It all starts with a good night’s sleep
The holidays are here, bringing with them a lot of days off, spent with our loved ones. Whether you’ve planned to go on a trip, or spend the time at home, the day-to-day routine might just appear a little different, both for you and your surroundings.
As adults, we all know how hard change can be, how many tries it takes to redesign a habit, to reobserve a state of mind. Try to think of a bad habit you have, how many times did you try to change it? How many times did it actually work? Sometimes it feels like it would be easier to build a time machine and go back in time just to prevent this habit from the start. Well, while we’re waiting for the time machine, let’s try to create some brand new habits for the next generation.
Establishing good habits with our children seems to be a very profitable investment for all involved. While we get easy going-to-sleep episodes in the evenings, maybe even some “me time” or “us time”, they get a better chance to be their best version of themselves tomorrow, and the next day, and the next…
High sleeping quality is shown to be a strong predictor of both personal and social abilities. A well slept kid is more likely to get creative, focus for long periods of time and be friendly to others. Overmore, the development of emotional skills such as empathy and compassion, social skills like problem solving and the ability to make others laugh.
Now, with the holidays knocking on the door, we are about to earn some family time. Instinctively we might think of the holidays as a break from the day to day routine, the perfect time to stretch existing habits and have a completely different routine. Well, we invite you to join another point of view, to see this as an opportunity to establish better habits, in times that you can create the perfect settings and have the time and attention to do it best. The holidays might just be you opportunity to ground some of your family’s important habits and influence the existing ones while they are still flexible.
Here are some useful information that might help you on your journey towards giving your children a better sleep:
And a few tips…
- Try to create a pro-sleep environment: soothing, quiet, dark and with the right amount of coziness, to design the best situation for them to relax and fall asleep.
- Invite your children to be involved in the pre-sleep time. They can choose which story to read or which song to sing, turn off the light on their own, maybe even choose the sheets in advance.
- Engage physical activities in your daily routine, to enable an outlet for their energy, as well as create memorable experiences with their social environment. That way, you’re creating a win-win situation for them. The first win is their physical development and sense of capability, while the second is being actually tired while going to sleep, making the process much easier.
- A personal example is always best. Choose to be an active participant in their evening routine: eat dinner enough time before going to sleep, set the home settings to suit the evening mode, try to find fun ways to spend the pre-sleep time together avoiding blue light exposure and screen time. Who knows? You might even earn a better sleep by accident.
https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=healthy-sleep-habits
