I have had a desire to write a blog about this subject for ages. I have a 13-year-old son called Jacob, who finds it very difficult to go to sleep at night. I have tried many different things to help him, just to name a few I’ve tried oils on his pillow, oils in the shower, drops on his tongue made from Bach flowers plus more….
The other day I was reading an article written by one of our teachers at school. The article said that in a recent sleep study conducted on young people more than 40 percent of students are said to be chronically sleep deprived. In addition, there are now links being drawn between attention deficit disorders and sleep deprivation. The current thought (which actually isn’t current at all, we’ve known this for ages but have chosen to ignore this fact) is that younger children need around ten hours sleep each night while teens need around eight to ten hours of comfortable sleep.
It is recommended that a bedtime routine is useful in establishing regular sleep patterns. We have done this with Jacob and have seen results. I think the routine and the ‘winding down’ help considerably. This is where consistency plays a big role and we all know how important consistency is in parenting.
Things we include in our routine are:
Prayer – praying about the day that is now over and the day ahead.
Reading – there is nothing more soothing for a child than the quiet lull of a parents voice reading a calming story. Action type books or high intensity isn’t what you’re looking for here, rather a relaxing type of book.
Shower or Bath – we all know that a shower or a bath and clean jammies and bed linen help all of us sleep better. Do whatever you can to make sure the bedroom is comfortable and relaxing.
Another thing the article pointed out was that children or young people SHOULD NOT have access to mobile phones, computers or televisions in their bedrooms (a familyroom message for sure!). Not only will this keep them awake and disrupt their sleep it is also very unwise to give anyone unlimited, unsupervised access to these communication tools. Leaving these out of the bedroom helps with the ‘unwinding’ and gives space and time to calm down encouraging proper rest. You may find that you will need to teach your child to unwind. Many children and young people these days are juggling schedules that are beyond their years. They may need your help to learn how to be still and allow themselves to be calm, body, soul and spirit.
In this day and age being still and calming down isn’t something young people associate with, they are used to highly charged video games, energy drinks, text messaging at the speed of light and carrying on 4-5 online conversations at one time whilst doing their homework. Times have changed so much it is our responsibility as parents to learn how to help and teach our children to calm down, it won’t come naturally to them in this electronic, moment by moment world.
There are pressures put on our children that we didn’t grow up with. Gone are the days of getting up in the morning, putting on whatever clothing is close enough and semi clean looking and learning how to ride bikes with no arms. Today our children are taking tests to get into schools, calling each other to find out how to get to the next level on a computer game, watching their computer screens to see who’s speaking to who and what’s happening online rather than outside their front door. It truly is a new day and a time when our children are preparing for jobs and occupations that don’t even exist right now. We can’t even visualise the future that they will live in.
With that in mind I believe strongly that we need to put tools in their hands and we need to teach them to rest and to find peace in a crazy world. We need to establish strong sleep patterns for them, which helps brain development and contributes greatly to strong healthy bodies, souls and spirits.
We certainly haven’t got it right but we are trying really hard to instil this skill and so many more into our children. If you have any ideas and suggestions that will help those of us who have children who haven’t learned the art of sleeping yet please share ~ after all that’s what thefamilyroom is about. Lastly, Jacob fell asleep on time last night…..yahoo!
Belinda xx
Monday, May 19, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Belinda,
Great article. I'm big on the routine and having a calm house before bedtime. I often wonder about children who play video games, etc., before bed and then are expected to just lay down and fall asleep.....GOOD LUCK! Have you watched the video games the kids are playing? It's pretty hard to fall asleep after you've been in battle for 30 minutes.
I'm also a big believer of the brain development. We all know what it's like to try and survive on little sleep, we can't concentrate and we are cranky. Just imagine how the kids cope and try to manage.
Love, love, love what you've written.
Susan
Great post Belinda,
It's about getting back to basics when it is all said and done!
Annie x
Hi there,
Like you, we have a bedtime routine - bath, story, prayer. I have found that taking a short walk around the neighbourhood after dinner is a good wind down as well and also makes the little one a bit more tired and fall asleep faster.
I know there are dishes and T.V news to catch but that can all wait because nothing is better than seeing your kid in his sweet slumber and having some "me" time.
Post a Comment