How To Encourage Your Children In A Lifetime Of Good Sleep

“A well-spent day brings happy sleep.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Sleep is essential for every area of our children’s, and our own, well-being. Indeed, without a good night’s sleep; our bodies will suffer physically, and our minds will suffer emotionally and mentally. What a great gift it is to raise our children to know the importance of a good night’s sleep. Imagine providing sleeping tips for our children to guide them into wonderfully restoring and enjoyable sleep. Our children need a good night’s sleep as they grow to enable their brain’s full cognitive development. We can support our children to reach their full potential when it comes to: memory skills, social development, intellectual attainment and emotional regulation. A good night’s sleep will protect our children from mental health issues including anxiety, depression and even suicidal thoughts. Sharing sleeping tips with our young people can lessen their risk of physical conditions including: heart disease, stroke, cancer and high blood pressure. A good night’s sleep is essential for our children as they grow and play. Sleep is also vital for our children as they become adults and, indeed, throughout their adulthood. So, what sleeping tips can empower our children to obtain good quality sleep? In the relatively short time we have available to gently guide our growing children; how can we help them to gain a good night’s sleep? 

Setting Yourself Up For Sleeping Success

There are certain factors which help to make a good night’s sleep more likely. Our sleeping tips for our precious children should, therefore, include guiding them to set themselves up for sleeping success. For example, the sleep scientists tell us that most of us sleep best in a cool, dark environment. One of my key sleeping tips is to involve your children in making their bedroom one which encourages a good night’s sleep. 

Indeed, it is this empowering of our young people which will enable them to take ownership of the decisions which they make (sleep-related or otherwise) and to run with their own ideas and vision. If we do everything for our children; they will finder it harder to learn the skills to do things for themselves. It’s also more sustainable for us as mothers to empower and teach our children how to help themselves to get a good night’s sleep. Perhaps your child will enjoy picking out blackout curtains for their bedroom. Maybe they will find it interesting monitoring the temperature in their bedroom to help sleep to come more easily. Whatever works for empowering your child to set up their sleeping environment for a good night’s sleep; teach your child the importance of sleep and then go with their inspiration. 

Sleep Benefits From Time Outdoors

We know from the research that time spent in nature is so helpful when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep [1]. Conversely, time spent on screens is detrimental to gaining both good quality and quantity of sleep. Indeed, one study showed that “the adolescents described that they felt an inner calm after physical activity, an absence of anxiety and that they slept better” [1]. This is why my sleeping tips for our precious ones simply must include spending as much time as possible in the great outdoors. 

We want to raise our children with a joy and a passion for being outdoors. This is easy to do because our children were made to play; outdoor play is the very highest form of play in terms of the creativity and endless, dynamic materials which are available to our children [2]. A good night’s sleep will come readily to children who have been climbing, exploring nature, getting muddy and making dens amongst the trees. If we include being outdoors in our sleeping tips then we are setting up our children for a lifetime of healthy living and good quality sleep (the two of these are inseparable). Indeed, for us as adults, spending time in nature restores our well-being; it brings peace to our minds and energy to our bodies. What a gift it is to our growing children to support them to celebrate the immense benefits of time outdoors; gaining a good night’s sleep is just one advantage of spending time in nature. Let’s make playing in, and cherishing, nature more than simply one of our sleeping tips; let’s make time outdoors part of our daily rhythm. In this way, a good night’s sleep will also become part of our daily, and nightly, rhythm.  

Teaching What To Do When Sleep Is Slow To Come

Even the best sleepers will have nights where we toss and turn. Those nights which seem to go on forever. You check your clock countless times; you worry about how you will function the following day; you can’t seem to slow the endless thoughts cycling through your mind. So, another of my sleeping tips for you and yours is to help your children to know what to do when they hit a restless night. Here are some ideas from the sleep scientists on getting as much sleep as possible on a night when sleep just doesn’t come readily. 

• Try not to worry and stress about not sleeping. I know it can be easier said than done when you’re struggling to get a good night’s sleep but worrying about sleep actually makes it more difficult to fall asleep. Instead, teaching our children acceptance on a restless night will make it more likely that they can relax, switch off and (eventually) fall asleep. 

• Don’t check your phone or other screen in the night. Ideally, don’t sleep near to a screen. Screens activate your mind to an alert, thinking phase; this certainly isn’t what you need for a good night’s sleep. 

• Learning to focus our brains on intricate detail can help our minds to more readily enter sleep. One of my top sleeping tips for children on a restless night is to think through, in as much detail as possible, a familiar walk they know. “I walk to the door, bending over to put my shoes on, I reach for the latch…etc….” It is most likely that your child will be in the land of nod before they reach the end of this walk! 

May you and your children know the comfort, rest and enjoyment which a good night’s sleep brings. 

References

[1] Hedin, G. et al. Facilitators and Barriers for a Good Night’s Sleep Among Adolescents.Front. Neurosci., 07 February 2020 Sec. Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Volume 14 - 2020 https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00092

[2] Lee, EY., Bains, A., Hunter, S. et al. Systematic review of the correlates of outdoor play and time among children aged 3-12 years. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 18, 41 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-021-01097-9