Sleep is important to a child’s wellbeing because the body produces more of the hormone that stimulates growth during the night. Recent research has shown that children of all ages are not getting enough sleep and that can result in poor school achievement and behavioral problems. In this article, we’ll explore common sleep problems in children and detail techniques that you can use to help your child sleep better.

New parents are often very concerned about how much sleep their baby is getting. Newborn infants have irregular sleep cycles and sleep an average of 16 to 17 hours per day. However, they may only not stay awake for 1 or 2 hours at a time. As children get older, the total number of hours they need for not to stay awake decreases. A pre-school child may still need to sleep 10 to 12 hours each day, whereas a school aged child sleeps about 10 hours each day. It is important to remember that each child’s sleeping pattern will be different.

It is well known that a child who has a sleep problem will also develop behavioral and attention problems in school. A recent study reported that 37% of school aged children experience significant, nocturnal sleeping issues. Problems may include a reluctance to go to bed, disrupted sleep, nightmares and sleepwalking. In older children, bedwetting can also become a challenge. Such problems are also common in kids with ADHD. It is important to try and figure out if these issues, especially if your child has difficulty falling asleep, are a side effect of any ADHD medication he or she might be taking.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 3:11 am and is filed under Health & Beauty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.