Why does a child fall asleep late in the evening? About the problems associated with the fact that the child goes to bed late

12.10.2019 -

We have a daughter, 5 months and 1 week. It so happened that goes to bed she is very late, at 11 pm. He wakes up at 6 o'clock to eat and sleeps until 9-10 o'clock in the morning. Accordingly long nap We have it between 4 and 7 pm. My husband and I are night owls, we also go to bed late and get up late. I'm like that baby mode completely satisfied, I can’t even imagine if she woke up completely at 6 in the morning. On the other hand, I know that children should go to bed no later than 9 pm, supposedly the most healthy sleep - until 12 o'clock at night. At one time I made attempts to move going to bed for earlier hours, say at least 10 pm. All this led to the fact that it was finally possible to put the child to bed by 12, or even later. There are days when she does not sleep for the prescribed hours during the day or sleeps not from 4 pm to 6-7, but much earlier, from 12 to 3. However, she finally calms down only at 11 o’clock and not earlier. What can you say about this situation?

Answers

Paradoxical situation: the child has no problems with sleep. Parents in general and mother in particular are quite happy with this regime - i.e. it is both convenient and quite appropriate for the normal life of your family. However, this absolutely (!) normal situation causes concern only because “...I know that children should go to bed no later than 9 o'clock in the evening, supposedly the healthiest sleep is until 12 o'clock at night." I am very glad that you used the word “supposedly”. This leads me to think that a certain element of skepticism is clearly present in the assessment of this phrase. So , what you know is not correct. This was invented by adults in order to put the schoolchild in bed in time and take a break from him. There is no need to change anything. And I can only congratulate you on the situation described.

This is not the only reason why it is so important for a child to go to bed on time. In childhood, the body grows by leaps and bounds. This applies not only to physical but also psychological growth. In the first years of life, the baby absorbs a huge amount of information and acquires new skills at a speed inaccessible to adults.

And this happens thanks to growth hormone, which is produced in the body 2-3 hours after falling asleep and acts mainly at night.

The most best time for the production of this hormone - midnight. Thus, if a child goes to bed later than 9 pm, the production of the hormone is disrupted in his body and the amount of time during which the hormone simply does not have time to perform its function decreases.

This may lead to a decrease physical activity child or, conversely, to hyperactivity, because psychological stability is impaired. Also, falling asleep late has a negative impact on the development of a child’s intelligence. Therefore, at night, the growing body must rest, and the whole family should do this together with the child!

10 RULES OF “GOLDEN CHILDREN’S SLEEP”

1. Set your priorities

A child should not sleep at the cost of mom and dad's insomnia. "Golden children's sleep" is a healthy and sweet dream all family members!

2. Decide on your sleep schedule

The family's sleep schedule is formed depending on when it is convenient for not only the child, but the whole family to sleep. After all, what a child needs most is sleepy, healthy parents. Determine, together with your significant other, when the lights out in your family are, and strictly observe them. decision made!

3. Decide where to sleep and with whom

Of course, the question “Should the child sleep with his parents or separately?” purely individual. But it is best if the child sleeps in his own crib and preferably in his own room. And mom and dad will sleep under the same blanket. When mom and dad sleep under the same blanket, this is the key to happiness and long-term well-being of all family members!

4. Don't be afraid to wake up the sleepyhead

If your baby sleeps for a long time during the day and then can’t fall asleep at night, don’t let him sleep during the day - wake up the sleepyhead!

5. Optimize feeding

If your child feels sleepy after eating, make sure that the last evening feeding is the most nourishing and dense.

6. Busy day

Let every day of your child be rich both physically and emotionally, but without excesses, but harmoniously.

7. Think about the air in your bedroom.

The optimal temperature in the room should be 18–21 °C, and the humidity should be 50–70%. The solution to this issue is the dad's task.

8. Take advantage of swimming opportunities

A cool bath before bed - what could be better!

9. Preparing the bed

A smooth, dense and hard mattress, natural bed linen, and if your baby is under three years old, you can do without a pillow.

10. Make sure you have a quality diaper

For little ones, a high-quality diaper is very important; you shouldn’t skimp on it!

Find out even more useful information about healthy sleep for the whole family from the recommendations of Dr. Komarovsky.

You can cope with any problem, you just have to want it. Healthy sleep for a child is the key to happiness and a good microclimate in the family!

Sleep is one of the few physiological needs of a person, without which he cannot live. Health, well-being, fullness of life and the overall well-being of the body depend to a very large extent on the quality and duration of sleep. This is true for both adults and children, and therefore it is very important that everyone in the family gets enough sleep.

