For medical professionals only
Do you really understand your child's sleep time?
One
Did your child sleep enough?
Yesterday after work, I went to eat hot pot with my little sister, and it was nearly ten o'clock at the end, and there were still many children playing in the mall.
Beanie couldn't help but yawn and said, "Don't they all sleep?" Don't you even sleep? I'm sleepy. ”
Lily then said, "I'll go back now, it's almost half past ten when I get home, and I bet my monkey is still jumping up and down on the bed." ”
"Hahaha, believe, how not to believe, last time you had an affair, he came to my house for one night, Xuan Xuan was asleep for an hour, and he still pestered me to tell stories."
"This baby, there is no lack of anything, the feeling is that what is missing is sleep." I couldn't help but quip.
Mothers talk about their children together the most is to eat and sleep, now many children go to bed around 10 o'clock at night is a common time, as for what time to fall asleep is not necessarily.
According to statistics from the National Health Commission, 73% of primary and secondary school students on the mainland do not sleep up to the standard every day.
Looking at it this way, many children's sleep time is actually not enough.
Image source: Weibo
Two
The impact of not sleeping enough on children
▌1, affect the height of the child
Sleep mainly affects your child's height through growth hormone. Growth hormone is secreted very little during the day, more vigorously at night, and most during deep sleep (sleeping soundly and not easily woken up).
As for whether to sleep earlier or later, there is no relevant research to prove that it will have an impact on height, and the length and quality of children's sleep at night are one of the factors affecting children's height.
Therefore, sleeping enough and sleeping well will affect the height of the child.
▌2, affect the child's brain development
For adults, lack of sleep affects mood more than cognition and motor ability; we get a little grumpy when we're tired, but we're still able to learn and perform.
But this is not the case for children, because the child's brain is still developing, so the lack of sleep may be more sensitive than the mature brain.
Simply put, the developing brain is more adversely affected by a lack of sleep than the mature brain.
▌3, affect the child's vision
The sleep process is an important means of physiological regulation of the human body, and insufficient sleep time at night will affect the development of the eyes, resulting in myopia.
In a National Health and Nutrition Examination report in South Korea, it was found that children who slept 7 hours a day had a myopia rate of 84.7%, while children who slept 10 hours a day had a myopia rate of 75.4%.
In this comparison, you will find that sleeping more than 3 hours a day can reduce the myopia rate by about 10%.
▌4, affect the child's immunity and lead to obesity
If you sleep for a long time, the body's immunity will slowly decrease, so not sleeping enough will also lead to a decline in the child's body's immunity.
Small problems such as decreased immunity and colds are easy to find children.
In addition, sleep deprivation can also lead to overweight, obesity and other problems, the United States Harvard Medical School on 915 children in Massachusetts tracked the study showed that before the age of 2 years old, children who sleep less than 12 hours a day, the risk of being overweight at the age of 3 years old is twice as much as the risk of adequate sleep.
According to the study of the Chinese Sleep Research Association, the lack of sleep, the hormones in the body will be imbalanced, the appetite will increase, and the desire to eat high-calorie foods may lead to rapid weight gain.
Therefore, the child's sleep problem should really be paid attention to. So, how long do children of different ages need to sleep?
Three
Sleep schedules for all ages
In fact, children need different amounts of sleep at different ages, and different children's needs for sleep duration are different.
We need to understand our child's sleep and prepare for his changing sleep patterns.
For children of different ages to sleep in a day, the American Sleep Foundation recommends the following:
The diagram of the American Sleep Foundation is not very clear, and Xuan Mama has made a clear version of the diagram:
Children's sleep includes nighttime sleep and daytime naps, and they usually sleep much longer than we think, including daytime sleep.
For example, newborn babies need 8 to 9 hours of naps during the day, babies of 6 months need about 3 to 5 hours of naps, and 1-year-old babies still need 2 to 3 hours of naps every day.
If your child sleeps shorter than the shorter sleep in the table, they haven't slept enough.
So, most of the time, what you should worry about is whether your child has slept enough, rather than considering whether he has slept too much.
Generally in the baby 6 months to 1 year old, there may be too much sleep during the day, do not want to sleep at night, this time can be appropriately adjusted during the day sleep time and the time of the last nap in the afternoon.
Four
How do I schedule my child's sleep?
The following chart gives examples of the sleep of children of different ages during the day and at night, and when we arrange sleep time for children, we can refer to their own situation.
Each child's sleep situation is different, you need to adjust according to his sleep characteristics, not necessarily the same as the time in the table.
If the child's daily mental state and activity are good, and the growth rate is normal, it means that his sleep is good.
Seeing this, there may be parents who should say: I also want to let my child sleep enough, but he just doesn't sleep?
In order not to turn their children into "night owls", there are some tricks that parents can use.
▌1. Reasonably arrange the baby's work and rest time
According to their family situation, arrange a reasonable bedtime and wake-up time for your child, such as going to bed at 8 o'clock at night and getting up at 8 o'clock in the morning.
Daytime naps should also be controlled well, and the specific nap time articles in the previous table can be used as a reference.
If the child cannot wake up within the specified time, parents should not wake him up directly, wake up or wake him up with an alarm clock, which will cause him to rebel, and wake up gently.
You can try the music wake-up method, use the mobile phone to play some simple and pleasant children's songs to the child, let him wake up slowly, you can hug him or kiss his cheeks and foreheads in the middle, and then talk to him, so that he is completely awake and willing to take the initiative to get out of bed.
▌2. The whole family cooperates with the child's schedule
Children's schedule will be greatly affected by parents, such as you stay up late and do not sleep, children may also stay up late with you, if the family members go to bed early and get up early, then children will be more likely to develop the habit of going to bed early and getting up early.
Therefore, the whole family must cooperate with the child's schedule, and when it is time to go to bed at night, turn off all the TV and electric lights at home.
In this way, even if the child can't sleep, he will find that the whole home is dark and quiet, gradually losing interest in playing, and slowly falling asleep.
Specific times to sleep is more appropriate, which requires parents to determine according to the situation of their own family, under the premise of ensuring that the child sleeps, sleep as soon as possible, but also can not be delayed until eleven or twelve o'clock, which is too late for the child.
▌3, take more children out to consume excess physical strength
If the child is still very energetic at night, it may also be caused by staying at home all day and not consuming excess energy.
Therefore, parents should take their children out more and create some opportunities for him to exercise, especially some energetic children, who need to be more active. During the day, the energy is released, and at night, it will naturally be tired and fall asleep.
▌4. Slowly adjust your sleep habits
It is not easy for adults to change the habit of staying up late, let alone children. So don't be in a hurry, take your time.
For example, it turns out that children have to go to bed at 23:00, the first day can be early to 22:50, the next day early to 22:30... And so on.
It turns out that the bedtime ritual that begins half an hour before going to bed may also be an hour or two earlier to let the child get used to it slowly.
If the child's sleep habits have not been good, then this whole adjustment process may be very long, we must be patient, can not let the child feel your impatience, which may make him more sleepless.
The sleep time mentioned in the article has a guiding effect on new mothers in dealing with the baby's sleep problem, but it should not be a hard rule.
Each child needs different sleep time, as long as the child is energetic during the day, happy mood, good appetite, normal growth and development, sleep steadily, as long as the total sleep time is in the normal range, a little more or less does not matter.
May every child be able to sleep without lack of sleep!
Source of this article: Pro-baby parenting
Author: Pro Baby · Xuan Xuan Ma
Editor-in-Charge: CiCi