Getting the right amount of quality and quantity of sleep is especially important for children. It’s needed for brain development and growth. It is vital for concentration levels at school, as well as temperament and emotional health. It’s now well known that children who don’t get the right amount of sleep are more likely to gain weight, have a lower resistance to illness and disease. By setting up good sleep habits from the earliest possible age, we are setting up our child for life.

Top Ten tips.

1) One rule for all

Children learn by example, copying both siblings and their parents.  Having the same ‘fair’ set rules for everyone with regards to boundaries on use of technology both inside and outside the bedroom makes it easier to set up good habits and healthy routines.  For example, if you have a problem with teenagers and siblings using their phone in the bedroom past an agreed curfew then set the example by keeping your phone outside of the bedroom overnight too. It removes the temptation for everyone to use them too late and makes it easier to enforce the ‘fair boundary’

2) Have a bedtime routine

Quality sleep and getting to sleep easily is all about routine. This includes aiming at the same bedtime every evening. The first step is to avoid stimulation close to bedtime. Switch off computers, computer games and TVs etc. at least one hour before bed. Instead have a bath, do something relaxing such as reading a book together. Younger children would have a routine such as teatime, bath, read story and then bed. However, even if you follow this routine don’t expect your child to go straight to sleep it should take about 10 to 20 minutes to nod off.

3) Keep blue light put of the bedroom overnight

Blue light is emitted  from computer and phone screens and is the wavelength of light which is designed to wake us up. If you stare into a screen at night this stops the production of Melatonin the sleep hormone . Using night time modes and flux ( blue light filter) help eliminate this , but best still is to not have easy access to these screens in the bedroom overnight.

4) Get the food right

Children often complain about being either too full or too hungry to get to sleep. Don’t allow your child to eat large meals close to bed time. However, a light snack of fruit such as a banana or a milky drink can help with hunger or quench a thirst. Sometimes a glass of water next to the bed at night can also be useful, as children often feel thirsty at night. Above all avoid caffeine after lunch and especially at night, this includes all chocolate, which has caffeine in it.

5) Make your child’s bedroom sleep friendly

Create the right environment in the bedroom by having it set up for good sleep, which is dark, quiet and cool. A good quality bed and mattress is essential, as it will support your child’s body in the right places as they sleep. The correct temperature for a bedroom is usually a little cooler than you think (a lowering body temperature indicates to the body that it is night-time). However, have extra blankets on hand in case your child gets cold in the night.

Black out blinds are another useful component of a child’s bedroom, which help keep the room both cool and dark in the summer. Bedrooms also need to be clear, tidy and free from clutter to minimise distractions (the bedtime battle is hard enough without calls for playtime!). Choose a simple but efficient storage system that fits your needs, so clean ups are quick and painless.

6) Educate your child about the importance of sleep and make it teamwork

It’s easier to do something if you understand the reasons behind it, so educating children about the value of sleep is a good place to start. Younger children can benefit from a picture chart rather than a discussion, showing images of a good bedtime routine.

7) Do a count down and avoid ‘Just one more’

For younger children a countdown to bedtime is a great way of getting a young child into bed on time. 30 minutes to go, 15 minutes, then 5 will line up the deadline a lot easier than a last minute ‘its time for bed’. Also try to include anything that your child asks for as ‘one more’ when they are in bed. If it’s one more cuddle, a story or glass of water that’s asked for work it into the pre-bedtime routine, so you’ve pre-empted their ability to ask for one more once they are in bed. That way all avenues are exhausted before bed, so your child will know that once in bed it is exclusively sleep time.

8) Bright and early

Our bodies are designed to recognise sunshine as time to get-up-and-go, so help your children wake up more naturally with a bit of sun in the morning. Open the curtains first thing to get sunlight into the bedroom and boosting the body’s production of cortisol the wake up hormone.

9) Get their hearts pumping

Exercise boosts serotonin production in our bodies, which then is turned into melatonin, the sleep hormone. Getting your children to exercise more in the day will reduce the time it takes for them to get to sleep and will increase the total time they sleep. Make sure all exercise is finished around two hours before bed, to allow time to settle down.

10) Praise them

Keep giving them feedback about how they are doing and always look to praise your children about how well they are doing. Positive reinforcement from their parents will lock in good sleep habits in your children for life. You could not be giving them a better legacy.

