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Facts On The Sleep Cycle Of A Kid That Enhances A Child's Brain Development

14th October 2022

Parents of children with SEN (special education needs) often come up to us with one complaint that they’re unable to put their kids to sleep. Their sleeping pattern is absolutely messed up and due to lack of sleep, they always go through a discrete period of mood swings.
 

  Credit: heveya.sg

Sleep deprivation can cause toxic stress and often hampers a child’s brain development. Mood swing is one of the major characteristics of SEN children but if the reason behind is lack of sleep, then the scenario is not at all good. Brain development in early childhood is quite drastic and shows exquisite developmental changes.
 

Special education courses for parents would like to preach this awareness that good and an ample amount of sleep for healthy cognitive and psychosocial growth of all including children with special needs. The brain architecture indicates the pattern of a sleep architecture where a baby’s brain is growing in the early childhood days.

Healthy sleep always denotes healthy development in young children and hence, parent training and information centers are asking parents repeatedly to check if their kids are getting proper sleep or not. There are certain important factors that parents must keep in mind to establish a healthy sleeping habit in kids with special needs.

The facts are:

Constant bed-time: It is a crucial step because it regulates good sleep hygiene and the outcome is quite impactful by providing a sense of predictability and security and helps with activity transitions. A constant bedtime routine triggers a stimulus than gives a message to the kids that sleep is on the way.

3–4 calming and relaxing activities every night in the same order before falling asleep can be practiced e.g., a warm bath, reading stories, singing lullabies, and listening to soft music.

Soothing sleeping environment: A sleeping environment should be utterly minimalist because too many objects cause a distraction while sleeping. Using cool wall colors, darker and soft-toned lights, minimal furniture, etc., enhances the quality of sleep. To prevent accidental strangulation or suffocation, clothing items or upholstery near the bed should be kept very carefully.

If the baby is sleeping in a crib, the crib mattress should provide a firm sleeping surface and fit tightly in the crib. Removal of all pillows and stuffed toys from the crib is recommended. The baby should be placed on his or her back to sleep at night and during naptime as evidence has shown that sleeping in a prone position significantly reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

Inappropriate Sleep Onset Associations: The “inappropriate” or problematic sleep onset associations refer to the conditions the onset of sleep of a baby gets intercepted by parents. Parents have a common tendency to wake a baby up from sleep and feed her/him. Constant interceptions generate the habit of frequent night wakings. Parents should teach babies the ability to self-soothe and fall asleep independently Transition objects, such as blankets, dolls, and stuffed animals could also help young children to foster independence and self-soothing to fall asleep.

A big NO NO to media exposure: This era of Instagram reels is frenetically capturing the addiction of parents and they’re filming their babies insanely. There are many parents who tape their children while they’re sleeping and often wake them up as they have to switch some lights on that ultimately disrupting their sleeping cycle.

This is absolutely unwanted as it is doing no good to them. Constant interception while sleeping is affecting the development of their brains. Parents must be aware of these facts so that there are no hindrances in a child’s brain development, especially during the early childhood phase.

Keeping these 4 facts in mind will help parents to monitor the sleep cycle of babies. When it comes to babies with special abilities, often it is not detectable at the neonatal stage. Therefore, while raising a child with special talents parents might encounter that the sleeping pattern of their babies is not at all sorted.

Kids who are born with gifts like ADHD or learning disabilities have these critical periods of sleep deprivation. It is because of anxiety and other mental health issues they’re having triggering regular interception of sleep. That is why parents of specially-abled babies should focus on each and every movement or expression of kids before anything has been diagnosed.

Special education courses for parents are guiding them with the basic characteristics of SEN children. Newly-made parents or parents who’re planning for a baby can definitely refer to this course because we should all be prepared for what comes next. Call our toll-free number 1800-212-6400 and speak with our experts regarding cases of special children.

Written By: Sheetal Sharma