If parents encounter a problem when a child falls asleep late, then in most cases it can be solved on their own. But there are situations when a violation baby sleep requires contact with specialists.

A child falls asleep late at night: what to do?

Giving advice on what to do if a child falls asleep late is a thankless task. Because almost everything depends on the specific situation. It matters how old or months old he is, after which the “normal” bedtime was disrupted, what exactly the baby does during the hours when he is not sleeping, and how he behaves. It is equally important how the parents and relatives living with him behave.

Therefore, let's start with the fact that each of us, including each individual child there is not only your own need for sleep, but also your own natural biorhythms. Some kids and their parents find it more convenient to go to bed later and sleep longer in the morning, while others choose to go to bed early and get up early in the morning. Some children get enough sleep and regain their strength during a 9-hour daily sleep, while others need 12-13 hours for this. This also largely depends on age, character, type of temperament and energy consumed during the day.

Very often, parents underestimate the importance of the conditions in which the child is put to sleep. Firstly, it must be a suitable relaxing atmosphere, excluding loud sounds, bright lighting and others irritating factors. Secondly, it must be a suitable room with the right microclimate: clean, humid and cool air. This means that before going to bed, the children’s bedroom needs to be ventilated and, ideally, humidified. Upholstered furniture, carpets, crib canopies and other dust collectors are very undesirable in the interior.

If a child sleeps poorly, often wakes up, screams and cries, is capricious and nervous, in general, shows obvious anxiety or malaise, then it is necessary to discuss this with a pediatrician and find the cause of the child’s sleep disturbance. This can be infant colic, teething, a number of diseases and nervous disorders. If the pediatrician is unable to determine the cause himself or select necessary treatment, then he will refer the baby for consultation to a specialist.

Today we will discuss a situation where a child simply falls asleep late at night, but behaves “normally”; he simply does not want to sleep. At the same time " clinical picture"can be very different. The child may fall asleep for a short time and, after dozing a little, wake up, and then remain awake until late at night or even in the morning. Often children fall asleep very late and then sleep for a long time the next day. Some of them sleep during the day, others fall asleep in the evening, and others do not sleep at all during the day. But in general, during the day the child “gets enough sleep” for a certain number of hours, that is, there is sleep, but it is distributed “incorrectly” throughout the day.

The child falls asleep late and gets up late

There are a lot of recommendations on the topic “How to put a child to sleep,” most of which boil down to creating a bedtime ritual. This refers to the performance of some action, always the same and repeated over time, followed by sleep. This could be a bedtime story, a lullaby, an evening bath, and others. hygiene procedures. The baby begins to understand that if he was bathed and read a book in the evening, then sleep will follow.

Most families successfully use this approach in practice, but at a certain point it stops working. The child simply does not want to sleep, demanding that the fun continue: he wants to play, communicate with his parents, runs, sings, fools around, asks to eat, drink, go to the toilet, and invents many other different tricks.

Analyze recent events in your child's life and find the reason why the previous schedule has changed. Very often this happens after an illness, when the child, who did not sleep at night due to illness, then made up for the lack of sleep in daytime. If a child attending kindergarten or school stayed at home for some time and slept longer in the morning than usual, then naturally such a schedule can become a habit. Perhaps you had guests, because of which the whole family went to bed at least once later than usual, and the very next day the child could not sleep until late. As a rule, changes in children's sleep patterns have quite specific reason, which can be installed.

Go as described similar cases, if parents want to get their child to go to bed earlier, they need to return to their previous routine. Wake up a child who fell asleep late (even in the morning) at the same time, for example, at 7 or 8 in the morning. If he still sleeps during the day, then do not allow him to compensate for this lack of sleep through daytime sleep - its duration cannot be increased. In any way, do not let your child fall asleep too early in the evening so that he wakes up within an hour or two.

Of course, the child will be tired, capricious, nervous, and the mother will be excited and upset, but the adjustment will only take a few days - this is a proven fact. In the future, regardless of the circumstances, adhere to the established regime with a “convenient” time for the child to go to bed: when hour X approaches, turn off the lights and go to bed - unlikely small child It will be interesting to wander around a dark apartment for a long time.

You must understand that a child cannot go to bed at 8 and get up at 12, because it is convenient for you, and also that his need for sleep constantly decreases as he grows up. But adjusting a child’s sleep to the rest of the family is possible and even desirable. Lie down all together and get up too - give or take. If everyone goes to bed late and sleeps until noon, then there is no point and it is even wrong to try to put the baby to bed early. The most important criterion for children's sleep is its strength and duration, as well as daily duration.

