Sleep All Through The Night - Without Crying!

By Rachel Ann

Many families with small children are tormented by sleepless nights, nights where both parents and child doesn't get enough sleep or sleeps very poorly. Having good sleeping routines and a safe place to sleep is very important for the child, and if this is the case sleeping quality and quantity will improve immensely.

For both adults and children, sleep is very important. Being unable to get the rest you need, or being woken several times when you need to sleep, can be devastating for both nights and days. Sleep reinforces both body and soul.

A lot happens in both the body and the brain during sleep. What takes place in the brain during sleep, can be compared to how a computer is organized and kept tidy. For instance, files must be placed in the right folders, the hard drive must be defragmented now and then to avoid it becoming cluttered. Dreams are the equivalent to computer clean up programs, the consciousness is rinsed from old scraps and issues are dealt with in new and constructive ways.

The body relaxes the muscles and regenerates the cells during sleep. Different substances are produced and released in the body in much larger quantities during sleep. Hormones, such as growth hormones and hormones that regulated the milk production in lactating women, are produced and released during sleep.

Depression, becoming psychotic or getting other psychiatric disorders are well documented causes, if you are depraved sleep for an extended period. One of the most simple and yet devastation ways of torture is sleep deprivation, and this should tell us, just how important sleep is for both parents and their children.

Although sleep is very important to all families, falling asleep and sleeping does not necessarily happen by itself for everyone. The first thing is to make sure you have a good place to sleep.

Falling asleep

Much of a baby's sleep is REM sleep or "dream sleep". Dream sleep is shallow, breathing is irregular and the eyes move quickly behind the closed eyelids. In this stage babies often wakes up easily, but often they fall back into sleep right away. A gentle touch on the child's forehead, hand or check is often enough to bring the child back into dream land.

When a child is tired, it must be allowed to sleep. The child sleeps better if it has a clean diaper, is full and the temperature is pleasant. If it can be avoided, don't accustom your baby to sleep with a breast or a pacifier in his or hers mouth. It is also unwise to accustom the child to hold the father's or mother's hand when it is about to sleep. Then the pacifier, the breast or the hands will be the signal to that now is the time to sleep for the child. Crying can also work the same way if the child gets used to cry before sleeping. The trick is to make the child falls asleep without any specific stimuli.

It is not good for any children for them to cry themselves to sleep. A child that cries must be comforted. If something is wrong, you must help the child. Food, clean diaper, less light or less noise or more security. Is the child sick, then you must consider what is wrong. Is it hot (signs of fever)? Is it cold? Is it a stomach ache? Is this constipation? Consider wether a health visitor or doctor should be contacted and asked for advice. - 29958

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