Now is the time to instill good sleep habits in your children. Whether they're toddlers or teenagers, helping them understand the benefits of proper sleep will start them off on the right path to health and happiness, improving anything from weight to brain function.
Better sleep habits, such as a consistent sleep schedule and an earlier bedtime, can help maintain or improve your child's attentiveness during the day. Sometimes, a distracted child is just a child who needs sleep. Additionally, as a study recently uncovered, lack of proper sleep can also lead to or be indicative of such mental health issues as anxiety and depression. Researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London and Tel Aviv University found that insomnia, disturbed sleep or nightmares could be early warning signs of mental illness or mood disorder and also potentially increased the likelihood of their development.
Not only can a lack of sleep start to affect your child's memory, mood and performance in school, it can also cause them to gain weight. A new study, conducted by the University of California Berkeley, found a correlation between weight gain in teenagers to late bedtimes. The study, published in the journal Sleep's October issue, found that every hour of sleep lost added approximately 2.1 on the body mass index. One way to enforce an earlier bedtime is to cut off the use of electronics, like TV or mobile devices, at a certain time to make sure your teen is going to bed early enough.
If you don't think your child is being affected by improper sleep, it may be wise to reconsider. A recent survey found that a staggering number of children are diagnosed and medicated for sleep problems. The survey, conducted by Dirk Bock of Western University, found that 70 percent of children without a preexisting condition actually had trouble sleeping, and 27 percent of them were given over-the-counter medicine as treatment. A lot of children are affected in some way by sleep issues, some as mild as nightmares, others as chronic as insomnia. Sleep and health go hand in hand, so it's important to be aware of how well or how poorly your child is sleeping.
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