‘Are they sleeping through the night yet?’ is a question which many parents of young babies will be familiar with. But what if your children are no longer babies, but are still suffering from difficulties with their sleep? Don’t worry, you’re not alone – statistics show that 69 per cent of children under the age of 10 are affected by sleep problems that can lead to mood swings, behavioural disorders and irritability.
Luckily, if you’re at the end of your tether and wondering if you’ll ever enjoy non-broken sleep again, or are simply hoping to avoid regular bedtime battles with your kids, there’s a new book out that aims to help.
The Good Sleep Guide for Kids is a guide to solving sleep problems in children aged 3 to 10 from leading physiotherapist and author of The Good Sleep Guide, Sammy Margo.
The book begins by explaining why healthy sleep is so important for children. It’s sobering to realise that a study has shown that children aged five and six who g0t less than eight hours of sleep a night had a 300 per cent higher rate of obesity than kids who slept a full ten hours. And it’s no surprise to discover that children who are not getting enough sleep will often suffer with behavioural issues.
The book then gives an insight into the typical stages of sleep that your child will enter and how many hours of sleep they should be getting each night.
After the the introductory chapters, author Sammy Margo starts delivering tips and advice to counter common sleep problems. From nightmares to growing pains – she covers a whole array of difficulties and gives practical advice on how to deal with or prevent them. Later on in the book Sammy explains how important your child’s environment is to them sleeping well – and has many tips for creating a restful atmosphere in their bedroom.
Other chapters tackle the importance of the bedtime routine, but also have hints on how to deal with disruptions – such as holidays away. Sammy even gives suggestions on which are the best bedtime snacks for kids (bananas a very good apparently!).
The book is nothing, if not practical – for every problem, Sammy offers a solution, in a calm, matter of fact manner. For instance, she confirms that kids really do need their recommended hour of exercise a day – and if they don’t, getting them to bed on time is likely to be a struggle. This may seem an obvious point – but how many of us put it into practice?
If you’ve got bad sleepers in the house, it can quickly feel like nothing will ever cure that – this book, however, shows that often there are simple solutions to the problem – many of which you can implement right away.
The Good Sleep Guide for Kids by Sammy Margo, is published by Vermilion, rrp £10.99
Kids and Sleep – Dispelling the myths..
Tags: children's sleep, good sleep guide, good sleep guide for kids, good sleep guide for kids sammy margo, sammy margo, sleep broblems children, sleep problems kids
