Being a busy mother of four children if I were given a choice between winning the lottery or a good night sleep, a good night of undisturbed sleep will always be my first choice with no regrets. YES, I am desperate.
I always joke around saying that I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in the last nine years. You say a bit of exaggeration on my part, but hand on heart I can truthfully say that I wake up every night even for a moment to do a quick check on my children. Now of course with a four month old at home I am on a strict sleep schedule, on a good night I might be able to squeeze out a four hour undisturbed sleep before I face my hectic day.
With my children, it’s a different story. On weekends, where I am quite lax with bedtimes they will fight their hardest to keep their little eyes open watching the late night T.V shows. They turn up their noses at afternoon naps. Dinner is had at seven, only for me to spend another grueling two hours of trying to put them to bed. I believe they would more happily get their monthly shots than succumb to an early night of rest.
So as life with little sleep continued I found that the older two were infact getting less sleep, which is a much needed for growing children. I could see their mood swings, grumpiness, lethargy and general noncompliance was all a result of sleep deprivation. So out with the midnight feasts, however fun they were, my children needed sleep!
Typically children between the ages of 5 and 12 should get at least 10 to 11 hours of shut-eye according to the experts. So if kids are to be up say around 7 am, they have to be in bed by at least 7.30 or 8pm in the night. If they do not get the adequate, undisturbed sleep recommended they plod on through their busy day of school and activities only to be half awake. A tired mind does not compute lessons learnt in class and their studies suffer.
Feeling constantly exhausted their tempers are short and this becomes a vicious cycle where you are perpetually at battle with them to accomplish even the littlest of things. Inadequate sleep patterns also tend to stunt children’s growth. It also affects their immunity, since they have not had the adequate rest needed for their growing bodies.
I know most mother’s will moan and groan about the their numerous futile attempts at trying to get their children to sleep at a reasonable hour, it’s not easy without eventually screaming at the top of your lungs’ GET TO BED!’. But here are more reasonable ways of accomplishing the not so impossible:
Make sure your kids are in bed at a certain time each night this helps their bodies to get into a routine.
Do not allow any rough play or having visitors over just before your kids have to head to bed. These are all exciting activities and no child will be able to sit still in bed, instead do some calming things like take a hot bath, read a book etc
Limit foods that have caffeine in them such as sodas, these tend to act more like stimulants and will perk up the already tired child.
Make sure videos game and T.Vs in children’s rooms are switched off, do not allow your child to play one last game or watch one last show, there will never be a last and it will continue until you put an aggressive stop to it.
Make sure your child uses their bed only for sleep and not doing homework, playing games, talking on the phone. In this they train their bodies that when they are in bed they only sleep.
Sleep deprivation in a child is a serious issue and one that snowball into a crisis if not recognized and treated immediately. It’s just a simple solution of making sure your child gets the adequate sleep required at that age. When they get a good night sleep, so do you and we are all more enjoyable people to live with in the end. GOOD NIGHT!
By Mayuri Jayasinghe
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