Sleepy heads

Most people in my experience understand that sleep is important when your tired. There will be those who dose up on caffeine to avoid sleeping in efforts to get more work done, I’m guilty of doing so, but at the end we need to sleep to reenergise right? Now you’ll be asking, this is a childcare blog. Why have I just read an opening paragraph on adults and there need to sleep? Well I’m going to explore children’s need to sleep and why sleep windows are just as important as wake windows.

The function of sleep in people, not just children, is to allow the brain time free from other duties to process your day. Allowing this time for your brain to process new information, rework itself to serve new function and ‘delete’ information it no-longer needs. Sleep is important for brain health and function and a lack of sleep equates to a lack of time for these processes to happen. This leaves humans tiered and irritable and lack of sleep can take days of good sleep to recover from.

The facts are that children need more sleep and longer to recover from ‘sleep debt’ then adults. Children’s brains learn more in a day than adults and children’s brains needs to adapt to that new found knowledge faster. Their brain needs more time to intake or delete information from that wake window, or the time their’ve be up between naps. This is even more important in children under five because their brain is processing information that much faster.

It’s recommended by the Queensland government that children aged:

• 4-12 months sleep 12-16 hours a day

• 1-2 years sleep 11-14 hours a day

• 3-5 years sleep 10-13 hours a day

• 6-12 years sleep 9-11 hours a day

• 13-18 years sleep 8-10 hours a day

Naps inclusive, and that babies under 3 months old should be sleeping as needed. They also suggest that children with a developmental disorder should be sleeping at their developmental age not their actual age. Unless your child is getting the full amount of sleep over night which should start happening between age 3 and 5, they need naps during the day to insure that there needs are met. If sleep needs go unmet, your child’s development may be impacted as their brain has not had the time it needs to reset itself. A lack of sleep may also impact on a child’s growth, immunity, memory and behaviour.

I here you say, my 2 and a half year old can’t nap during the day because they won’t sleep at night. I hate to break it to you but at no point do children run on adult calendars. You chose to raise your baby, you need to run on their time if that means your child’s bedtime is at midnight I feel sorry for you but your child needs that nap anyway. Another point is that your 45 minute sleep restriction isn’t a smart plan either. A brain’s ability to reset itself requires a full sleep cycle. In young babies, under six months old, a full sleep cycle is 40 minutes, and it only lengthens from there. By the time your struggling to get your two and a half year old down overnight, that cycle is 60-90 minutes long and at least one cycle must be competed to satisfy a need of sleep.

All I’m suggesting is that you speak to a doctor before you impose sleep restriction on your child under three who naps during the day. These restrictions must allow a full sleep cycle to occur before a child is awoken. Once there three years old naps aren’t as essential but important if your child is tired. Sleeping is important for everyone however young children need more of it than older children and adults.

Activity of the week

Chocolate small world tray

Small world actives invite children to use imagination to make a world of their own, this one uses rice and obleck to add a sensory experience to the fun.

You will need

Rice

Coca powder

Corn flour (cornstarch)

Water

Plastic animals

Green food colour

First, make your obleck by combining equal parts, water and cornflour and half coca powder. Spread this across the tray like a river running across your world. Next colure your rice green and spread across the tray for a grassy river bank. Add your plastic animals and allow your child to change the world you’ve built to meet their needs.