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Are you a new parent? If yes, chances are high you have started enduring endless sleep tantrums offered by your child. Your child is not the only one, in fact, around 25.5% of Indian children experience sleep disorders, making it quite an uphill battle to make your toddler sleep. But before helping your child to sleep, it is paramount to absorb the importance of sleep for kids. Only through a blended approach to sleep hygiene, learning how many hours kids sleep, and ensuring that your child is not undergoing any sleep disorder, can you provide a peaceful sleep for your young one.
Parenting can be tedious; therefore, we bring some essential facts about kids and sleep.
Sleep is directly related to a child’s happiness, immunity, healing, brain functioning, etc. All in all, it should always be looked upon that a child gets complete and peaceful sleep. The following are the major benefits of sleep for children, as stated by the Journal of Global Health Reports.
Getting the exact information about how many hours kids sleep is important for parents. If your kid’s sleep cycle is pretty dissimilar to the hours given, you might need to attend to that factor.
Age Group | Amount of Sleep Required |
Infants (0–3 months) | 14–17 hours, including naps |
Infants (4–12 months) | 12–16 hours, including naps |
Toddlers (1–2 years) | 11–14 hours, including naps |
Preschool (3–5 years) | 10–13 hours, including naps |
School-age (6–13 years) | 9–12 hours |
Teens (14–17 years) | 8–10 hours |
If your kid undergoes sleep deprivation, it might have detrimental effects on their health. The first sign of a bad relationship between kids and sleep can be noticed by their irritable or hyperactive behaviour, which might mimic ADHD. Sleep loss might also affect their ability to pay attention resulting in poor results in school. In fact, disturbance in sleep has even been linked to rhinitis. Furthermore, insufficient sleep is associated with a flawed immune system, anxiety and depression. There are greater risks of poor sleep that might result in future cardiovascular diseases like Type 2 diabetes, or high blood pressure.
It can be challenging for new parents to guess if their baby is not getting enough sleep by seeing their face. Some of the ways that state that kids and sleep are not going hand in hand are:
Every parent wants the best for their children, and watching them sleep deprived can be heart wrenching. For new parents, finding ways to get their children to sleep properly can be troublesome. Below are some tips for kids to sleep better.
Your child follows you, and if you engage in bad sleeping habits like sleeping late – they are going to follow the same. Therefore, indulge in fixing a proper sleep schedule for the whole family.
Help your child embrace a smooth daily routine where they are eating, studying, playing, and sleeping at the same time every day.
Your child must engage in physical activities to attain a peaceful sleep at night. Exercising has often been associated with reducing insomnia and sleep issues.
It is necessary to monitor the screen time, especially before bedtime. Ensure that your child is not using any device at least an hour before bedtime. The blue light from the screen might be detrimental to your child’s eye leading to digital eye strain and retina damage.
Create a bedroom area that will soothe your child to sleep. Keep one or two of their favourite doll or security blankets, and dim the lights while they sleep. All in all, they need to feel relaxed while they sleep and not alert.
Teens require more sleep as their sleep cycle tends to move two hours later at the beginning of puberty.
Only let your baby sleep with water and not a bottle of milk or formula or juice as it will cause tooth decay. This issue is also called baby bottle syndrome, where the baby bottle is used as a sleeping aid which eventually causes tooth decay.
Babies should only be provided with solid foods once they reach 6 months of age and not before. Doing so, before the coming of age disrupts the sleep cycle and causes tummy ache.
Instead of incorporating way too many activities in the evening, give them time to unwind after school. Overscheduling might cause stress and a sense of unwillingness to complete tasks.
A child’s most frequent sleep problems are difficulty falling asleep, awakenings during sleep, sleep apnea, and more.
Speak to your child’s teacher or provider about their sleeping issues and how they are reacting to sleep even during the day.
If you notice your child is undergoing some sleep disorders, speak to your child’s paediatrician immediately.
When you notice your child undergoing daytime sleepiness or behavioural issues, it is time to consult their paediatrician. Never provide any medication to your child without consulting their doctor.
As a parent, watching your child experiencing sleep disorder and not getting enough rest should be sad. This is supposed to take a toll on the parent’s minds. Therefore, if you notice any aforementioned problems, it is time to speak to the paediatrician.
At around 5 to 11 years of age, kids start sleeping around 9 to 11 hours at night. And, during this time, they start sleeping well.
Sleeping around the same time every day, sleeping with their favourite toy or security blanket, and dim lights, are some of the things that help kids sleep.
During early childhood, the three common sleep problems are resisting going to sleep, waking up frequently at night, and having nightmares.
It is unlikely to have a relation between sleep and height.
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