Published on Nov 19, 2021
Prasanta R
Are Your Kids Getting Enough Sleep?
Sleep is essential for children, and it is important for all living things, not just children. The act of sleeping is the act of allowing your body to relax. Your hormones and body can't work correctly if you don't get enough sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, you'll have to cope with various health issues.
Every parent is concerned about their child's sleeping habits. A good night's sleep is also essential for your children's health.
Sleep is essential for growing children. However, the amount of time your child sleeps depends on their age. A newborn infant requires most sleep. The age range and amount of sleep you need to be acknowledged with are as follows:
- Infants from four to twelve months require 12 to 16 hours of sleep every night, including naps.
- Toddlers aged one to two years old require 11 to 14 hours of sleep every night, including naps.
- Preschoolers aged 3 to 5 require 10 to 13 hours of sleep each night, including naps.
- Children aged 6 to 12 require 9 to 12 hours of sleep.
- Teenagers aged 13 to 18 require 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night.
The Importance of Sleep
The importance of sleep in human life cannot be overstated. Water, air, and other essential elements of human life are inextricably linked. As a result, you can't live without it. Sleep is essential for healthy health and well-being in your life. Your mental and physical health will be protected if you get enough sleep at the correct time. Sleep is also beneficial to a child's or adolescent's growth and development.
If you don't get enough sleep the next day, you'll have less energy, be unable to function effectively, have a confused mind, and experience irritability and mood changes. So, here are some of the reasons why sleep is essential.
- Your body will get the rest it needs.
- It aids in the improvement of productivity and attention.
- Sleep deprivation will exacerbate your physical health problems.
- Helps us to have more energy, perform better, and live a healthier lifestyle.
- Sleep deprivation causes physical and mental health issues.
- Aids in the improvement of the immune system
- Sleep deprivation raises the risk of sadness and anxiety.
Sleep is also essential for your kids. They are in the developing process. They need various factors which help in their development. Sleep is one of the factors needed for kids to develop their physical and mental well-being.
You may watch their social media activity to see what they're up to because most youngsters these days utilize social media extensively. Children go to school, interact with their peers, and finish their homework or assignments. These processes will consume a lot of energy. Kids require sleep to recover their energy or to allow their bodies to function correctly. If your children do not get enough sleep, it will directly impact their growing brain, causing a slew of issues.
Why Aren’t Kids Getting Enough Sleep?
The majority of children nowadays do not get enough sleep. Mobile devices, family strain and conflict, poor eating, cyberbullying, and various other issues all contribute to inadequate sleep. In addition, kids watch cartoons, movies, play games, talk, and use social media late at night while utilizing a digital device. As a result, they become hooked to a digital device, resulting in less sleep.
It's also tough to get a good night's sleep if your kids eat junk food and caffeine-containing foods. In addition, children who are bullied by others are unable to sleep well. So there are a variety of reasons why children do not get enough sleep.
Signs and Symptoms of not Getting Enough Sleep
The signs and symptoms of sleep deprivation might help you determine whether or not your children are receiving enough sleep. Knowing these indicators will enable you to assist your children in obtaining enough sleep and will provide insight into the causes behind their lack of sleep. The following are the indications and symptoms of not getting enough sleep.
● Get often tired and lacks energy level
● Feel irritated and frequent mood change
● Memory problem (often tend to forget)
● High chances of obesity
● Lack of concentration
● Frequent health complications and physical pain
● Dark circles and low vision
● Impulsive behaviour
Ways to Know your Kids Getting Enough Sleep
The ways to know if your kids are getting enough sleep or not are as follows.
Parental Control Apps
There are many parental control apps to monitor your Kid's screen time activities. Majorities of the best parental control app are paid for because of their unique functionality. It allows you to track every record of your Kid's activities on digital devices. One of the best and affordable parental control apps is fenced.ai. This app allows you to check your Kid's time activities on mobile devices.
Fenced.ai provides an application screen time feature where you can monitor all the activities on mobile devices. You can check if your kids are using a mobile device at bedtime or not. You can check their app usage time. You will also get detailed reporting of screen time activities. If you find your kids use mobile phones excessively at night, you can block those apps and prevent them from using them.
