On March 31st, we had a special guest speaker, Jennifer Garden (a registered occupational therapist from North Shore Occupational Therapy Inc) discuss the ever-important topic of Sleep Training. Here are some helpful tips from that talk. We are posting it here for your convenience.
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Five Areas to Promote Good Sleep Habits
Environment:
- White noise is helpful to drown out background noise.
- Some inexpensive solutions are to use a fan or put a radio on which is not set to a station (resulting in static noise)
- Ensure your child’s room is at the proper temperature, recommendation is between 16 – 19 degrees Celcius.
Schedule:
- Schedules help young children predict what is coming next thereby giving them a sense of security.
- Respect your child’s cues for sleepiness e.g. rubbing ears, sucking thumb.
- Keep naps and bedtime consistent.
- Children from 0 – 6 months nap 3-4 times a day and 6 – 12 months 2 – 3 times a day and twice a day at 18 months. After 18 months, children ususally have one nap a day until approximately 3 years of age.
- Set a regular time for bed each night and wake-up time each morning. Keep the time consistent between weekdays and weekends.
- Establish a predictable and consistent bedtime routine of approximately ½ - 1 hr with calm activities, with the last part of the routine occurring in the child’s bedroom.
Physical Exercise:
- Age appropriate activites (tummy time, signing songs, reading books, playing/exploring, walking, running, climbing, jumping, swimming, biking) develop excelent motor skils and also assist children with better sleep at naptime and during the night.
- Theory behind getting outside during daylight hours to do activities, e.g. going for a walk, is that exposure to daylight promotes better melitonin release at night for a better sleep.
- Avoid sedentary activities e.g. watching television is not recommended for children under the age of two. Exposure to television is linked to attention disorders, irritability and aggression in young children. Research also indicates it may contribute to sleep problems.
Sensory Needs:
- Sensory processing is a neurological process that organizes sensations from the body (touch, hearing, vision, smell, taste, movement, balance) and the environment to make it possible to achieve skills like eating, sleeping, playing, toilettting etc…
- Investigate how your child calms themselves and help them achieve these skills independently.
- Be aware of the sensory stimulation in your child’s envirionment prior to putting them to sleep.
- Finally, research shows that if you allow your child to explore their sensory needs e.g. sucking thumb, rubbing head etc… independenly in their crib/bed they are better sleepers than children who’s parents assist by e.g. rocking, holding, bouncing child to sleep.
Parenting Style:
- Use of Adlerian Psychology is parenting with firmness (firm, age appropriate boundaries) and kindness at the same time. Demonstrating mutual respect among all family members and following through with natural and logical consequences. This type of parenting fosters confidence in children leading to better sleep habits (among other skills). It’s about modelling the behaviour you want to see in your children.
- Use of social stories and picture schedules help toddlers better understand sleep schedules.
How Long Should Your Child Sleep For?
Results from study completed by Iglowstein et al (2003) reporting total (quiet time, which can be assumed as sleep) spent in bed during the daytime and night time at different ages. Numbers in + are reported as one standard deviation (e.g. representing 68% of population). Please note, at 1 month of age, data are variable and is approximated from curve on original study.
Age | Total sleep | Daytime | Night time |
1 mo | 14.5 + 1 hrs | 6 + 1 hrs | variable |
3 mo | 14.5 + 1.5 hrs | 5 + 1 hrs | 10 + 1 hrs |
6 mo | 14.2 + 1.9 hrs | 3.4 + 1.5 hrs | 11 + 1.1 hrs |
9 mo | 13.9 + 1.7 hrs | 2.8 + 1.2 hrs | 11.2 + 1 hrs |
12 mo | 13.9 + 1.2 hrs | 2.4 + 1.1 hrs | 11.7 + 1 hrs |
18 mo | 13.6 + 1.2 hrs | 2.0 + 0.7 hrs | 11.6 + 0.9 hrs |
2 yrs | 13.2 + 1.2 hrs | 1.8 + 0.5 hrs | 11.5 + 0.9 hrs |
3 yrs | 12.5 + 1.1 hrs | 1.7 + 0.4 hrs | 11.4 + 0.8 hrs |
This is great, thanks for posting! Sorry I missed it:(
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