How to Create a Good Sleeping Environment for Your Kid
Sleeping issues are highly prevalent among children. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, 31 percent of children aged six to 13 experience difficulty falling and staying asleep. There could be a number of reasons for this, but it’s important that you find the reason that your child is struggling to fall sleep. One of the most common reasons behind broken sleep is actually the mattress. It’s recommended that mattresses are changed every 7-10 years, so it might be worth trying that method. When a mattress ages, it becomes less comfortable. This could be the reason that your child is struggling to fall asleep. Perhaps it’s worth visiting a company like Simba Sleep to try and find the perfect mattress for your child. That could help them to experience a better night’s sleep. As you’ll know, if your kid isn’t sleeping well, you likely aren’t sleeping well, either. This is why it’s so important to try and work out why they are struggling to sleep. To ensure that everyone in your household is getting the quality sleep they need, it’s important to get to the root of why your child is having trouble sleeping. From high levels of stress to an overactive imagination, your child might not be sleeping well for many reasons. Another common reason may be because their sleeping environment isn’t optimized. For effective tips on how to create a good sleeping environment for your kid, continue reading.
Minimize Loud Noises
Whether traffic noises are filtering in from outside or the sounds of noisy pipes are running through the walls, loud sounds can make falling asleep much more difficult. Even if your kid is able to drift off into sleep, such noises could wake them up or impede their quality of sleep as their brains continue to process the sounds. As such, it’s important to block out loud noises as much as possible. Examples of ways to block out noises in your kid’s room include installing acoustic panels in the ceiling, adding mineral wool or spray foam insulation in the walls, or investing in thicker windows.
Implement a Noise Machine
Although we just talked about how reducing noise can improve your child’s sleep, not all noises are bad for sleep. Several studies have stated that certain ambient noises can have beneficial effects on children’s ability to fall and stay asleep. You should eliminate loud noises as much as possible, but background noises such as the sounds of a gentle river, calming ocean waves, or a tranquil forest may mask abrupt sounds that would otherwise wake a child up. As such, adding a noise machine to your child’s room may be beneficial for creating a good sleeping environment for your kid.
Reduce Bright Light
You should also attempt to block out light as much as possible in your children’s room. Too much bright light can suppress melatonin and upset their natural sleep cycle. As such, it’s important to block out light by investing in blackout curtains or curtain liners. It is worth noting that if your child is afraid of the dark, they’ll likely have a harder time falling asleep in a room that’s completely dark. In this case, blocking out all the light in their room likely won’t be beneficial, so install a small night light with a warm yellow light that will impede their fear without disrupting their natural sleep cycle.