and The No-Cry Sleep Solution
(seriously, read those books: they're invaluable). Most sources say that kids do best when they fall asleep between 6:30-7:30 pm. That is right... between 6:30 and 7:30 pm. (Mine go to bed at 7:00 pm).And then, generally, young kids/toddlers will sleep until around 6:30 in the morning (possibly earlier, if you're my son). Oftentimes, if a child is misbehaving or having difficulty managing emotions, it could be because they are missing sleep.
This might seem kind of ironic, given that I'm an unschooler (where one school of thought might be that children should be allowed to follow their body rhythms naturally and go to sleep when and where they feel like it), but I've always found that my children need to be parented to sleep (which Elizabeth Pantley talks a lot about in The No-Cry Sleep Solution). I enjoy the nighttime ritual of stories, quiet time, and putting lullabies on the CD player. It's one of the most relaxing parts of the day.
But then, by the teen years, their circadian rhythms change and they naturally start staying up later and, thus, should be allowed to sleep in later as well. This is why schools should have a later start time for teenagers. This was talked about in the book Nurture Shock
, and it cited one school that pushed start time up an hour and how their test scores improved considerably because of this.Okay. That's it.
6 comments:
i can't get clemmy to sleep earlier than 10:30 EVERY NIGHT. since birth, the earliest she's ever gone to bed is 8:30. what.the.hell. am i doing wrong? we don't let her "cry it out", i give her a bath and stop playing along with her after a certain time, and still...nothing. even when she goes to bed at 11:30, she wakes up at 8.
Hmm... I'm not sure. How long / at what times does she nap? (I think that should ideally be no more than 5 hours after waking up). Those two books that I mentioned have a myriad of tips and techniques. Does it seem like she needs more sleep? Maybe she is one of those kids who doesn't need a lot of sleep (although most do). Maybe move up the bedtime routine a little bit each night. Our bedtime routine literally lasts one hour. When they were younger, we would stay in bed and sing songs to them until they fell asleep, and then we never left until we were sure they were fast asleep. I don't know though, but see if reading those books will help. The No-Cry Sleep Solution has a For Toddlers version.
i have read those books and a dozen others on sleep. i agree with them except for the fact that my kids don't seem to! i have tried it all. inevitably, they fall asleep later than i think they should. i can't think about it anymore because it drives me crazy!
Lisa - It's a good thing you're unschooling so your kids can sleep in. That's a good thing.
I am 110% with you on this. My kids go to bed at 6:30 and sleep until around 7am. I truly attribute a lot of their happy, easy-going nature to the amount of sleep they get. And it's great for my husband and me too! We're able to actually spend time together in the evenings! I also love the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby - sounds like it echos a lot of what your books are saying.
I agree that sleep is the solution! My mother had this idea growing up that if you slept past 7 am, half the day is wasted. And as a teenager I would have a difficult time giong to bed early and so I was always tired and had a very difficult time in high school staying away and concentrating due to not enough sleep and no allowance to catch up on the weekends. My daughter goes to bed at 8, she is two and I never wake her up nor do I put time limits on nap time and she is also a very pleasent, well natured, happy child most of the time. This thing called "terrible twos" rarely rarely occurs with her. Luckily I do not work full time and so I do not have to wake her to drag her to a sitter all week long. Our life is much more relaxed and easy going- not ruled by the clock- like so many are.
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