The importance of sleep

Sleep is something we all do – although some of you may not get as much as you’d like! – but how much do we think about why we need to sleep and what happens when we’re sleeping?

What is sleep good for?

Sleep is important for physical, mental and emotional wellbeing in children and adults. Our immune systems repair when we sleep and our brains are flushed of dead cells and toxins.

Sleep can help children with focus, regulation, concentration and consolidation of learning.

Having the right amount of good quality sleep is vital for children.

Figures from The Sleep Charity tell us that around 40% of children have sleep problems – that figure goes up to 80/90% in children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).

The stages of sleep

Stage 1 The lightest stage of sleep when you are falling asleep – this is when you may not realise you’re nodding off, or you may wake with a jump! For children, this stage can feel like they’re losing control, this is why they fight it!

Stage 2 The body starts to relax more deeply. Body temperature drops, muscles relax, and heart and breathing rate slow. In stage 2, a child will hear if you try to creep out of the room!

Stage 3 Deeper and more restorative sleep. Our brains are still and resting, this sleep is more difficult to wake from.

Stage 4 REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is where most dreaming occurs.

Sleep Cycles

We go through several cycles of all the sleep stages throughout the night – in adults, each cycle takes 90 – 110 minutes, whereas babies’ cycles are much shorter, with them spending 50% of their time in REM sleep.

Partial awakenings are brief wakeups occurring at the end of each sleep cycle. They last up to 2 minutes and allow the body to adjust; we might not be aware of them happening.

On partial awakening, if everything is the same as when we went to sleep, we are more likely to continue in the sleep cycle. If anything is different, our caveman brain will wake us to check if any of the changes are a threat or not.

Sleep Associations

One reason children wake is due to a change in the night that they become aware of when partially awakening, it might be that you have turned the landing light off, their audiobook has finished or you were present in the room when they went to sleep but are no longer there when they wake.

This is called a sleep association – it’s the way the brain has learned to go to sleep. Can you think of any sleep associations that might be causing your child to wake in the night?

Other Causes of Sleep Issues

As well as sleep associations, there may be other reasons for sleep issues, from the routine needing some tweaking, to medical issues, over-stimulation at bedtime and problems with self-settling.

Lack of sleep can have real impacts on health and wellbeing, including:

• Irritability
• Increased stress
• Forgetfulness
• Difficulties with learning – poor concentration
• Decreased motivation
• Hyperactivity
• Challenging behaviours

What can help:

• Think about what could be causing the sleep issues
• Plan a routine – including wind down time in the hour before bed, dim the lights, offer supper (do an internet search for ‘sleepy foods’), provide hand-eye activities i.e. colouring, puzzles, play doh, bath time (as long as not overwhelming) story time.
• Exercise and movement during the day
• Think about temperature, lighting, noise and colour in the bedroom
• Have regular hours for bedtime and wake up time – even at weekends
• Avoid screens an hour before bed

If you are having problems with your child’s sleep and need some guidance, Jo Lancaster is our sleep practitioner who can help – speak with your SLW.

We also recommend The Sleep Charity for comprehensive information, advice and support with all sleep issues.