HELP CHILDREN GET THE SLEEP THEY NEED - POSITIVELY

When a child won’t go to bed without arguing, or if they won’t stay in their bed, they end up overtired. That begins to affect their overall health, behaviour, and learning ability.

Understanding more about what you can do to get your daily routines running smoothly can help children sleep. It can also help everybody in the family to get a good night’s sleep, too. It’s a lot easier with the right support!

WHAT ARE COMMON BEDTIME AND SLEEP PROBLEMS?

• Toddlers and children who don’t want to go to bed may dawdle or keep finding reasons to avoid going to sleep.
• Children may delay bedtime by saying they’re not tired, ask for yet another story or drink, or become frustrated or upset.
• Children may ignore instructions, complain or refuse to get into their bed, or repeatedly call out once they’re in bed.
• Some children will only sleep if not in their own bed or will get up during the night and crawl into someone else’s bed

You can help children sleep by learning more about sleep patterns and problems. This can help you sort out and prevent bedtime battles with confidence.

WHAT CAUSES BEDTIME PROBLEMS?

Learning to help children sleep and settle into a pattern often takes practice and not every child is the same. Sometimes a temporary sleep problem that began with anger in children, or when a child was unwell, over-excited, over-stimulated, or stressed, continues and becomes a new pattern.

It’s easy for parents to react (without meaning to) when a child doesn’t want to go to bed by arguing, being drawn into long conversations and accidentally rewarding a child’s sleep-avoiding behaviours.

Children like boundaries and are more likely to go to bed without a fuss when they have a consistent bedtime routine.