobulin E antibodies who do not react to the foods that this suggests. Allergies affect the immune system. Even people who have had genuine food allergies as children, may not have them as adults. Sometimes people develop allergies for unknown reasons. One of the most effective ways of deciding whether there is a food allergy or not, is by using a "food challenge". This involves giving some one a suspect food disguised so that they do not recognise it, or a placebo food. In practice most doctors believe this to be time consuming, and in the case of peanuts for example, there is the possiblity of a frightening response.

For this report Dr. Reidl and his colleagues reviewed all the papers they could find on food allergies published between January 1988 and September 2009, more than 12,000 articles. In the end only 72 articles met their criteria which included having sufficient data for analysis and using rigorous tests for allergic responses.

Intolerances such as Lactose Intolerance, is due to the lack of sufficient enzymes in the body, to digest the sugar in milk. Sulfites in wine, can cause headaches for some, and this is again an Intolerance not an allergy.

During development, the immune system tends to react to certain food proteins, and can produce IgE antibodies, but these antibodies can be transient or inconsequential. By themselves pinprick tests and antibody tests are not sufficient to demonstrate food allergy. The people involved in this study hope that their report will lead to further research and clarify both the definition of, and testing for, food allergies.

Sleep and the Autistic child

The rate of sleep disturbance and sleep disorders is notably higher in children who have other health or developmental disorders. Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders and Autism have particular difficulties in sensory processing. These can be general or specific to that child. There are ways to assist children affected by these difficulties to improve their sleep pattern and thus improve the whole families sleep.

Patterns and routines are even more important as they cue the child to expect the next consequence or next event. Having a good, simple, regular routine is comforting to a child. Other sensory assistance in getting the child to be calm and ready to sleep can be successfully used in different formats, different intensities and variations to meet the child's sensory needs.

Using "heavy work" concentrates the child's energy and calms. Pushing a weighted basket round an obstacle course can be fun. The basket should be heavy and require effort but not so heavy as to strain the child pushing it. Playing wheelbarrow games where the child is the wheelbarrow may also be helpful. Again, this requires concentration of effort.

Some children benefit from the use of a weighted blanket. There are a variety of manufacturers who produce these. The blanket may be weighted with a variety of fillings. Ideally the weight of the blanket should be about 2.2Kgs heavier than the child. Tucking a child in a weighted blanket offers firm pressure over the body and for some children this is very comforting. It can feel a little like being swaddled, held comfortably without the need for someone to do the holding.

Using white noise in the bedroom can help some children because it blocks other noise and reduces distraction. For some children the same techniques which help children settle to sleep and remain asleep are every bit as effective for children affected by Autism and Autistic spectrum disorders. It simply requires more repetition before the child can relax and settle into the routine.

Every child is different. What works for one child may be less effective for another and it can take a while trying and repeating things to identify the most effective routine and resource for your child.

If you would like help with your child's sleep, Contact Dream-Angus.com