Are you setting up your child for failure?

Okay, I know that no parent wants to hear that. But this is for the moms and dads who might feel that sleep training isn’t necessary. I know there are many parents who believe their kids will just somehow magically get the crucial sleep they need even when their child wakes up consistently through the night, or goes to bed at eleven o’clock, or needs to be rocked back to sleep every two hours.

Sleep is precious and necessary. It is not something to be taken for granted. And once your kids get to school age, they are going to need it more than ever.

Why do we need sleep?

We sleep one-third of our lives away, and every creature in nature sleeps. There are many theories about exactly why this is, but scientists haven’t yet been able to discover a definitive answer. They suspect, though, that it’s a chance for the body to conserve energy and for the body and mind to be restored. Kind of like filling up a fuel tank that’s on empty. We can’t expect our body and brain to keep firing on all cylinders when it’s depleted.

Kids are active and busy all day, as you well know, playing and growing and learning. Just making decisions and experiencing emotions can take a toll on us and leave us feeling depleted. It only makes sense that we need to balance it all out with a good, long rest.

So what happens when kids don’t get enough sleep?

We all know that lack of sleep in adults can cause irritability, fatigue, lack of focus and, on the extreme end of the spectrum, even depression and anxiety.

Imagine you’ve had a bad sleep, tossing and turning through the night. You wake up feeling foggy and not quite up to the tasks ahead of you at work. You down a cup of coffee and head out to the office where all day you keep getting distracted, or feeling like you could doze off on your computer keyboard. You feel like you didn’t get much accomplished, and you spent most of the day just wishing you could crawl back into bed.

Well, it isn’t any different for kids. But just imagine you were being graded on the work you did that day…odds are, you might not be getting an A! When sleepy kids go to school, they are not at their best, and you can’t expect them to be functioning like they are. It’s no wonder that kids who don’t sleep well have a harder time in school.

There have been countless studies that show that poor sleep in kids is associated with daytime fatigue, trouble concentrating, ADHD, and acting out in class. Longstanding sleep problems are even connected to some learning difficulties.

So if there is any doubt that your kids need to learn to sleep properly when they are young, just think about how you want their lives to be when they’re older. Do you want to set them up for success, or let them develop habits that will make their lives more difficult?

It seems pretty simple to me. Teaching them to sleep well now will give them all the tools they need to get ahead and do their best at school.

If you are ready to teach your child the skills it takes to sleep independently, check out The Sleep Sense Program.  It is designed to get your child sleeping 11 – 12+ hours a night.  

Click here to learn more.