Going Out to Dinner with Kids While on a Sleep Schedule
The Benefits of Sleep for Children: Why Sleep is the Coolest
It’s no mystery that I am a huge advocate for quality sleep at all ages. After all, I built a sleep consulting company with a goal of helping people make small habit changes in their day that lead to significant improvements in the quality of a person’s sleep – with life-changing results. The benefits of sleep can be really easy to identify if you’re a parent whose child has had a rough night or a missed nap. But, I love to get children to feel empowered around their sleep as they grow bigger, too! It’s why I wrote A Kids Book About Sleep!
For now, if you are on the fence about the value of going through the sleep training process let me share some of the benefits of sleep for children that we regularly see in our business!
Sleep Supports a Healthy Appetite
One client recently shared that her twins’ “food intake has almost tripled, prior to this process they were eating very little…”. While we don’t always hear that food intake has tripled, we regularly hear from clients that one of the benefits of getting good sleep, is an increase in appetite. One reason is that sleep helps regulate the hormones that control appetite. If a baby gets good sleep, these hormones become balanced, and appetite that may have been impacted by poor sleep, will improve. Another reason for this improvement in appetite is feeding patterns. As part of every sleep plan, our consultants discuss nutrition, how liquid or solid meals fit into a child’s day, and how that will support sleep.
Sleep Benefits Learning
A recent study showed that two year olds that napped shortly after learning something had a greater ability to recall that information than compared to their peers that did not nap. That brings us to our second benefit of sleep! Once new information is received, knowledge is then consolidated in your brain, like a file being placed in the proper spot to be found at a future date. This process happens when you’re asleep! That means if you don’t get enough rest, your brain isn’t able to retain these memories and recall the information. Thus, children who regularly receive quality sleep have proven to perform better in school. Not only for memory retention and recall, but because poor sleep can also impact attention span and behavior.
Sleep Supports Regulated Behaviors
I’m sure the behaviors you have noticed when your child has a poor night of sleep is crankiness, tantrums, and/or whining. If we’re being honest, I’m sure you can relate. You probably don’t feel at your best when you haven’t sleep well, too. Lack of sleep can cause heightened emotional reactivity, which is why these behaviors may be present. Sleep is responsible for our executive functioning, regulation of our nervous system, and balancing of hormones that impact mood. I could argue that this is one of the biggest benefits to sleep for our children, as it provides a foundation for their social emotional growth and will positively impact all areas of their life at home and in social settings with peers.
Sleep Makes Children Happy
As I just mentioned above, sleep helps balance the hormones that impact mood. Our team often hears that families are reporting that their baby seems so happy at the conclusion of sleep training. It is no mystery why! Once their mood hormones are balanced and children are feeling rested, it is common to see a child’s demeanor improve as well.
The Benefit of Sleep for Your Children is You Can Sleep, Too!
We’ve just shared that some of the biggest benefit to sleep in children are improved appetite, ability to learn and store memories, improved behavior and mood, but it is also so important for me to share that when your child is sleeping well you can sleep too! Sleep is the foundation for your well-being. If you aren’t sleeping well, you aren’t going to be able to function at your best. When your child is able to sleep all of the benefits we just listed will benefit you. You’ll have more energy to help your kids, you’ll feel less depleted, more capable of managing stress and anxiety. For a new mom going through the hormonal shift of postpartum, sleep is incredibly important.
If you are in need of a resource, we invite you to take advantage of free call. Just as the benefits of sleep extend beyond an uninterrupted night of sleep, the process of sleep training extends beyond bedtime. Nutrition, sleep environment, routine, schedule, movement and quality connection time (for older children) all impact a peaceful night of sleep. The benefits of sleep are undeniable!