We can all have problems with sleeping, waking, or having bad dreams sometimes, this can be common for children at any age. Sleep can be influenced by diets, lifestyles, worries, stress, anxieties and big changes such as moving to a new house, school or family break up. Sleep problems can come in various forms such as disturbed sleep (where you keep waking up in the night), not being able to get off to sleep, insomnia, nightmares, sleep paralysis (where you wake up but can’t move) bed wetting and sleep walking.
Fortunately, there are a lot of things you can do to support your child with sleep. A consistent relaxing bedtime routine is a great place to start and ensuring that they have “down time” before bed. That might look like reading books, having a bath, drawing some pictures or spending some quiet time with the family to talk about the events from the day. You might also find it helpful to talk through with you child about any worries they might have a few hours before bedtime. This gives them space to think constructively with you about their problems, consider possible solutions and then have time to relax before bed.
If you want to learn more about your child’s bedtime routine and what might help them sleep, here are some websites that you might find helpful.