Sleep Youth Fairy

The expression “waking up on the wrong side of the bed” is a good place to start for this week’s top tips.

😴 We begin our journey into parenthood feeling the full force of sleep deprivation and then, as our babies become toddlers, we battle through the loss of day time naps. Just when we think we are finally through all the sleep phases, adolescence comes along, our children become teenagers and don’t want to leave their beds at all!

😴 It’s not the best start to the day when we wake up feeling as if we haven’t slept well and we’re grumpy before we’ve even had breakfast. Have you noticed how this can be doubly true for our children and teenagers?

😴 There is a general acceptance that mornings are not their best time but they are not alone – and it’s not actually their fault (or yours, if you aren’t naturally a morning person) – there is science at play here, well actually NEUROSCIENCE.

😴 Matthew Walker in his book “Why We Sleep” explains that, although we all have a 24-hour circadian rhythm in common, our individual sleep/wake pattern has a genetic preference – we are either an “early lark” or a “night owl.”

This means that you either prefer to go to bed early and rise early or go to bed late and have a lay-in. This would have been helpful for our ancestor’s survival back in our more tribal days – half the tribe would remain awake whilst the other slept – ensuring that the camp was vulnerable for the shortest amount of time possible.

Not so great in our modern world however, if your preference is the latter but you still have to get up at 7am for school in the morning!
So, if sleep is a tricky topic for the children or teens in your household, our blog may be just the thing you need to read!
Head on over to the Parent Pad for some top tips on improving sleep and some more of the neuroscience behind a good night’s rest.
Take a read here: 👇👇👇