- Hi, I'm Dana.
Welcome to this week's video.
Today I am going to do some myth busting.
Number one myth around sleep,
especially when we're talking about children,
is that if you pull, or minimize, or prevent
daytime sleep, then a child will
then sleep better in the night.
Now let's talk a little bit about why
that might be suggested in the first place.
The thought would be that if they're so tired
from lack of daytime sleep that they'll fall asleep
in complete exhaustion at bedtime
and sleep through the night.
I can see how that makes some sense.
I can see it.
But I'm here to bust that myth,
because I know, after 14 years in this business,
that the opposite is true,
that the more you restrict, or prevent,
or pull daytime sleep, the worse nighttime sleep gets.
And the reason for that is overtiredness.
So really overtiredness for all of us is problematic.
If you've ever had a few days where you've really
run yourself ragged, and you've had deadlines,
or whatever the case may be,
when you start to feel overtired,
you'll notice that you feel a bit jittery.
It's almost like you drank
too much caffeine too close to bed.
It feels like you're kind of wired.
It's harder to relax, it's harder to get to sleep,
and then when the sleep does arrive,
it's very fragmented, so you'll have lots of wake-ups
throughout the night, and you'll most likely wake up
even earlier than you need to.
That's the problem with overtiredness.
So let's just times that by 10
when we're talking about children.
They get overtired easily, if their sleep needs
are not being met throughout the day
and through the night.
And overtiredness for a child
usually turns into hyperactivity.
That's an important thing to keep an eye on.
If you've got a child who's racing around
like a little spinning top,
laughing, being silly, crying the next second,
it's almost, kinda looks a little manic, right,
they get into this mode where they're just like,
nothing's satisfying them, but yet they're being like
cute and hilarious at the same time.
That's usually a sign that you've pushed this child,
or this child has pushed themselves into overtiredness.
And now imagine trying to take this spinning top
and ask them to sleep now, please.
It's very challenging.
It's very difficult for a child who has become overtired
to fall asleep in a timely manner.
Makes sense.
So, sleep begets sleep.
It absolutely does, I will argue that
'til I am blue in the face, because I know that it's true.
So you really want to, if you've got a child
who's not sleeping well through the night,
chances are high that they are also
not sleeping well during the day.
The two usually go hand in hand.
So you're going to have to look
at your daytime sleep situation,
and first of all ask, is your child
falling asleep independently,
because that's the golden rule to a child sleeping well,
is that they're falling asleep independently,
and then making sure that they're getting
good quality sleep, age appropriate sleep,
and if you want a clear outline of what that looks like
check out my blog or pick up a copy
of the Sleep Sense program, I've got charts in there
that outline the ages and the needs
of each age group as far as sleep goes.
And once you get your child sleeping well,
big picture, both daytime and night,
you'll find that they just,
they're well rested, they're happy, they're content.
I mean there's so many wonderful qualities
to having a child who sleeps well.
It's really worth the effort.
Thanks so much for watching today.
Sleep well.