Children's health and behavior take a nose dive when their sleep habits are out of whack. Insufficient sleep makes children short-tempered and whiny. In school, a sleep-deprived child has trouble with concentration, memory, physical performance and decision making.
On the flip side, adequate sleep will boost your child's energy and enthusiasm. Good-quality sleep also can help your child learn more easily and reduce many behavioral problems.
Sleep: How much is enough?
Because each child is different, it's not possible to set an absolute amount of sleep that all children require. In general, children between 1 and 3 years of age seem to thrive on about 10 to 13 hours of sleep at night, with maybe a nap during the day.
Preschoolers sleep about 10 to 12 hours a night, and daytime naps become less common around the age of 5. Between the ages of 6 and 9, most children need about 10 hours of sleep a night, while preteens need a little over nine hours.
Too little sleep: Telltale signs
When adults don't get enough sleep, they're usually grumpy and lethargic. Children can act this way, too, but they may also swing to the opposite extreme and be hyperactive. Your child may require more sleep if he or she:
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Has a short attention span, or is irritable or restless
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Has unusually low energy and activity levels
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Is more tearful, anxious, touchy, defensive or impatient than usual
The problem of frequent waking
Most children wake up several times during the night. They are capable of falling back to sleep on their own — they just don't know it. Giving them the confidence and tools to help themselves sleep is up to you.
It helps if you start when they're still babies. If you routinely put your 7-month-old to bed drowsy but not fast asleep, he or she will be familiar with the feeling of drifting off alone in a quiet room. If you wait a few minutes before responding to middle-of-the-night crying, your 8-month-old may quiet down and doze off without your help.
These strategies won't work every time or with every baby, but if you're lucky, they'll help you avoid bedtime struggles and interrupted sleep as your child grows older.
Going to sleep alone
Some children have never learned how to go to sleep alone. They often fall asleep being held by a parent, in front of the TV. They may want a parent to lie down with them as they go to sleep, or they may insist upon sleeping in their parents' bed.
Once begun, sharing a bed with your children is a hard habit to break. At some point, all children need to learn how to go to sleep and return to sleep on their own. Bedtime routines can help children feel more comfortable about going to sleep by themselves.
Bedtime routines
Most bedtime routines last about 30 minutes and include a bath, brushing teeth, reading stories and talking about the day. Try to keep the same sequence each night because familiarity is comforting for children.
Having a comfort item, such as a stuffed animal or favorite blanket, can help children soothe themselves to sleep. Soft music also may be helpful. Avoid giving your toddler a bottle in his or her bed because the liquid can pool around the teeth and cause serious dental problems.
Bedtime conflicts
If your young child won't stay in his or her bedroom, you may have to shut the door or put up a gate or barrier. You may even have to lock the door if your child tends to wander around the house after you've gone to bed. Children under the age of 5 don't understand the dangers of fire, hot water, knives and going outside.
If your child is truly fearful, don't close the bedroom door. Instead, promise to check on him or her every 15 minutes. During these checkups, praise your child for being so quiet. Leave the room within 30seconds. Eventually, your child will fall asleep.
Individualized treatment
Each child is different and has his or her own way of approaching sleep. Some take extra time to fall asleep, while others wake more often during the night. You know your child's personal habits best, so with a little trial and error, you should succeed in finding a schedule and routine that suits your family.
The defining moment of your career: You’re about to give a presentation to the top executives of your company. All eyes are on you.
And you’re naked…
It may only be a dream, but people who study dreams say it could mean you feel exposed in real life.
Why we dream and what those nighttime travels can tell us about ourselves have occupied scientists, psychologists, self-help gurus, and shamans for centuries. Sigmund Freud believed dreams were a “royal road” that gave clues to our repressed desires. Today many dream studiers, from credentialed scientists to those of the more metaphysical ilk, believe dreams are inspired by actual events of the day and can provide insight into how well we’re managing. Others think dreams are essentially random images your brain flips through.
The reasons behind why we dream remain elusive. Studies show that the most vivid dreams tend to occur during the rapid-eye movement (or REM) stage of sleep when the brain is most active. Dreams are thought to be a by-product of all that electromagnetic activity. We also dream during other stages of sleep; however, those dreams generally are less vivid and emotionally charged than the REM-stage dreams.
