Why Kids Should Have a Sleep Schedule

Did you know that it’s important for kids to have a continence sleeping times? Well, it is! Very important for everything, but definitely for children. It is one of the main functions of the brain in little kids. You read that correctly. Sleep is one of the main functions of the brain.

Circadian rhythms, or the sleep-wake cycle, are regulated by light and dark and these rhythms take time to develop, resulting in the irregular sleep schedules of newborns. This is why newborns sleep schedule is all out of whack. The rhythms begin to develop at about six weeks, and by three to six months most infants have a regular sleep-wake cycle. Hang in their new born baby moms. They do get there.

Around the age of two the child has been sleeping more than they’ve been awake. According to studies, kids spends 40 % or so of their childhoods asleep.

Sleep for babies is important because it helps develop mental and physical functions in them.

Toddlers need between 12-14 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period. When they reach about 18 months of age their naptimes will decrease to once a day. They can nap anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. Make sure not to schedule nap time too close to bed time.

Preschoolers sleep between 11-13 hours each night and nap times start to fade around this age.

Kids and Teens sleep around 10-11 hours of sleep.

The brain needs a break after a busy day. It has a job to do, even though no one knows what it does while we sleep. It needs to this time to do this and in the end it helps us and our kids. When we don’t get enough sleep we get cranky and upset a lot easier. Same happens to our kids. They have trouble concentrating to do their school work, so grades may suffer.

Not enough sleep can mess with their growth cycle and immune cycle. Here are some things I found from this website about how sleep can affect kids.

Numerous studies have verified the link between sleep and many different facets of heath, including:

Weight.A 2008 review by University of Chicago researchers found numerous studies that found a link between short sleep durations and increased risk of obesity in children and young adults.
Academic performance.Researchers at the University of Rome found in a 2006 review of studies that the quality and quantity of sleep students get is closely related to their academic performance, and that learning ability and school performance both suffer when total sleep is reduced (and, thankfully, both rebound when the number of hours slept returns to healthy levels).
Risky behaviors.In a 2007 study, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh analyzed the results of a questionnaire given to over 1,300 Chinese adolescents (average age 14). They found that the adolescents who slept less than eight hours a night were significantly more likely to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol than those who had healthier sleep habits.
Emotional stability.A 2010 study found that adolescents whose parents let them go to bed at midnight or later had a 24 percent higher chance of being depressed and a 20 percent greater chance of having suicidal thoughts than those whose parents enforced a 10 o’clock bedtime.

The earlier you can get a child on a sleeping schedule the better. It teaches them that they need sleep and rest and it will be something they carry with them all their lives. It should be at the same time every night, of course as they get older you can move the time back a little, making sure to keep in mind how long a child at that stage needs for sleep. Start at what time they need to get up and count back to however many hours it is, and that’s what they’re bed time should be.

Set them up with an unwinding at dinner time, like right after. Some idea for that are reading a book, taking a warm bath, drinking some herbal tea. Activities that are quiet to help them unwind from the day.

That’s one way to do it. Of course, do that will work best for your family as everyone has different times they need to be up in the morning.

Allyson is a published author, blogger, wife and mom to 4 kids. Three of her children are on the autism spectrum. She suffers from anxiety and panic attacks. On her blog you can find her writing about being an author, her faith and family. She resides in Missouri with her loving husband and four wonderful children, and three cats. She’s addicted to knitting and coffee.