Sleep Is An Important Factor To Your Child’s Growth and Overall Health

As an adult, you likely already know how much you rely on a good night’s sleep to function well the next day. But did you know that a key part of parenting is making sure your children’s sleep habits are in check?

Children's sleep habits aren’t exactly like ours, as adults, but starting young with your kids is the best way to set them up for future sleep success. It’s not just about signing your child up for the perfect after-school program, spending hours at enriching playdates on the weekend, or providing her with a healthy diet - you also need to make sure your child is getting the sleep she needs.

Unfortunately, we set our kids up with bad habits from the time they are born. We aren’t great about sticking to routines, we lay with them until they fall asleep, and we aren’t firm with bedtimes. All of these can set your child up for failure when it comes to developing good sleep hygiene later on.

Here are some of the important ways that sleep helps your child grow - and how you can help your child develop good sleep habits that will last her a lifetime.

The Stages of Sleep

It’s important that your child not only stays in bed for the recommended ten or eleven hours of sleep at night - but also that he progresses through all of the stages of sleep. 

In the first stage, a stage of light sleep, your body will begin to feel a bit drowsy. During this stage, it’s easy to wake up, and you’ll find that you can rouse your child easily during this stage. After a while, however, your child will enter the second stage, a slightly deeper sleep in which your brain tells your body’s muscles to relax and your heart to beat a bit slower.

In the third stage, you have entered slow-wave sleep. Your brain will cause all your blood pressure to get lower and you likely won’t notice the temperature in the room around you. It can be harder for you to be awakened in this stage, although many people who talk in their sleep or sleepwalk will do so in this third stage.

The fourth stage of sleep is the deepest stage, also known as slow-wave sleep. It’s challenging to be roused from this stage, but if you do wake up, you’re probably going to be disoriented and confused for a while. You can also talk in your sleep or sleepwalk during the stage. 

The last stage of sleep is R.E.M., or rapid eye movement. Your muscles will be totally relaxed but your eyes will move back and forth rapidly beneath your closed eyelids. Your heart will beat faster and your breathing will be irregular - this is also the stage where most people dream.

You’ll repeat these stages about once every 90 minutes until you wake up in the morning. Each of these stages is vital to help your child’s brain and body develop as it should.

Banking Information

Sleep is the best time for your child’s brain to translate learned material into active knowledge. Regardless of the age of your child, childhood is a crucial time for learning new skills, concepts, and materials.

During sleep, your child’s brain is processing everything it took in during the day. It sorts through this information, getting rid of anything that is not needed and keeping whatever is. That’s why kids need so much more sleep than we do, as adults - their little brains are always absorbing new information. Take babies, for example. Newborns need lots of naps because everything is new to them and they need frequent breaks to process that new information. 

During the deepest stage of sleep, brain cells in learning are reactivated, helping to encourage the growth of new neural connections. This, in turn, helps in the development of long term memories. Interestingly, a better night’s sleep has repeatedly been linked to high grades in languages and mathematics.

Getting Taller

If it looks like your child is growing taller right before your very eyes, it might not be just your imagination - he very well could be. Children’s bones do most of their growing during the nighttime hours. In fact, research on lambs has shown that the growth plates in their legs don’t move much at all when they are standing during the day, but at night, when there is no bodyweight pressure, their plates spring open and begin to develop. 

Researchers suspect that a similar practice may occur with young children - that could be why your child’s favorite pair of PJs seem a lot shorter at breakfast than they did when you put him to bed!

Bonding With Family and Friends

Just as your child forms new memories, thoughts, and intelligence as night, so, too, can a good night’s sleep strengthen his bonds with friends and family.

How, you might ask? When kids dream, those dreams promote feelings of attachment. They’ll dream about the people who are closest to them and that will facilitate strong and positive emotional connections when they wake up later on.

Keep Appetite On Track

A good night’s sleep is also essential to regulating your child’s hunger cues. When kids are deprived of sleep, they’ll consume significantly more calories as well as more sugar. In fact, in a study by the University of Colorado Boulder, researchers found that, when preschoolers were deprived of three hours of sleep, received no afternoon nap, and were kept awake for two hours later, they consumed up to 25% more sugar and 21% more calories. 

For every sleep deficit your child suffers, the risk of becoming obese or even overweight increases significantly. In fact, in one study of kids aged 5 to 11, those who slept fewer than ten hours per night were five times more likely to become overweight. 

This interesting detail of children's sleep habits is likely due to the fact that, when you get enough sleep, it signals your body to balance the ghrelin and leptin hormones. Leptin is the hormone that tells your body when to eat, while ghrelin will tell you when to eat. Both are secreted when you are asleep, and with the right amount of sleep, your brain will produce adequate amounts of both, helping to regulate your appetite.

