Parenting Tips: Does Your Child Lack Sleep?

One of their major causes on why children would easily get tired is that they lack sleep. It is important to know how much sleep your kids need for them to fully function all throughout the day.

Often times, toddlers and grade schoolers might seem irritable and cranky after school as most of them are worn out from the day's activity. Though engaging in school work all throughout the day may seem tiring for most kids, one of the biggest causes of their fatigue is that they're not getting enough sleep.

A tired child is often mistaken to someone who is sickly but truth is most of that aren't getting adequate amount of sleep, Babylogy reported. It is important to sleep train your toddler for them to be able to adapt a regular sleep pattern by the time they're ready for school. The website cited the importance of training your child to adapt to a regular sleeping schedule as lack of sleep can greatly influence the child's school performance and overall health.

Wilson Elementary School located in the United Stated released a sleep chart ideal for parents to base their child's sleeping patterns on. Though the chart may seem helpful for most parents, some stated that it does not necessarily apply.

Today listed a few indications on how to determine if your child lacks sleep. And yes most signs involve temper tantrums and an irritable attitude.

Toddler

Though throwing tantrums are basically normal for toddlers, lack of sleep, however, intensifies the ordeal. According to Dr. Marc Weissbluth, toddlers would usually start to get fuzzy around 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM, but if they'd start throwing tantrums all day long they'll constantly have mood swings and personality behaviors that can sometimes get intolerable.

Elementary Age

As for school-aged children, Dr. Jodi Mindell stated that it is a bit easy to indicate if the child lacks sleep. The moment that your child would not get up when you'd wake them in the morning, it means that they lack sleep.

 "If you have to wake your child to get up for school or child care, then your child isn't getting the sleep that she needs," Mindell says. "figure out how much sleep your child needs, and count backwards from what time she has to get up in the morning. This will help you determine what is her ideal bedtime."