The child is so excited, he is not sleepy at all! Only experienced parents will understand that this is a sleep trap
When it was time to go to bed at night, the child showed no signs of tiredness and sleepiness, and was very excited, jumping up and down, running around.
At this time, should I let my child play hard until the battery is low? Or should I quickly brush his teeth and wash his face, press him on the bed, and force him to shut down?
Any parent who has ever had the experience of coaxing sleep will definitely choose the latter, and do not jump into the sleep trap of "children are so excited because they are not sleepy enough".
The child's excitement before going to bed is an illusion of excitement caused by hormone secretion
Falling asleep is a process involving various hormones, not just lying in bed and closing your eyes.
For example, melatonin, which determines when we wake up and when we fall asleep, adrenaline, cortisol, which ensures that we fall asleep at the right time and in a safe place.
Before the age of 3, the brain and hormone secretion laws are still in the perfect stage, and it is easy to appear that they look very excited, but in fact, they have already been overly sleepy.
Why?
When the child reaches the time when he should fall asleep, the tiredness of the body will naturally increase, he will yawn, will be sleepy, and will wander, but the child does not have self-control, and he still wants to play for a while, so he will take the initiative to fight against sleepiness.
The human body is intelligent, and in order to ensure the clarity of the brain and the sensitivity of the limbs, it begins to secrete more adrenaline and cortisol.
These two hormones are like fast charging, instantly fully charging the child who was already out of power, making him excited and active again, plus the lights at home and the sound of talking.
The child is even more reluctant to sleep.
Parents who do not understand the law of hormone secretion will definitely think that the child is not sleepy enough at this time, so they will be so excited, and they will naturally fall asleep after the electricity is over.
That's right, no child can be excited all night without sleeping, not sleeping at 10 o'clock, always sleeping at 11 o'clock, right?
However, most families can't resist the children who go to bed at eleven or twelve o'clock at night, especially the person who is responsible for taking the baby and coaxing them to sleep.
Children who often go to bed late will have 3 vicious cycles of bad sleep:
For infants and young children aged 0-3 years old, the excitement and excitement before going to bed will soon bring a sleep disaster, the child will cry more than once, completely out of control, all kinds of carp in the arms of parents, it is difficult to soothe down, commonly known as "sleep".
It is not easy to lull a sleepy child to sleep, and it often takes more than an hour to end the fight and exhaust the person in charge of sleeping.
For preschoolers over the age of 3, the impact of going to bed late is even greater.
If it is in the school stage, do not sleep at night, but have to get up in the morning, then the child will not sleep enough throughout the night, and long-term sleep deprivation will lead to serious consequences such as low growth, decreased concentration, cognitive decline, and irritability.
If it is the holiday stage, go to bed late and don't sleep in the morning, the whole day of eating, playing, sleeping and life and rest will be moved back, when it is time to eat, the child is not hungry, when it is time for outdoor activities, the child is hungry again, the rhythm of life is disrupted, bringing us a lot of trouble.
When school is about to start, parents have to work hard to readjust their children's schedules.
Adequate sleep time is a very important thing for children at any stage, and the first thing to do to ensure adequate sleep time is not to let your child get too excited before going to bed, and to ensure that he can fall asleep at the right time.
4 factors that make it easy for children to change from tired to excited before bedtime
1. A sleeping environment without sleep signals
Falling asleep requires some specific signals, such as dim lights and non-noisy sounds, to signal to your child that it is time to sleep from a sensory perspective.
However, the reality of many families is that parents come back late from work, which coincides with the child's sleep time, and the various sounds of tinkling and clanging when they come home cannot calm the child.
In the second-child family, there is also a skirmish in which the eldest and second child snatch the mother, causing the child to be emotionally unstable before going to bed.
2. Children in the period of separation anxiety do not sleep in order to wait for their mothers
Every child goes through a period of separation anxiety, and only at night can he see his mother, so the child will "deliberately hold on" until his mother comes home and not sleep when it is time to sleep.
After the mother comes back, the child will be very excited, and he will play with his mother first, hug and hug before he is willing to sleep.
3. I didn't sleep well during the day and accumulated too much tiredness
For children aged 0-4 years, a nap during the day is a short charge to keep the child in a good state of wakefulness, if the daytime nap does not sleep well, the tiredness is not completely relieved, it will also lead to the continuous accumulation of cortisol and other hormones, and the night will break out of sleep.
Or let the child sleep too long in the afternoon and dusk, overcharge, and really not sleepy at night.
4. Families like to play with their children before bedtime
Based on the erroneous theory that excitement before bed means not being sleepy, many family members (especially fathers) like to play and amuse their children, and they call it "discharge" to him.
The more you tease your child, the more excited your child becomes
The more excited, the higher the adrenaline and cortisol
The higher the hormone, the more excited the child is
The more excited, the less the child wants to sleep
The above 4 factors are very common, but many people will do the wrong operation, in order to let the child calm down at the right time and fall asleep quickly, you must learn to cool him down, cool down.
Children who are excited before bedtime, do not need to discharge, but to cool down.
A child who is excited before going to bed is like a pot of boiling water, gurgling and steaming, all you have to do at this time is to unplug the power, open the lid of the pot, cool him down, let him cool down, and it will be quiet.
1. Cool down your child at least 1 hour in advance
Don't cram, 20:00 it's time to go to bed, 19:45 to start washing the child, the time is too tight, we are in a hurry, the child is also easily irritable.
Generally speaking, it is more reasonable to start preparing for sleep 1-1.5 hours in advance, and there is enough time for us to slowly complete the washing, tidying, reading and other links.
For example, if a 3-6-year-old child wants to ensure 11 hours of sleep every night, he should make sure that he falls asleep at 21:00, starts to fall asleep at 20:30, and starts to cool down at 19:30, so as to avoid the above 4 factors that interfere with falling asleep.
It is best to fix the time of falling asleep every night, and if you stick to it for a long time, your child's biological clock will be regular.
2. Use conditioned reflexes to fix the bedtime process
The fixed bedtime process is a very effective conditioned reflex, when the child gets used to the time to start washing, reading, step by step to advance the process, drowsiness will come naturally.
This is the most effective and simple means of cultivating sleep regularity.
There are 2 key points:
The first is "fixed", that is, the form and order of the things to be done every night are fixed, at least for a long time, such as washing, changing clothes, reading, turning off the lights, chatting, and falling asleep with your eyes closed.
We can adjust the content and order according to the age of the child, but do not change it too often, causing confusion and uncertainty for the child.
The second is "persistence", the conditioned reflex must be to persist for a long time before the subconscious reflex, and slowly internalize into the child's sense of order, such as reading before bedtime, families who insist on more than half a year will find that if they can't read before going to bed one day, the child is not used to it, and must read a book.
With persistence day after day, the child will not be too resistant to the bedtime process, he is very accustomed to it, and when this link is over, the next link will begin.
3. Get support from your family
If the time parents come back from work coincides with the child's time to go to sleep, we can discuss either not disturbing the child who is falling asleep, or greet the child with a peaceful ritual, such as reading a book.
In my family, for example, when the child's father comes back every day, we just have to turn off the lights and go to sleep, and the father will come in to greet the child, and the child will sit up and talk to the father endlessly, and the time to fall asleep will be delayed.
Later, after communication, the child's father would not come in as long as he saw that the door of our bedroom was closed.
4. Give your child a discharge during the day
During the day, try to take your child outdoors to discharge electricity to ensure that your child has enough exercise, and sufficient exercise can drive a virtuous cycle of eating and sleeping for your child.