While scientists try to crack the mystery of dreams, people continue to be fascinated by their weird and often frightening dream world. And there’s a whole cottage industry of dream analyzers out there to assist you in understanding them.
Making sense of your dreams
“The more bizarre the dream, the more it really contains more of the juicy information from your daily life,” said Bob Hoss, executive officer for the International Association for the Study of Dreams. “Dreams borrow a bunch of images that spell something out.”
But “because the rational parts of your brain are off at night, dreams are speaking a different language,” said Hoss, who wrote the book The Language of Dreams: Working With Imagery and Color. “It’s speaking in metaphor," he said. "It’s a language of analogy.”
Of course, to analyze and learn from your dreams, you have to remember them. Researchers believe all adults dream for more than an hour and a half each night.
Hoss suggests putting a piece of a paper and a pencil beside your bed at night and going to sleep by telling yourself that you’re going to dream and have memories of it. Then, upon waking, pay close attention to any emotions you are experiencing or images you are thinking about. Keep your eyes closed and try to resist the urge to jump right out of bed and start your day. Dream recall may work better if you don’t wake up to the sounds of an alarm or radio.
Then, to break the symbolic code of dreams, Hoss recommends focusing on the most prominent features or objects in a dream and figuring out what they really mean to you. For example, if scissors play a major role, think about what you associate with them. One person may associate scissors with a memory of a childhood accident where as another person may see them as a tool used in his or her occupation. Consider how this association relates to what occurred in the dream. Each person can have a unique interpretation of the objects and symbols that appear in dreams.
However, common themes in dreams exist, according to Charles McPhee, a sleep disorder specialist who has compiled what he says is the world’s largest database of dreams. In a recent interview, McPhee, the self-proclaimed Dream Doctor who analyzes dreams on his nationally syndicated radio show, explained the most popular dreams and what they may mean:
Falling: Some experts believe falling is an analogy for lost support and uncertainty about the future. “You don’t know where you’re going to land,” McPhee said. “You’re nervous about it.” But others aren’t so sure dreams about falling really mean anything. One theory suggests such dreams, and others about not being able to get away from an attacker, simply reflect the fact your body effectively paralyzes itself during dreams. In other words, your body is aware it can’t move during sleep and creates a dream about it.
Water: Water could be a metaphor for emotion. “A tidal wave is a very common dream, even in people who have never seen an ocean,” McPhee said. He suggested they represent waves of emotion, so if you see people running for their lives that might mean you’re dealing with large emotions that you’re not sure you’ll survive.
Teeth falling out: This remarkably common dream, according to McPhee, means we are not happy with the way we look. “Women usually have that dream when their body undergoes changes, such as weight gain or pregnancy,” he said. “It’s an uncomfortable dream and reflects insecurity about [being] in public.”
Fire: Fire may be a metaphor of urgency. “There’s an urgent situation somewhere in your waking life that you feel you need to pay attention to because that’s what happens with fire in real life,” McPhee said. “You can't let it sit; you have to take care of it.”
Phone: Dreams involving phone calls can be metaphors for communication. If you are calling 911 in a dream, it probably means you need help with some aspect of your life. If you’re calling someone else and he or she never answers or the phone line is always busy, it could be a metaphor for a communication breakdown.
Infidelity: While dreams about cheating may be very common for married people, McPhee said, it rarely means that your spouse has been unfaithful. Infidelity dreams may simply reflect concerns that you’re not getting enough quality time with your partner.
Dreams featuring the deceased: If you dream about someone who has died, McPhee said, it is probably not a message from beyond, largely because most dreams involving the dead are very upsetting rather than comforting. Instead, he said, the dream is more likely to be about how you feel about the loss.
Naked: And that dream when you're making a presentation to your bosses in the nude? McPhee said you may feel exposed or insecure about something. But he said, if others in your dream don't notice you're naked, you’re probably overreacting. “The dream may help you realize that something that’s a big deal to you is not a big deal to someone else,” he said. “This is a good example of how once you understand the dream … the dream may be able to help you."