However, when you don’t get enough sleep, your levels of ghrelin are higher and your levels of leptin are lower. Your body just doesn’t know what to do! Let’s not forget the risks of the snack cupboard when you’re staying awake late at night, either. 

Becoming More Attentive

Executive functioning refers to a set of skills that help kids get through the day, including their ability to manage their time, focus, recall instructions, and solve problems. All of these skills require adequate sleep. Some studies of kids who don’t have ADHD yet are sleep-deprived show that their performance is similar to those of kids with ADHD. A poor quality of sleep can cause serious issues with hyperactivity and concentration.

Heart Is Grown Stronger

Just as sleep is essential when it comes to helping kids' bones and muscles become stronger and larger, so too is it necessary to help improve cardiac functioning. After all, the heart is one of the body’s largest muscles! 

Sleep is protective in that it can guard kids against dangers like insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and other factors that put them at risk for heart disease either as children or later on in life. 

It’s not exactly clear how sleep helps to improve heart health, but some emerging research suggests that a briefer duration of sleep may increase levels of C-reactive protein, an inflammatory biomarker that dramatically elevates the danger of cardiovascular disease.

Immune System Is Recharging

Have you ever noticed that your child seems to catch more colds and stomach bugs when he’s perpetually worn out? 

That’s because a good night’s sleep is essential to keep your child’s immune system functioning well (as it is for you, too). At night, your child’s brain will release chemicals that can help support his or her immune system. 

For example, the brain will release cytokines - these are molecules that send immune cells to areas where there is inflammation or infection. The less sleep your child gets, the worse his immune response will be.

Not only that, but fewer hours of sleep is also linked to increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is necessary in small amounts, but in large amounts, can reduce immune system activation and make it tougher for your child’s body to heal after an injury or infection.

Calming Down

This one is probably pretty apparent to you if you have kids - sleep is necessary to prevent tantrums, hysterics, and other meltdowns. Sleep-deprived kids are going to have more issues getting along with other kids and are usually more prone to things like temper tantrums, displays of anger, and frustrated outbursts.

While one night of sleep loss might not be a huge deal in this context, if that sleep deprivation is chronic, your child may suffer from some serious consequences later on - such as a predisposition to depression or anxiety later on in life. Children will experience fewer positive emotions and responses to happy events after just a couple of nights of poor sleep.

This is probably because the areas of the brain that are responsible for emotional regulation, the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, are particularly sensitive to a lack of sleep. When your child is asleep, these two sections of his brian will talk to each other, helping your child regulate negative emotions like anxiety and fear.

Help Your Child Get The Right Amount Of Sleep Each Night

It can be tough to find time for adequate sleep - that’s something that you probably know well as an adult, and it’s even more true for kids. After all, your child probably has a busy day as it is. From doing his homework to going to school, attending sports practice, and hanging out with friends, your child has a lot on his plate. 

However, at the end of the day, it’s essential to help your child get the sleep his body deserves - and needs. You need sleep in order to survive. Good parenting is about helping your child get that sleep, no matter what.

Even if you think your child is getting enough sleep, it might be time to revisit his sleep schedule to make sure that’s actually the case. Most people who are between the ages of 5 and 12 receive about nine and a half hours of sleep each night, but most experts agree that much more sleep is needed than that - up to ten or eleven hours, in fact.

To help your child get the right amount of sleep each night - and high-quality sleep, at that - make sure he goes to bed at the same time every night. Initiate a calming bedtime routine, like reading or taking a warm bath. Do not allow your child to have caffeine or sugary foods and beverages right before bed - this includes soda, juice, and iced tea (this can also reduce nighttime bathroom-related accidents).

If your child has a television in his room, it’s time to get rid of it. Studies have shown that kids who have televisions in their room sleep less. That’s especially true if your child likes to watch scary or fast-paced movies or television shows.

Finally, encourage your child not to use the bed for anything besides sleeping. The bed should only be for sleep and not for things like reading, completing homework, playing games, or texting on a cellphone. If your child has trouble falling asleep for more than one or two nights in a row - or has serious worries that are keeping him awake - it may be time to consult with a doctor who can help your child resolve his sleep problems. 

Sure, some kids need more sleep than others. However, as a parent, one of the best things you can do for your child is to help him get some helpful shut-eye.

Rebekah Pierce is a professional social blogger and has worked on several online publications including Citrus Sleep. Rebekah is an experienced content writer and copyeditor. You will find many of her works throughout CitrusSleep.com that cover a wide array of subjects including sleep education, natural, sleep products, electronics, fashion and many more. She is passionate about her work and family.

Follow Lisa at Rebekah Pierce

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