The sound of snoring generally does not come from the nose, but from soft tissue vibration in the back of the throat. Most children above the age of 3 tend to snore during the stages of deep sleep and about 1 in 10 children snore at some time during the week.

The key issue with children’s sleep is to be able to identify “Primary Snoring”, which is snoring that is not associated with a serious illness from more serious medical issues such as Sleep Apnea. In fact, The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that all children who snore be screened to separate primary snoring from Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

There are 5 main causes of snoring in children:

1) A blocked nose
This can come from allergies, a cold or flu. Resulting in your child needing to breathe through the mouth, which then leads to snoring.

2) A deviated septum
A deviated Septum is either genetic or comes from trauma. As one nasal passage becomes smaller in this condition, this makes it a lot harder to breathe through the nose.

3) Other conditions that cause restrictions or irritation in the bronchial pathway
This would include Asthma, which can constrict the airway or Gastoenterological Reflux disorder (Gerd) which irritates the pathway.

4) Enlarged adenoids and tonsils
Here the swollen glands get in the way and cause vibration, as well as making it difficult to breath. This condition is the most common cause of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in children, which requires medical intervention. In fact, the resulting sleep apnea is the major reason that a child would have a tonsillectomy, typically between 5 and 7 years of age.

5) Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
This is a serious condition, which affects between 1% and 3% of children. Apart from enlargement of the glands, children can get OSA via an over-relaxation of the muscles in the throat. The resulting narrowing of the airway makes it difficult to breathe, with the child stopping breathing from a few seconds to up to a minute in time. The child will snore as the throat gets blocked, often gasp for air and wake up, before starting the process all over again. Subsequently, your child will be over tired and sleepy during the day. It is important to get OSA investigated as it not only affects performance at school and your child’s mood, but also can cause serious medical problems, including delayed growth and cardiovascular problems. Other causes of OSA include a larger than normal tongue and being overweight, both of which narrow the airway.

Treatment for OSA will vary according to the cause and severity of the presentation. Overweight children are encouraged to have a healthier diet and exercise more. For others, tonsils and adenoids can be removed if recommended. For those who need the airways opened longer term, without such intervention possible CPAP is often used. This involves your child wearing a mask attached to a small machine whilst they sleep. Here your child’s airway is put under an increased airflow and pressure to keep it open during sleep. Apart from the obvious signs of disturbed sleep and snoring at night, and sleepiness in the day, morning headaches and speaking with a nasal voices are often signs of OSA.

Solutions for snoring.
Apart from being tested for OSA, other things to try include:

1) Allergic reactions. Prevent animals going into the bedroom and use anti-allergenic mattresses, bedding and pillows.

2) Nasal Congestion. Apart from medication and inhalers, consider elevating your child’s head at night..

On Sunday 26th March at 1am we lose an hour’s sleep as the clock’s spring forward, with many parents struggling to adjust their little ones to new sleep patterns. Here are five tips to help your child sleep when the clocks change…

1. Make the change gradual
Our body clocks aren’t designed to shift by one hour in one day. Depending on the age of the baby, toddler or child different strategies can work.
a) Babies: try 5 minutes a day over 12 days
b) Toddlers: try 10 minutes a day over 6 days
c) Young schoolchildren: it’s often easiest to change the bedtime in 15-minute increments over a 4 day long weekend
d) Teenagers are most easily accommodated by shifting their sleep over a weekend, starting by going to bed 30 minutes earlier on Friday night

2. Get physical
Plan days with physical activity in order to make your children more naturally tired. Get outside in the fresh air.

3. Darker evenings and bright mornings
During the bedtime transition, dim the lights in the evening and close the curtains earlier to encourage the sense that bedtime is coming. Blackout blinds are useful to ensure the bedroom is dark. In the mornings, get the curtains open, and make the lights brighter so that is even more obvious than normal that it’s morning.

4. Adjust daily routines
Over the days you change bedtime, be sure to change bath time, nap time and meal times. If the bedtime changes are gradual – say, 10 minutes over 6 days – then change the other activities by 10 minutes as well. Adjust your routines too.

5. Leave early risers to it
If you have a child who naturally wakes earlier, then the clocks going forward presents a great opportunity to get them aligned to a better schedule for you. Only change the time by half an hour or leave it completely, so a child waking at 5.30am becomes 6.30am (in theory).

I hope with these easy tips you’ll be able to help your child sleep when the clocks change this Sunday 26th March.