BY DR. ROBIN ALTER, PSYCHOLOGY FOUNDATION OF CANADA
PHOTO © @LIFESTOCK/TWENTY20
APR 13, 2018
It’s time for bed. The run up to bedtime can be filled with activity, which could either be from doing homework or just having fun with siblings and/or parent(s). You do a quick bedtime routine and then the child is expected to turn off their busy brains and slip into unconsciousness. But this is not so easy. The brain just doesn’t want to turn off and how can you get to sleep when you’re still thinking about so many things — both good and bad?
If you can teach your child good sleep habits, you will be giving them a gift for life. And the process of falling asleep is very much a learned habit. Like many other learned habits, such as training your body to go to the bathroom at convenient times, it requires lots of repetition. However, sleep does not respond well to direct effort. The more you try to go to sleep, the more you wake yourself up. In fact, trying hard leads to sleeplessness. So the last thing you want to tell your child is, “Go to your room and just try to go to sleep.” This will likely lead to more frustration and more wakefulness.