If the child sleeps for several hours in a row at night, as well as for some time during the day, that is, in general, gets enough sleep, and this schedule suits you, then there is nothing to worry about. If you are not satisfied, you can correct it if you want. Reduce the duration of sleep during the day (wake up earlier or delay the moment of falling asleep as much as possible). Even six month old baby you can wake up during the day and not allow you to “get enough sleep” at night if you set this as a goal. But as for small children, there may be some more nuances.

The first, very common and quite likely associated with children's bathing. Most mothers bathe their babies in evening time, before bed. A bath helps the body relax, relieve tension, tone, and fatigue. After water procedures Appetite improves, and a well-fed child sleeps better. Pediatricians recommend evening bathing in a large bathtub in cool (well, at least not very warm) water, performing gymnastics or massage.

However, for some (and even many) children, a seemingly relaxing procedure has the opposite effect - it is very exciting. And even traditional soothing herbs, such as valerian, motherwort, mint, can irritate nervous system child.

If you notice that your child falls asleep late after an evening bath, then try rescheduling it to another time convenient for you: for example, before nap or after it.

Babies also switch from day to night very often. This phenomenon is temporary, but can last for several months and bring a lot of inconvenience to your life. daily life families: dad has to go to work, and mom has a lot of household chores. In general, in any case, everyone should get enough sleep, and therefore it makes sense not to let the child get enough sleep for a day or two, so that on the third day he will “pass out” at night.

In addition, children's specialists identify several crisis periods during which the physiology and psyche of children in the first months and years of life undergoes serious changes. For example, about six months, intensive growth of bones and teeth begins, which entails large losses of calcium reserves, and the lack of this element, as is known, is fraught with increased irritability, nervousness and overexcitement. By eight months, the child’s sense of smell and touch is actively developing: hearing, vision, and feelings of fear appear.

During this period, many parents notice that children become more restless and require a lot of mother’s attention and warmth: they sleep better in their mother’s arms, more often “hang” on their chest, and ask to be held in their arms. A child needs a feeling of safety and security, and this can also affect his sleep and routine. After a year, a child who is actively developing and learning about the world must spend a sufficient amount of energy during the day and receive the right dose of emotions, including (and this is necessary!) from communicating with parents.

If he doesn’t finish playing, doesn’t run, doesn’t sit through a creative activity, doesn’t laugh enough, doesn’t finish studying, doesn’t get your attention, then at night from an overabundance of emotions and energy unused during the day, he will wake up or won’t be able to sleep at all. Enroll your child in a creative developmental school or study with him at home for 15-20 minutes every day, go outside every day, provide him with active leisure, but in the evening, make sure that he does not get overexcited: 2-3 hours before departure By bedtime, games and activities should be calm, and no TV in the evening.

By the way, about energy. Any person, and especially a child, spends very large reserves of it on maintaining a stable body temperature. That is, if he is not wrapped up and dressed in a hundred clothes, then the body will constantly spend part of the energy on “warming up”. Among the huge variety of reasons why children should not be overheated, this is not in last place.

And it is also necessary to note the importance of nutrition. Breasts fall asleep better and sleep more soundly if they eat their fill before bed, but it is important that the nursing mother monitors her diet. Older children's sleep also depends on the time of their last meal and the quality of dinner. Heavy, fatty, sweet dishes immediately before bedtime do not contribute to easy falling asleep, as do foods that stimulate the nervous system. Milk porridge or boiled tenderloin with vegetable salad are perfect for dinner.

The child falls asleep late and gets up early

Many parents worry that their child falls asleep late and gets up early. It seems to them that he is not getting enough sleep, that he sleeps less than he should. In pediatrics, there are approximate average norms for the duration of children's sleep in at different ages, but they are quite arbitrary.

IN modern world There is a tendency to shorten children's sleep. Today's babies and preschoolers are developing very quickly and, accordingly, sleep less than their peers in years past. This evolutionary moment, of course, affects the child’s psyche: almost every child is diagnosed with hyperactivity.

However, it all depends on the specific case. If night sleep The baby is short (as it seems to you), but he sleeps more during the day, then this may be the norm. Here, again, this schedule can be adjusted if necessary. You can maintain calm if your child is active, calm, playing, running, frolicking throughout the day, as it should be.

If the baby does not sleep during the day, falls asleep late and wakes up early, that is, clearly does not get enough sleep, then it is better to go for a consultation with a neurologist. You may need relaxing, sedative therapy. Perhaps the reason is the child’s lack of B vitamins. Or maybe everything is fine?..

