How to create a healthy sleeping pattern for your child

Most parents don’t realize the importance of sleep on their children’s health and they mostly focus on what they serve them in terms of food and drinks but in reality, sleep is an essential source of energy. Sleep enriches the body and mind with the energy your child needs to grow and develop interactions with others and increase daily activities. There are several characteristics of healthy sleep and any characteristic that is absent causes sleep deprivation disorders, these characteristics include:

• Durations of sleep that are enough in relativity to the child’s age
• Uninterrupted sleep patterns.
• Abundant naps through the day.
• Matching the sleeping times with the biological clock by sleeping most hours at night.

If these characteristics are not present in your child’s sleeping pattern, then sleep deprivation symptoms will begin to appear overtime and in order to implement these characteristics it’s advised to follow this routine:

Newborns – 3 months old babies

It’s recommended for babies in this age group to sleep a duration of 15-19 hours daily to be divided into 8 hours at night and 8 hours during the day which means 4-3 naps a day

6 months – 12 months old babies

It’s recommended for babies in this age group to sleep on an average of 14 hours daily to be divided into 10 hours at night and 2 naps during the day which helps in founding healthy sleeping patterns. When a child turns one year old parents start to note hypermobility and refusal to sleep, but at this age group it’s required for children to sleep 14 hours divided into 11 hours at night and 2 naps a day till the baby turns 18 months old and 1 nap a day will be enough. Parents usually ask how to form healthy sleeping habits for their children, there are some tips that allows parents to achieve this like following a certain ritual, like taking a shower before bed or reading bedtime stories and repeating this routine daily so that the children associate these routines with bedtime. In addition, setting the same time for sleeping at night and for naps, so that the child sleeps at the same time daily. Ensure that the child is not accustomed to a specific position when they sleep to help them adapt and sleep in any position. At this phase some parents fail to apply specific routines for sleep due to the hyper activity the child has once they start to walk and the refusal of sleep thus experts suggest to allow your child to leave his bed till, they stop crying and sleep or aiding them to sleep in they continue crying. If your child wakes up at night searching for you it is possible to check on him and leave him to continue to sleep so that he realizes that the night is for sleep and not for playing so that he will gradually get used to going back to sleep on his own.

18 months old – 39 months old babies

In this age group children tend to sleep with an average of 11 hours at night in addition to a nap that doesn’t exceed 1.5- 3 hours a day and most of them go to bed between 7 and 9 at night and wake up between 8 and 9.30 in the morning and they mostly wake up regularly in the middle of the night. If your child is within this age group make sure to follow these tips: • Move your child to a large bed and encourage him if he continues sleeping in it, especially if the mother is pregnant. It is recommended to start this step before the birth of newborn so that the child is not affected if the newborn sleeps in his bed. It is said that moving your child to a bigger bed decreases the chance of waking up throughout the night and if they do wake up and go to their parents’ room it’s recommended to take him back to his bed. • Providing all the needs that your child might ask for before he sleeps, so that he doesn’t wake up searching for any of it in addition to making it part of the routine like drinking water, reading a short story and other activities. Promise your child that you will come check on them after a while and that you’ll give them an extra kiss if they were asleep. There are several problems that your child can face at this age such as being scared of the dark, imagining the presence of a scary creature under the bed and also having nightmares, thus it’s recommended to put a small source of light in their room and searching under the bed with them to convince them nothing is there. It's useful to speak with your child about their bad dreams and what scares them and give them as much comfort as you can, allowing them to sleep in your bed from time to time is possible just to give them comfort without them getting used to it.