A. Sleep environment problems – the key to triggering sleep problems
If the child is still unable to fall asleep on his own after three months and cries frequently at night, parents should pay attention because generally, children of this age are able to fall asleep on their own. If by about 5 months of age, the child is still waking up frequently at night, parents must take countermeasures.
All children associate a particular external environment with sleep, meaning that if the child is in his bedroom, lying in bed or in a crib, he will realize that it is time to go to sleep. In the middle of the night, the majority of children will wake up between sleep cycle transitions, and if the environment remains the same, they can continue to sleep peacefully. If a child’s parents are always rocking him when he falls asleep, coaxing her, etc., but when he wakes up in the middle of the night and finds himself alone in his crib, he can’t fall asleep again on his own, not that he doesn’t want to, but he doesn’t know what to do, so he has to cry and let his parents come in and help him, repeating what he did when he fell asleep, and this plays out over and over again throughout the night, and the child’s parents have trouble sleeping. So the problem is not that the child wakes up in the middle of the night, but that the child is unable to fall asleep again on his own after waking up because the sleep environment has changed.
To solve the sleep problems caused by an inappropriate sleep environment, parents need to help their children re-establish an appropriate sleep environment so that when they wake up in the middle of the night, they feel that they are still in the same environment they were in when they fell asleep and that everything around them is under control. The first step in helping your child re-establish his or her sleep environment is to fully understand that this is a difficult process and to be understanding and patient until your child adjusts to the new environment. Changing the old sleep environment is definitely against the child’s will, and the child will definitely resist at first and cry a lot. Insist, as little as a few days, as much as a few weeks, the child’s sleep will improve.
Second, the overall, distributed correction of sleep habits
There are two methods of sleep correction, one is the overall correction method and the other is the step-by-step correction method. Several different sleep habits can be corrected together or one by one.
For example, if a child needs to be rocked by a parent to fall asleep, it can be divided into.
1. reducing the frequency of rocking.
2. simply holding the child without rocking.
3, put the child in bed and just watch him.
Long can choose which method to use according to their situation. Before each step begins to consolidate the previous step, the length of the whole process depends on the implementation in several steps.
Three, step-by-step method
The “step-by-step method” can be used. The step-by-step method allows parents to enter the room when the child is crying, on the one hand, to let the child know the presence of parents, on the other hand, it also allows parents to see if the child is okay.
1. The bedtime of the child can be delayed appropriately for a few weeks after the start of the correction, 30-60 minutes is appropriate, and at the same time, you should make sure that the child wakes up in the morning at the same time as usual, and the time of daytime naps should not be increased arbitrarily.
2. Parents should settle the child in his own bed when he goes to bed, not holding him or rocking him, and make sure the environment when he goes to sleep is the same as when he wakes up in the middle of the night.
3.If the child cries at bedtime or after waking up in the middle of the night, parents can try the waiting time provided in the table below and gradually increase the waiting time consciously. If parents feel that the waiting time in the table is too long, they can adjust it according to the actual situation, but the waiting time must be increased each time. If the child cries more than the number of times given in the table, parents should continue to repeat the maximum number of waiting times for that night, knowing that the child falls asleep on his or her own in the absence of the parent.
4. By day 3 or 4, the child’s sleep condition should have improved considerably. If by day 7, the situation has improved but not eradicated, the parent can extend each waiting time appropriately from day 7 again. But if by day 7, the situation has not improved at all, or even worse, parents should reflect on the whole correction process.
5. After each wait, parents should go into the room to see their child, and the stay should not exceed 2 minutes.
6. Once the child wakes up in the early morning, he should be allowed to get up regardless of whether he wakes up earlier or later than usual. The whole night sleep should be done in one room, not this room for a while, that room for a while.
7. If the child does not want to stay in his room, you can lock the door of the child’s room and wait for him to start crying and then walk to the door according to the time provided in the table. If locking the door doesn’t work, parents can lock the door to their own room as well.
8.If the child sleeps in the same room with the parents and in different beds, and the child refuses to stay in his own bed, the parents should close the door decisively when they leave the room, and then enter the room according to the waiting time until the child falls asleep.
9.If the child sleeps in the same bed with the parents, when the child cries, the parents should keep a distance from the child and ignore any request of the child according to the waiting time in the table in due course.
10, the waiting time in the table applies not only to night sleep, but also to daytime naps. If the child does not sleep after half an hour, or wakes up crying after a while, parents should terminate this nap. In addition, it is best not to be too late for the daytime nap, so as not to affect the child’s sleep at night.
What if the step-by-step method does not work well. Parents should consider the following possibilities and carefully examine the entire visit.
1. Procedural errors. Parents’ behavioral performance during the correction process can affect the overall correction process. Some parents are not thorough enough in their implementation, for example, they do put their child to bed in his own bed, but still go to put him to sleep when he wakes up. Staying with the child at bedtime until she falls asleep, but then ignoring her when she wakes up. When dealing with a crying child, there are no rules, one day after another, etc.
2. Ignoring the routine. If parents do not take into account the child’s daily routine and physiological rhythms when developing a corrective program, the results are definitely not good. The gradual method is applied on the premise that the child is in a sleepy state at the time of use and is likely to adapt to the new sleep pattern after a few corrections. If the child does not want to sleep at all, then no program will work. If the child’s routine is so irregular that the parent cannot figure out when to put the child to bed, the focus should be on helping the child establish a regular routine, and it is not too late to implement the program when a regular routine is established. A good routine should allow your child to fall asleep quickly at bedtime and to fall asleep again quickly after waking up during the night.
3. Ignore your child’s feelings of anxiety. During the correction process, the child may feel more or less scared. If the child can not leave the adult during the day, then he certainly can not stand to sleep alone at night, for such a child, let him cry for as long as possible will not help, but make the situation worse. Parents should deal with other problems first, and then deal with sleep problems.
Parents need to grasp the following key points when identifying the type of sleep problem their child has, looking for the inner root cause and trying to correct the problem.
1. Correction is not just about taking a load off, but more importantly about getting quality sleep for your child.
2, The ideal sleep environment should be peaceful and soothing, with no stimulating sounds or light sources.
3.Where your child goes to sleep, he or she should wake up.
4, If the child wakes up in the middle of the night crying and fussing, once the parents rebuild his environment when he falls asleep, he immediately stops crying and falls asleep quickly, parents should be alerted that the child simply does not understand that his sleep habits need to be corrected.
5, correction should not be started too early, wait until the child is three months before starting to correct more appropriate.
6, sleep problems will vary from time to time, from place to place, from person to person.
7.Although it is important to adhere to the correction program from the beginning to the end, the start time of the correction needs to be carefully considered, and the correction program should never be implemented on the night before something significant.
8.Once the start time is determined, it should be strictly observed and not too much in advance.
9, both parents should be involved in the child’s correction, to avoid having one parent take on too many corrective tasks.
10.If there are more than one child in the family, parents should pay attention to the fact that the crying of one child during the waiting time may wake up the other children.
11. Correction programs must be developed with neighbors in mind; no one lives on an uninhabited island.
12, Once the child has developed good sleep habits, he will keep the afternoon, but occasionally there may be recurrence.
In addition regular rest is really important, yun since regular rest, night milk from 6-9 times down to four times, and more energetic and happier during the day, the key you know when she wants to sleep, when to eat, life is better arranged. A good foundation for sleep adjustment. So before parents start sleep adjustment, it is best to regularize your work and rest first.