Newborn Avi enjoys a nap while nursing.
Benjamin Franklin famously said; "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." I can testify that this is true for children as well as adults. In the Waldorf method of education and lifestyle early bedtimes are a crucial part of a healthy home rhythm.
Sometimes as adults we don't fully appreciate how much sleep children need to thrive. We place them on our own sleep schedule or struggle endless hours to get them to go to bed a little earlier than us. We can see the results in their tired eyes, their cranky behavior and their bedtime fussiness.
Our Papa has been working more evenings lately and has been out of town a lot so our bedtime routine has seen me struggle to get the boys to bed on time and while I aim for the recommended 7 pm bedtime the boys are often not asleep until 8 or 9 pm.
Our rates of whining, irritability, and over all grouchiness have increased in response, prompting me to do a little research into how much sleep children need and suggestions for bedtime routines.
First let's look at how much sleep your children need by their age...
Newborns, 1-2 months old need 10.5 - 18 hours per day, waking often to eat.
Infants, 3 - 11 months old need 9-12 hours of sleep per night, waking often to eat as well as several naps throughout the day.
Toddlers, 1-3 years old need 12-14 hours sleep in a 24 hour period.
Preschoolers, 3 - 5 years old need 11 - 13 hours of sleep per night.
Children, 5-12 years old need 10-11 hours of sleep.
A few important points to remember is that even though your child may need 11 hours of sleep that doesn't mean that sleeping from midnight to 11 am is an optimum schedule. Rudolph Steiner, the creator of the Waldorf method, taught that every hour of sleep you get before midnight is worth twice as much as sleep you get after midnight - thus an early bedtime is best for children (as well as adults).
So, in our home my children usually wake up between 7 and 8 am, this mean that Ronan should be in bed, and asleep around 7 pm and Nykki no later than 9 pm. When you factor in brushing teeth, putting on jammies, reading a few stories, our bedtime routine really should begin no later than 6 pm.
As I write this, my sleepy Ro Ro is dozing while laying on my shoulder. He fell asleep around 9 pm last night and the several meltdowns he's had today are telling me that I need to adjust our dinner time to 5 pm so that we can begin our bed routine at 6 pm.
Our preferred bedtime routine (which has been off since I had Avi) is to get teeth brushed and jammies on right after dinner. We then snuggle in bed and read a few pictures as well as a few chapters from our chapter book by candle light.
What is your bedtime routine? What bedtime have you found to work best?
No comments:
Post a Comment