Sleep is essential for everyone, and talking about kids acts as a vaccine and allows them to fight off many illnesses and promote well-being physically and mentally. It doesn’t mean that they need a specific time for sleeping, but they should fall asleep quickly, stay asleep all night, and be refreshed after waking up to learn and make various healthy choices all day.
Before going ahead, let’s see how much sleep does your kid need:
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Newborn zero to three months:
They should sleep approx 10 to 18 hours every day. But they are never seen to have a regular schedule, and they sleep for a few minutes to many hours at a time.
Babies of four to eleven months:
They should sleep between nine to twelve hours at a time. They can also take naps all day for 30 minutes and can go up to two hours.
Toddlers for one to two years:
They do require eleven to fourteen hours every day. Most of them like to sleep all night, and they want to take a few naps during the daytime.
Children three to five years:
They should sleep for about eleven to thirteen hours every night. Naps they took are shorter and can happen less often. Many kids never take naps after five years of age.
Kids of six to thirteen years:
They do need tight sleep of nine to eleven hours. Electronic devices and homework keep these kids busy at that age, so it is essential to have a strict schedule and enforce a routine for bedtime.
Teenagers above fourteen years:
The circadian rhythms for them shift around the time they hit puberty and find issues for falling asleep early.
Habits to help your kids to sleep better:
Keep Moving:
Exercise all day long will help your children sleep better. Playing sports and running around is great, and they can be active in other ways too. Go to the park, get them moving, escort them out of the house. Experts recommend at least sixty minutes of continuous moving all day long for kids.
Build their regular bedtime routine:
Kids should be used to a relaxing routine for the night so that their bodies and brains know that it’s the time for going to bed. Keep them from being too excited or active during the time. Remember to be consistent even on the weekends. Allowing them to wake up late at night and then sleep on their weekday schedule is quite hard. Bring them funky kids pyjamas so that they are always excited to dress up and sleep. It’s ok to go to bed for 30 minutes sooner or later or sleeping for an extra hour but do not encourage more than that.
Ban electronics entering your bedroom:
It is often recommended to keep trends and kids off the telephone. The screen light exposure can cause many sleep troubles and will keep them distracted too. Please do not allow them to take the electronics to their bed, and explain the side effects of exposing themselves to too much screen exposure can be an issue for them in the future.
Keep caffeine away:
Energy drinks, coffee beverages, and soda can keep your kids from staying or falling asleep. Even if they like to drink them much before their sleeping hours, don’t allow them. Many experts even recommend that kids shouldn’t be allowed to drink caffeine at all, and for adults, it should be limited. Also, do look for chocolate before going to bed as they too are caffeine.
Keep it cool:
Kids’ sleep cycle is dependent on light or dark and is even sensitive to temperature. Their Melatonin levels help in regulating the dropping of internal body temperature required to sleep. You can also help in controlling the external temperature. Never bundle or pack them too much.
Never encourage afternoon naps:
Although they may allow you to sleep short-term or take naps, making it harder to fall asleep at night. They can also break up your sleeping time, making the quality of sleep lower and bringing fewer benefits. In case this is a habit, make them busy to quit taking naps at least for a week to break the pattern in the future.
Kids need to sleep better, be active all day, and perform all their activities with the same zeal.
