Medi-Share's Top Sleep Tips for Children

We spend lots of time focused on making sure batteries are charged for our phones, laptops, smart watches, tablets, and the list goes on. But is your battery charged?

Rather than your electronics, I mean, did you get a full night's sleep? Can you even recall how much sleep you have gotten each night this week?

In our fast-paced society, sleep may seem like a waste of time. We often think we will just catch up on sleep during the weekend, on vacation, or maybe when we retire we will get all the sleep we need. Unfortunately, sleep isn't like the batteries in our electronic devices that we can charge up once in a while. Sleeping more on the weekend to get through a week of sleepless nights may help, but runs your battery well past zero.

Instead, we need to make an effort to fully recharge each night so we have the energy necessary to meet our daily demands.

It's not just adults that need to recharge nightly; children need to restore their battery consistently as well. And good sleep habits start early in life.

For optimal health, we need to get an adequate amount of sleep most, if not every night. What is adequate? That depends on a few factors, especially age. As adults, it is recommended that we sleep 7-9 hours each night. Children, on the other hand, need anywhere from 8-16 hours of sleep per day depending on their age.

The American Academy of Pediatrics supports the following sleep guidelines published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine for children:

Reflecting on your child's sleep patterns, you may be thinking these recommendations are completely unrealistic. For young children, naps can and should make up part of their total hours of sleep in a 24-hour period so don't forget to count those. If you're still thinking your child would never sleep this much, read on for tips to improve sleep habits in your family.

First, let's take a look at some of the reasons why sleep is so important.

While your child is fast asleep the body is hard at work. Generally speaking, sleep is a time for the body to pump blood full of nutrients and oxygen throughout the body where tissue growth and repair can occur. This is also a time when hormones are released that promote growth and development in your children. The effects of good sleep reach far beyond the growth of the physical body. Check out the following list of benefits and take note of ways your child's health could be improved with more sleep:

l Increased attention span

l Fewer behavioral problems

l Enriched learning

l Improved memory

l Increased emotional regulation

l Better quality of life

l Improved mental health

l Enhanced physical health

SOURCE: Christian Post, Medi-Share