Children desperately need sleep--not eight hours like adults should be striving for but at least 11 hours of solid rest. Which makes eight o'clock the bewitching hour. Understanding the power of sleep may compel us to strive to get our kiddos in bed early.
Just as exercise and nutrition are essential for our optimal health and happiness, so is sleep. The quality of our sleep directly affects mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity and even weight. Apparently, no other activity delivers so many benefits with so little effort.
I always told my kids that they grew in their sleep--tacitly implying that if they didn't sleep for as long as I expected, they just might not ever get taller. This tactic has worked for many years. Everyone wants to grow...right?
Hopefully, as parents we will remember that we need to have excellent rest as well. Setting this example might be one of our most important responsibilities with our children.
Listed below are a few myths and facts about sleep:
Myths and Facts about Sleep
Myth 1: Getting just 1 hour less sleep per night won’t affect your daytime functioning. You may not be noticeably sleepy during the day. But even slightly less sleep can affect your ability to think properly and respond quickly, and compromise your cardiovascular health, energy balance, and ability to fight infections.
Myth 2: Your body adjusts quickly to different sleep schedules. Most people can reset their biological clock, but only by appropriately timed cues—and even then, by 1–2 hours per day at best. Consequently, it can take more than a week to adjust after traveling across several time zones or switching to the night shift.
Myth 3: Extra sleep at night can cure you of problems with excessive daytime fatigue. Not only is the quantity of sleep important but also the quality of sleep. Some people sleep 8 or 9 hours a night but don’t feel well rested when they wake up because the quality of their sleep is poor.
Myth 4: You can make up for lost sleep during the week by sleeping more on the weekends.Although this sleeping pattern will help relieve part of a sleep debt, it will not completely make up for the lack of sleep. Furthermore, sleeping later on the weekends can affect your sleep-wake cycle so that it is much harder to go to sleep at the right time on Sunday nights and get up early on Monday mornings.
Adapted from: Your Guide to Healthy Sleep (PDF) The National Institutes of Health
Check out the article "How to Get Kids to Sleep More" for more advice:
http://nymag.com/news/features/38979/
"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?
--Ernest Hemmingway