Knowing the Sign of Sleep Deprivation
It's the best way to know whether your kids are having a healthy sleep or not. Make sure you observed and notice your Kid's activities. You should know the signs and symptoms of Sleep deprivation. With the help of these signs, you can know their sleeping duration. If you didn't find any of those signs, then your child is getting enough sleep.
If not, then you should know the issues that cause your kids to have bad sleeping habits. You should have a frequent chat with your kids if they have difficulties sleeping or any problem they are facing.
Screen Time
It's an integrated app that is only available on the iOS device platform. The screen time app is a beneficial app to check your Kid's app activities. You can check the average time of social media apps. The system will list the most used app, and you can view it. You can check their daily app use time if you find your kids using a mobile phone, even at sleeping time. You can lock their phone and disable the mobile function.
You can easily link your and kids' device. You can limit their phone's activities. You can protect your screen time setting with a passcode so that your kids won't be able to change the settings. You can set bedtime, and kids will be reminded about bedtime. It helps kids to follow healthy sleep habits.
Help your Kid get Proper Sleep.
Parenting teens is essential as you can help them to practice proper healthy sleeping habits. Some tips for healthy sleep are as follows.
Schedule your Kid’s Bed Time
It's important to schedule your Kid's digital device. The sleeping hours can be different for the age groups. So make sure you make a sleeping routine as per your Kid's needs sleep. Make sure you tell your kids to follow the sleeping schedule. If they don't follow the routine, tell them they will have to face punishment. It doesn't mean harsh punishment. It means constructive punishment.
Healthy Eating Habits
It's necessary to have healthy eating habits for kids. They need to eat healthy food for their body to function correctly. If your kids overeat junk food and caffeine before going to sleep, it makes their metabolism weak and causes difficulty while sleeping. Too much sugar isn't appropriate for developing kids or teens. Kids need to ignore wrapping food, soda, coke, complex coffees, and other junk food which isn't good for their health.
Make sure you set healthy eating habits first, and then teach your kids to eat healthily. Kids follow their parents, so you need to be a good influence. Tell them about the benefits of healthy food. Healthy and light food help a child to have a healthy sleep.
Exercise
It helps kids to fall asleep faster at night. It makes their body tired, and their body also functions properly, which helps them fall asleep at night. If your kids are having trouble sleeping, you should make the kids involved in some moving activities. Make a playing routine after finishing their school assignment or homework rather than giving underaged kids a mobile phone.
Their brain will also be active while playing. It will be helpful for kids in many aspects. For teens and adults also exercise is needed. Exercise helps to maintain your pressure, improve metabolism and reduce stress and depression. It also helps to have a night of quality sleep.
Encourage your Child
It will help if you encourage your child daily. Proper sleep also needs to be prioritized like other aspects of life. Make sure you encourage your kids to go to bed early, don't stay too late. Parents also need to provide them with a peaceful environment. It would be best if you had a regular chat about their daily activities. Encourage your kids not to keep a phone in your bedroom and try to have device-free activities.
Limit Digital Devices Use
It's necessary to limit their device use as most kids keep their mobile phone on the side of their bedroom. The mobile phone is the main factor that disturbed Kid's sleep. If your child is studying online, it is more important to limit internet time after school. They tend to use the cellphone at bedtime and fall asleep while using a cellphone. So with the help of parental control apps, you can limit their mobile device usage. The best parental apps to limit your Kid's device are fenced.ai, Bark, and Net Nanny.
All these parental control apps provide a feature to monitor a kid's device activities. You can check their app history. You will get the date and average time of kids using any apps on a cellphone. You can set a timer or lock their device. You will get to know if your kids are using a mobile phone while sleeping. You can restrict your kids from overusing digital devices.
Conclusion
Thus, every parent is concerned about their child’s health. So sleep is a vital aspect to keep kids healthy. Children’s health will be at risk if they are not getting good sleep. They will have to face physical and mental health issues. It would help if you observed your child getting enough sleep or not. If not, you should make a sleep routine, and your kids need to follow the sleep routines. Make sure your kids follow healthy living tips.
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