When I was pregnant with our first child, somebody gave me a card I’ve never forgotten. It read, “Expecting is Nature’s means of suggesting that you had been getting an excessive amount of sleep!” In the thirteen years since, there were many a night I’ve longed for an evening of children get yourself ready for bed without incident, dosing off peacefully, remaining blissfully asleep via an uninterrupted night and waking–as a family–thoroughly rested and ready for the day. Since studying the characteristics of visual-spatial learners, those that think in images, not words, I’ve wondered whether or not sleep issues are far more common among these kids than amongst their auditory-sequential counterparts. Do your visual-spatial kids battle to get to sleep during the night? Are they much “too wired” for sleep at bedtime? Perhaps since the left hemisphere of the brains is liberated to have a break from the college day, the best hemisphere is wide awake and ready to generate inventions or stop on imaginative adventures.
If the kids have trouble getting to sleep during the night, I’ve got some suggestions which may help. First, your children need certainly to know how important sleep is due to their body and brain. They might think they’re getting along just fine without much sleep at night. But, if they were truly getting the total amount of sleep their bodies needed, every day, they’d do better in school, sports, music–even their relationships with friends and family would improve. Each person’s dependence on sleep differs so there actually are no guidelines after babyhood of just how much sleep a person needs. However, if the kids find themselves dozing off in class, or unable to focus clearly, they should start with a youthful bedtime.
Researchers have discovered that many mammals, including humans, switch between two different phases of sleep: REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM. It is during REM sleep that people experience increased brain activity and vivid dreams. 止鼻鼾 REM sleep is important for humans but you have to go through the stages of non-REM sleep in order to get there. In reality, “your ability to identify certain patterns on a screen is directly tied to the total amount of REM sleep you get.” (Time, December 20, 2004, Why We Sleep by Christine Gorman, p. 48-49) Also, learning something new prior to your children go to sleep will help them remember that information better. So, any significant studying for an exam should probably be performed prior to each goes to bed.
Maybe you have visited sleep with a problem on your brain, and then awaken in the morning and have the clear answer? This is because your brain remains working, reviewing the day’s events, even when you are no more conscious. You could encourage your children to, “sleep on” an issue before making important decisions. They may be surprised to possess uncovered a solution throughout the night!
So, let’s say you’ve finally gotten the children to sleep. Now, how do you help them stay asleep? Snoring is an issue not exclusive to adults. Up to 12% of most children suffer snoring problems that might have a dramatic impact on the ability to get a good night’s sleep. And, when a child snores, new studies suggest, he or she stands a much better potential for underperforming in school in comparison to a young child that doesn’t snore. “What research is showing now’s that snoring may cause issues with behavioral problems, attention issues, and difficulty concentrating,” says Dr. Norman Friedman, a rest disorder expert at Children’s Hospital in Denver.
Both of my kids have now been prone to nightmares. Do your visual-spatial children have problems with nightmares that seem so real they’ve trouble shaking them from their memory once they wake? Such nightmares typically happen through the deepest part of sleep, the REM sleep, and the sort of sleep your son or daughter needs most. You could try employing a dream catcher and hanging it above their beds. Dream catchers have now been used for generations. Native American legend says that dream catchers sift through the sleeping person’s dreams, catching those who are good and sending the bad dreams through the hole in the center. If it will help your children drift off in to a deep enough sleep that nightmares aren’t troublesome for them, they’ll have done the key!