5 Tips for Better Sleeping- For Kids and Parents!

National Sleep Foundation’s 2004 Sleep in America poll found that parents/caregivers lose an average of 200 hours of sleep a year, due to their child’s nighttime awakenings. In 2007, the same poll found that 20% of women are awakened to give care to a child during the night.  Let’s face it moms, we are not getting enough sleep!

Sleep is always a hot topic, especially for families managing ADHD.  Individuals, be they kids or parents, struggling to manage attention, often have issues with arousal, making it difficult to settle down, as well as wake up.  Sleep, is always elusive for us.  Add to this issue is the downward spiral of less sleep contributes to greater difficulty maintaining our attention.  Below are 5 tips for getting a better night’s sleep, so you can a happier person and a more attentive mom.

Go outside! During the day, make a ritual of taking a walk.  Sunshine helps regulate circadian rhythms or our sleep-wake cycle.  Spend an hour or more outside everyday helps get us on a rhythm of rising with the sun and sleeping when it goes down, helping to offset that struggle with settling to sleep or arousing to get going.  

Have a bedtime- even Moms and Dads! It is easy to slip into the notion, I can stay up and do _____, after the kids are in bed.  Research is showing that those hours cannot be made up on the weekend.  Regular 8 hours of sleep is required for a good attention and a sense of well-being.  So set your DVR and go to bed!

Avoid pictorial-visual stimulation such as TV, computers, and video gaming devices an hour or more before bed.  These types of sensorial input devices, create novel experiences that increases dopamine production, increasing arousal making it difficult to fall asleep.

Have a bedtime routine, that tells your brain, it’s time to settle down.  Begin with self-care but then play instrumental music, dim the lights, read in a bedside chair (with a book light) or listen to a book on tape.  For kids, complete bathing and teeth brushing,  and then create your routine with your child.  Maybe begin with reflecting on all the best parts of the day, and things they are thankful for, then read a book.

Practice some yoga and meditation.  Consider adding some relaxation yoga techniques to your routine.  Laurie Jordan, is soon to be out with her new book, Yawning Yoga, which walks families through a series of exercises especially designed to make kids more aware of their relaxation state, and to achieve that state.  Begin with the Jiggle-wiggle test: wiggle your body to make sure it’s ready for sleep.  In Dog-tired down dog, get on all fours and wag your tail.  In Bedtime-Bug,  lay in bed on your back, with toes in your hands, rock back and forth.  The Lemon squeeze, is done lying in bed and suggests you squeeze you nose, toes, hands, as tight as you can and then relax.  Notice the tension difference in your body.   The Spaghetti test, is designed to continue making kids more aware of the tension in their bodies, by assessing if they are raw or cooked spaghetti. Next in the yoga bedtime routine, Good Night little body, wiggle each individual body part, as you say “good night” to each part. Finally end with pressing your palms together and saying “Namaste.”   May the divinity in me honor the divinity in you.

Here’s wishing you a restful sleepfilled weekend!

Candace

Resources

Yoga Teacher Directory: Find a Yoga teacher in your area

The Kids Yoga Resource