Is it Bedtime Yet?: Pro Parenting Tips for Rank Amateurs

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Sleep calculators are a great way to get an idea of how much sleep you need. However, because they are just estimations and not very precise measurements, it's still important to listen closely to your body's signal when the time comes that you're feeling sleepy. Is 2 AM a good time to wake up? Ten-year-old Harley Walker has had poor sleep all his life, and no one has been able to explain why. After doing the rounds of appointments with GPs and paediatricians, he is spending the night in Sheffield’s sleep lab with a Medusa’s head of brightly coloured wires glued to his skull. His mum, Abigail, will sleep in a camp bed next to him. From two-year-olds to 14-year-olds, every case Earley and her fellow sleep adviser Carol Batchelor advise on that day involves a child who uses a smartphone or tablet before bedtime. According to a recent survey by consultancy Censuswide, over 80% of children in the UK now have their own phone by the age of 12. By 10, 58% have their own tablet, and two-thirds of teenagers say they use these devices in the hour before bedtime.

Bedtime resistance comes up time and time again as one of the most common sleep issue families face. One recent study found that approximately 50% of babies between the ages of one and two regularly resist bedtime. I share this statistic not to depress you but to reassure you that you are not alone!The stages used to be classified as stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM. Now, experts generally classify them as: Control the Attention: If seeking caregiver attention is a contributing factor, the parent can initiate consistent bedtime routines, followed by a consistent bedtime and then the parent can return to the child’s bedroom at fixed intervals to give attention until the child falls asleep (O’Reilly et al. 2004).

Faded Bedtime with Response Cost: A Response Cost can be added which, in a study by Piazza and Fisher (1991) meant that if the child didn’t fall asleep within 15 minutes of their scheduled bedtime, they were kept awake and out of their bedroom for 60 minutes before repeating the faded bedtime routine. You heard me correctly! Often in the lead up to bed, especially if your baby or toddler has not had the opportunity to co-regulate with you and express their emotions during the day, they will need to with you at bedtime. It makes sense that a baby may benefit from some stress relief crying at bedtime because it is very difficult for us as adults to fall asleep if we are carrying with us tension and frustrations that have not been resolved. Try to stay calm if you can and offer them reassurance and soothing words or perhaps a calming song might help. 5. Parents are tense and anxious Of course, getting too little sleep can affect many of your body’s systems and restorative functions.Aidman E, et al. (2018). Effects of sleep deprivation on executive functioning, cognitive abilities, metacognitive confidence, and decision making. Seven to nine hours of sleep is mandatory for adults. Studies have shown that poor sleep patterns cause depression, weight gain, diabetes, etc. Why do I feel better with less sleep? Too much sleep regularly can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke. Anything more than 9 hours of sleep can be called oversleeping. How much sleep does the average person get? Our benchmark of what’s normal is changing. For children and adults, waking up feeling tired is becoming the new normal. So people are just reaching for energy drinks, reaching for caffeine as ways of coping and seeing that as perfectly normal. Parents need to make their children aware of the importance of sleep, and perhaps become role models for their children, showing them, ‘I don’t stay up late, I have a regular bedtime, I don’t stay on my smartphone before bed.’”