It is important to ensure that your children get a good night’s sleep

A good night’s sleep can give your children good health.If you detect that your children have issues in their sleeping patterns, help them early to prevent diseases.

The consequences of not sleeping well

sleepless night

It’s not just the brain that gets affected by the lack of sleep. Researchers have found out that a lack of sleep affects the entire metabolic activity. Diseases like diabetes, heart ailments and obesity can occur by a lack of sleep too.A hormonal imbalance is created in the body because of short sleep. Hormones like the growth hormone, insulin, cortisol, leptin are affected by short sleep. Children feel energy drained, lethargic, have cognitive issues and as a result, their performance goes down. A study at the Johns Hopkins University has revealed that the children who sleep less are more prone to becoming obese.

How much sleep should your child get?

Portrait sleeping mother and the child

There is no fixed number of hours, however children of different age require different number of hours to sleep. The newborns sleep almost the entire day, about 18 to 20 hours, where as children between the ages of 3 to 5 years need 11 to 13 hours of sleep. Sleeping patterns vary with the activity and age of the child. Usually children between the age group of 12 to 18 years need 8 to 9 hours of sleep.

How to determine whether your child is getting appropriate sleep?

Sleeping baby

There are a few pointers that will help you in making out whether you child is getting sufficient sleep. If the child appears to be well rested during the daytime and falls asleep within 15 to 30 minutes of entering the bed. If the child remains awake during the passive activities like viewing TV and wakes up fresh in the morning at a regular time. All this hint that the child is getting a proper sleep.On the other hand if the child feels sleepy during the day, yawns a lot. The child shows lack of interest and is inattentive in school, consider these signals of lack of sleep.

Allow the child to sleep more by either making him go to bed early or waking up late. However, if your child is still unable to sleep properly you can consult a doctor.

Keep a check on the sleeping patterns of your children so that they can lead a healthy and an active life.

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