After all, many, if not most, parents complain that their child sleeps late at night. However, many also share their experience that it goes away after some time. A visit to kindergarten or school can put everything in its place: a child who is forced to get up early in the morning falls asleep much earlier in the evening. The child cannot stay awake at all, and therefore it is almost always possible to establish a routine.

Especially for - Margarita SOLOVIOVA

The child goes to bed too late not because he is mischievous and capricious, but because you yourself allow him to do so.

The fact that a child goes to bed too late is not good for either the parents or the baby. And no arguments or justifications in the sense that “putting a fidget to bed is a big problem” will be inappropriate here. Be that as it may, timely rest and sleep for a growing person is the key to almost everything: mental development, mental and physical health. Life according to the regime, no matter how strict this phrase may sound, is the most true and the right option, if we, loving parents, want to raise disciplined, collected and attentive people from our children.

At one time I had the opportunity to observe how a young couple with a small three-year-old child lived. I didn’t have enough patience to hear the baby crying, screaming, knocking after 12 at night, or even later. On one of these noisy nights, I finally decided to go up to the floor above and ask why their child was still not sleeping? A young girl (of a pleasant appearance) began to apologize to me for the inconvenience caused and explain that she could not put her son to bed, and that she would try to calm him down right away (and calmed him down, by the way). To be honest, my indignation was caused not by the fact that I was being inconvenienced, but by the fact that the parents, it turns out, do not feel sorry for their baby at all. Of course, I understand that anything can happen, but if a child goes to bed too late every time, then what is he like in the morning? After all kindergarten and no one has canceled the work yet?! And in this situation, it is quite obvious why the mother has such problems with the baby. He lives the way he wants, there is no regime, it is he who dictates the conditions and sets the rules. And just try to go against them: tears, whims and screams.

And now, dear parents, let's take a closer look at why it is extremely undesirable for a child to go to bed too late.

Negative points:

Obvious harm to health
Here we must consider both physical and mental state health. We all, adults, know what it’s like to wake up in the morning when it seems like we fell asleep quite recently. We haven’t rested at all, we haven’t gained strength, our thoughts are confused. But we have already grown up, and we have nowhere to go. With children the situation is completely different - their little body is still growing and developing. Lack of sleep for him is like lack of food and air. Due to excessive and prolonged activity, there is a huge load on the spine and the entire skeletal system, because the baby is on his feet all day and evening. The immune system weakens, the mental activity of the brain decreases, and attention becomes even more unstable. Moreover, the child becomes irritable, capricious, can be either hyperactive or overly calm, or rather, detached from reality. It is almost impossible to impart some basics of various skills and abilities into such a “broken” child. In addition, it should be remembered that it is at the age of 3 that a child’s speech is actively developing, which means his head should be clear and his body rested.

If there is a regular lack of sleep, the baby may have big problems with discipline and composure. But these are precisely the qualities that a child will need when he goes to school. And in favor of the regime here we can cite the fact that those children who do their homework at the same time become excellent students faster than others.

Inconvenience for parents
When parents put their child to bed late and whenever necessary, they cannot even approximately make their plans for the evening. But they should also relax and spend time for their own pleasure. And, as a rule, they have to lull the baby to sleep through persuasion, whims, and the like. In a word, there is little pleasant here. What to do with a fidget and how to put it to bed on time?

Only for those parents who have not taught their child to go to bed at certain hours, getting ready for bed is sheer hard labor. But believe me, everything can be (and is!) completely different. You just need to make an effort and develop a clear routine, no “a little more” or “okay, play some more.” If you need to sleep at 20.00, then at 20.00. Over time, the child’s “internal clock” will “tune” and he will fall asleep literally in a matter of minutes. The main thing is to firmly endure all his hysterics, if before that he fell asleep when he wanted, and not follow his lead. But forceful methods should never be used here. The baby needs to be taught by cunning.

Here are some tips that should help:

– if bedtime is approaching, try to protect the child from moving and emotional games, entertainment

- leave all household chores, telephone conversations and a computer (and even guests will wait if they stopped by)

- come up with interesting shape carrying out all evening water procedures

– read books and tell stories, talk to your baby before bed

– if there is some event coming up tomorrow (buying a toy, going to the zoo, for example), play up the situation so that the child wants to fall asleep faster

– eliminate all distracting details from the nursery (luminous objects, musical objects, TV, etc.)

– buy beautiful pajamas, bedding and also use them as an enticing technique

And remember, the child goes to bed too late not because he is harmful and capricious, but because you yourself allow him to do so. And then, as often happens, you also punish for such disobedience. But, in fact, he is not to blame for anything.