Sleep is one of the fundamental functions of our children’s development and health.
The common experience and research underline the importance of a restful rest, both for the development of the cognitive and cerebral system, and to reduce nervousness. This is in fact acute by tiredness.
Sleeping well is also essential to improve relational dynamics.
Sleep disturbances
Sleep disorders are particularly frequent between children and adolescentsprecisely 1 in 4, below 5 years of age and 1 out of 10, after 6 years and in adolescence.
The most frequent obstacles to healthy sleep present in early childhood are:
- the resistance to go to bed,
- the difficulty of falling asleep and frequent awakenings,
- Parasonnias, such as the night Pavor or awakenings characterized by strong agitation and confusion,
- Sleep respiratory disorders, such as obstructive apneas syndrome.
In subsequent age, it can appear more frequently, especially in adolescence, insomnia linked to poor sleep hygiene, favored by incorrect lifestyles, such as the protracted use of electronic tools.
The difficulty of the children in falling asleep can generate in a parent concern, anxiety, anger and a sense of impotence.
The causes of difficult or disturbed sleep
In the sleep disorders of a childare almost always condensed not one, but different fears: that of detachment, abandonment, darkness or nightmares.
Folding asleep presupposes the ability to be able to let go, knowing what we separate from, but without knowing what we will find, which is so full of unknowns.
There proof of detachment and separation It refers to a wider sense of personal safety/insecurity lived directly by the child. The focus of the problem does not reside both on the night itself for itself, as in the fact that, at that moment, the little one has not yet found the enough sureness and courage within himself to be able to face it.
For this reason it may be important to encourage the occasions in which the ability to succeed, to feel effective and adequate, to reinforce the safety of oneself and their resources can be experienced concretely.
Search data
Recent data reported by the scientific literature (Reynaud et al., 2018) highlight how in children aged between 2 and 6, a bad quality of sleep is associated with the presence of aggressive behavior, the difficulty of attention and the greater risk for symptoms of anxiety and depression.
In an even more recent study by Williamson and his collaborators, a significant correlation emerges between sleep disorders and the psychological well-being of the child at 10-11 years. These affect the appearance of Anxious and depressive symptomson the difficulty of self -control, on oppositional and aggressive behaviors and on reduced academic skills.
It is therefore important to try to regularize sleep already in the first months of life, in addition to healthy sleep hygiene rules.
Good habits to sleep well
- Respect the time to go to sleep every evening;
- Make the child sleep in the same environment;
- Check that the temperature of the chamber is neither too hot nor too cold, preferably around 18 ° C.;
- Dissociate the power supply phase from that of falling asleep;
- Respect meals during the day;
- Do not use tablets or electronic tools the evening after dinner;
- Carefully adjust exposure to light;
- Avoid activating activities before going to bed.
Co-leeping yes or not?
Welcoming the baby in the Latvian means finding a safe and dedicated space and space in which to grant attention, pampering and tenderness. But it also means in part to partially limit the development of the autonomy of the child by not getting used to falling asleep alone.
For this reason, time, patience and availability are required so that parents also acquire awareness and recognize their fears and anxieties and in turn become ready to accompany their children in this passage.
Jiang et al., In 2016 they investigated, in a group of children aged between 9 and 12 years, the Presence of co-co-leem And a favorable and encouraging attitude emerged from the parents themselves.
The children, after all, often do what the family suggests, and a child’s behaviors very often reflect anxieties and worries of father or mother before even their own.
How to do it?
A child needs a safe parent who knows how to fall asleep and accompany him in his sleep, so that he can feel around him a protection dimension in which he can let himself go to the moment of rest, without warning the detachment and theseparation anxiety by the mother and dad.
It is important to experience a relationship with sensitive adults, capable of welcoming, containing and regulating the emotions of their children, with an attitude of warmth and respect for them.
All this serves to develop a safe relationship that translates into a positive conviction compared to itself and in the expectation that if there is a need for help, the competent adult will be able to offer it.
The child thus convinces himself to deserve love and care, he perceives himself safer than himself and therefore more capable of being in situations and dealing with the problems that involve him, drawing on personal or relational resources.
Sleep, however, is deeply influenced by biological and emotional states and for this reason extreme understanding and calm is necessary.
There may be several ways to organize the moment of falling asleep in a family and each parent can feel free to look for the ideal one so that everyone can rest best and feel safe.
It is always good to question what can disturb the child’s rest, follow the rules of sleep hygiene and be patient.
The time will come when efforts will be rewarded.
Useful tips designed for small readers
It may seem difficult to be able to sleep alone in your bed, however, you could experience you in the possibility of moving your body to your liking, occupy the space you want, place your pillow at best, stay calm with your thoughts without anyone disturbing yourself and marveling at you with a fantastic experience: freedom!
When the time comes to go to bed we have to leave the toys, greet the mom and dad and turn off the light. Sometimes, however, it can happen to worry a little, ugly thoughts and fears may arrive, or maybe you may feel sad and alone and have the temptation to go to bed with your parents.
So how to do it?
How about trying to ask mom and dad to read a story, a story that you like and makes you feel calm and safe?
Or could you try to take your favorite puppet, the one that every time you hold it strong to you can bring you back to the hugs and the love of the mother and dad?
Or you could still get your hands in your tummy and start inflating and deflated your belly with slow and deep breaths, as if it were a balloon, feel your body that slowly becomes more and more gray as if it were, and tell you that you are safe?
If they don’t work, you could look for another way to reassure you with your parents. Search, everyone has his own!
Poetry
For each spider there is the cobweb
For each caterpillar there is a tunnel in the apple
It has a nest on the branch each rondinella
Has a silkworm every butterfly
It has a hole in the cheese every mouse
And there is a soft bed for each child …
For each ladybug there is a nice leaf
For each bee there is a sweet arnia
It has a soft bed in the cave the bear
He has a bed on the roof between the stars the cat
On the wave in the middle of the sea also sleeps the Delfino
And there is a soft bed for each child …
Bibliography
- Jiang Y. Chen W. et al. (2016). Bed-sharing and Related factors in Early teenascence. Sleep Medicine
- Lucangeli, Vicari (2019). Development psychology
- Marcoli A. (2020). Fairy tales of the forest
- Reynaud E. et al (2018). Sleep and Its Relation to Cognition and Behavior in Fleechol-Auged Children of the General Population: A Systematic Review.
- Vicari S. (2015). Integrated therapy in psychiatry of the evolutionary age
- Williamson A. et al (2020). Longitudinal Sleep Problem Trajectoies are associated with multiple Impairermats in Child Well-Boing.
