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Something that every parent has to go through, and to learn, is how to send one’s children off to sleep effectively and without too much trouble. If you have ever had trouble with this, then you will know full well just how frustrating it can really be, and it’s something that you need to work out how to improve as best as you can. As it happens, there are always going to be a set of tricks and tips that you can turn to in order to ensure that your child is getting off to sleep a lot sooner and easier. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the best of these simple tricks that you should try for yourself.
Enforce A No-Screen Rule
One thing that you might want to do, and which you could find particularly powerful, is to enforce a no screens before bed rule. This doesn’t mean that you have to ban screens all through the day, nor should you necessarily, but you might want to make sure that your child does not have access to a screen too close to bedtime. Even just taking their screens away one hour before bedtime can be sufficient.
You might be wondering why this works, and why it is so important. Essentially, screens inhibit the production of a chemical called melatonin in the child’s brain, which is the neurotransmitter which allows them to know it is time to sleep. So if they are staring into their screens before bed, their body is not going to be able to shut off automatically in the way it normally would. Therefore, a no-screens rule can really make a profound difference to how well they get off to sleep in the first place, and how deeply they sleep thereafter too.
Ensure The Bed Is Comfy
It should go without saying, but you will need to make sure that the child’s bed is comfortable too if you want them to have the best chance of getting to sleep and staying asleep throughout the night. This is a simple case of treating them to high-quality Sheridan bedsheets and ensuring that these bed clothes are kept as clean as possible. This simple thing is often going to make all the difference between your child being able to sleep and not being able to sleep, so that is something you’ll certainly want to think about.
Get The Temperature Right
In a similar vain to that, you might want to work on ensuring that the temperature in the room is kept at a temperate level. It is more difficult to sleep when the temperature in a room is too high or too low, so keeping it at a good medium level is really important in so many ways. In fact, the human body needs a room to be slightly cooler than you might think in order to get off to sleep, so that is something that you are going to want to think about here. Make sure it is kept at the right temperature, and your child should sleep a lot more easily.
Set Up A Bedtime Routine
The routine is really important, and this is actually something that most parents learn when their children are still young. After all, you quickly have to get into a routine when you have a baby who is struggling to get to sleep. It’s the same for older children too – as long as you have a routine that you follow each night, your child is so much more likely to get off to sleep without any trouble, so this is something important that you might want to think about.
Don’t go overboard on this. It’s as simple as having a half-hour routine of brushing teeth, getting ready for bed, reading a book, and then lights out. The important thing is that it’s the same every night, with minimal variation. This helps to ensure the brain gets ready for sleep every night much more smoothly and easily, so it really makes a profound difference overall.
If you are struggling to come up with a routine, try not to overthink it – just aim to do something the same every night.
Cut Out Stimulants
As a parent, you are probably already well aware of the potential dangers with feeding your children too many stimulants. Not only is there the possibility of your child becoming addicted to sugar – or whatever the substance in question might be – you are also effectively messing around with their brain and energy levels in a pretty unhealthy manner, so it’s best avoided in general.
Before bed in particular, you should aim to cut out all stimulants if you can help it. This is going to ensure that your child gets off to sleep much sooner and easier, and on the whole you are going to find that they are much easier to deal with when it comes to their bedtime. So if you can do this simple thing, you are going to find it so much easier – and so will they.
Lookout For Sleep Disorders
From time to time, it is possible for a child to develop a sleeping disorder such as insomnia. When this happens, it is important that you act quickly before it becomes a more ingrained habit, at which point it will be all the more difficult to overcome it and have them unlearn the habit in question. So, you need to try and keep a lookout for sleep disorders so that you can do something about it the moment it appears to arrive. That is going to help you to ensure that you can much more easily get your child off to sleep in no time.
As you can see, there are a few vital things that are worth paying attention to if you want your child to sleep better. All of these are worth looking into and will help to ensure that your children can get off to sleep much more quickly, and stay asleep for longer.
