Consistency - get your kids to sleep longer
A pivotal moment of being a parent is the first few nights of sleeplessness after bringing your newborn home. The lack of sleep, fatigue, emotional breakdowns and increased anxiety are a challenge for a lot of us. Studies show that is also impacts on mental health. Once it goes beyond the first year of your child’s life, it becomes a massive annoyance. As a parent, we’ve all been here and struggled with getting our kids to sleep. Even if you had a good routine at the beginning, sleep regressions every few months come along and throw all your plans up in the air.
I have two kids who had completely different sleep problems. Theo, my first struggled sleeping from the get go and I used to roll my eyes whenever I got that question “Is he sleeping through the night?”. He slept through the night for the first time at 17 months old.
My second Asiya started off sleeping for more than 3 hours a night almost as soon as she was born and slept through the night at less than 6 months. She also didn’t need much to sleep, you only needed to put her in her cot and she was out like a light. She’s almost 18 months now and the sleep regression a few weeks ago kicked our bums.
“Is he/she sleeping through the night yet?”
Through all the difficult times, we have kept a solid routine which always resets the sleep struggles that the kids may have for whatever reason. Remember that phase at about 12 months when they learn how to stand and spend all night holding on to the cot rails bouncing up and down. Fun for them but not so much for mum and dad.
Here are some tips that have helped us handle any sleep struggles and may help you.
HOW MUCH SLEEP
Well rested children are happier and function better at school. Whatever age your child is, you need to know how much sleep they need. The Baby Sleep Site does this for you. This site should be your reference, it’s saved us numerous times. My 18 month old needs 11-12 hours at night and a 2 hour nap while my 4 year old 10-11 hours at night, no naps. Once you have this information, you are now able to set routines.
ROUTINES AND CONSISTENCY
We’ve all heard it before but routines are so important for children. They give them structure. Just like as an adult you have less nerves or anxiety when you know what to expect from your day, the same for children. I am that mum who sticks to a routine as much as I can. We have a strict bedtime and evening routine which we have had since the kids were newborns. We keep to it 7 days a week even during holidays. With my kids, sleep is the one thing I am consistent with. They have always been early birds and so am I, they go to bed at 6.30am and wake at 6-6.30am. This fits with our lifestyle.
When we lived in Abu Dhabi, I was always shocked at how late the kids went to sleep. Most kids went to bed at 10pm- midnight and woke up the next morning at 9-10am. This is because their lifestyle with hot days means they do more things in the evening when its cooler hence the later bedtimes. This will likely be the same in South Asia, North Africa and Southern Europe.
Your routine will always be set on your lifestyle, as long as the children are getting their sleep needs met.
I will go ahead and say that I am privileged to be at home with the children and so is my husband at the moment due to working from home. This means we are able to spend time with them during the day and put them to bed early. Some families may work late and want to spend time with their kids before bed which can mean later bedtimes.
Our bedtime routine is;
5pm - Dinner
6pm- Bath or wipe down, Brush teeth, Pyjamas
6.30 - Bedtime story, Turn on White noise and Sleep
They sleep till 6.30 am the next morning with Theo only waking once or twice to go to the toilet.
Some quick tips that have worked for me to help the littles sleep better;
Give your children some form of physical exercise every day. If the weather is good, playing outside for an hour or two, if not let them run and jump around the house,
Keep the room where they sleep, as dark as possible. We have blackout curtains for their room. During the night, we use a night light for bedtime monsters,
White noise has been a fantastic tool to help the kids sleep longer. We use an old iPad and the Rain Rain app . There is no need to buy a white noise machine, use an old phone or tablet,
No TV 2-3hrs before bedtime. My husband and I noticed that TV made them hyper and unable to wind down to sleep. We stop watching telly from 4pm and they play or read books instead.
Remember bad sleep is not forever, it gets easier.
If you haven’t had a good nights rest in months and your kids are up way past their bedtime, try out some of these tips consistently for a week or two.
I hope this was useful ( from one formerly sleep deprived Mummy)
