Bedtime Challenges - Getting Your Kid to Sleep

Psychologists have a bunch of methods for parents to try to get their kids to sleep. They have terms like “unmodified extinction”, aka crying it out, which means leaving the kid in bed until morning, no matter how much crying or complaining goes on. “Graduated extinction” means the parent weans the kid from being around others by putting him or her to bed still awake, and slowly shifting the amount of time the parent waits with the child to shorter and shorter periods.

Another time-related trick is “bedtime fading” which calls for the slow rolling back of bedtimes of children who prefer to go to bed late. Sometimes psychologists also advocate counseling for problem sleepers and suggest the children and their parents construct a plan together to achieve a targeted bedtime. This makes it into a project for the kid. Good sleep hygiene is recommended for children, as it is for everyone. Kids can especially benefit from a set bedtime routine before they go to sleep, perhaps involving story reading, a bath, or changing into pajamas. This helps reinforce the child’s circadian clock.

What can parents do to help children get to sleep?

1. Make the bedroom boring. Or at least dark and free of easy distractions. Televisions, computers, bright lights and electronic toys can disrupt the circadian cycle.
2. Create a routine wind-down period before bedtime. Most adults and children find it difficult to sleep after exercise or other heavy physical activity. Resting before bed helps, and establishing a routine imbibes cues to promote sleep habits. Reading a story to small children is one way to do this, and even older children respond to a routine.
3. Make bedtime fun! OK, that sounds a little corny, but good habits start early. Using "being sent to bed" as a punishment to bad behavior is a bad idea. Then bed becomes associated with losing or being punished. Talk up bedtime as a good thing, not a bad thing.

Short sleeping and overweight children

Studies have found that children who slept fewer than 12 hours per day are more than twice as likely to be overweight at age 3 years as those who slept longer. Each 1-hour reduction in sleep duration seems associated with a 40% increase in the odds of obesity.

Children sometimes suffer from sleep-onset association disorder.

How much "should" kids sleep? The consensus answer is: more! Commenters have bemoaned the lack of a defiitive answer from science and noted that for decades and even centuries pundits have been recommending longer sleep times.

Sleep Disorders

Dyssomnias

Parsomnias

Insomnia Medications