Role Of Regular Sleep Pattern In Child's Development

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 Regular sleep pattern plays a pivotal role in facilitating a child's development. Here are some ways that regular sleep pattern impacts positively on child's development: 

(i) Sleep helps the body regulate growth hormones release, essential for growth and development.

(ii) Regular sleep pattern facilitates bone growth and density, thereby drastically reducing the risks of osteoporosis and osteomalacia. 

(iii) It supports immune system development, thereby reducing the risks of illnesses. 

(iv) Sleep helps regulate emotions, reducing the risks of anxiety, depression, and mood disorder.

(v) Regular sleep pattern calms the brain and improves the long term and short term retentive memories, attention, focus, thereby enhancing academic performance.

(vi) Regular sleep pattern reduses the risk of obesity, thereby promoting healthy weight management.

(vii) It reduces mental health disorders (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, abbreviated to ADHD), anxiety, and depression.

(viii) It helps in promoting problem-solving skills, enhancing cognitive flexibility and creativity.

(ix) It pegs down stress by influencing the regulations of the cortisol levels, and promoting emotional well-being.

(x) Sleep promotes the brain's ability to reorganize and refine connections in a biological process known as neuroplasticity. 

(xi) Sleep helps eliminate unnecessary neural connections, thereby refining brain functions and efficiency. 

(xii) Sleep promotes the production of the white blood cells (antibodies or antigens) essential for fighting infections.

(xiii) It regulates blood pressures curbing down the risks of cardiovascular diseases.

(xiv) Regular sleep pattern promotes vascular health, supporting healthy blood vessel functions and reducing inflammation to clinically insignificant levels. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the irreplaceable position of regular sleep pattern in child development. The WHO said, "...early childhood is a period of rapid physical and cognitive development, and establishing a consistent sleep routine helps form healthy habits." Additionally, WHO's guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviours, and sleep for children under five years old provide recommendations on the amount of sleep children need for optimal health and development. The UNICEF said that parents should set up regular routine for children to develop healthy sleep patterns. The UNICEF also maintained that a simple and consistent rhythm helps children develop healthy habits early on. Therefore, for optimal development, every child needs adequate sleep, physical activity, and limited sedentary behaviours. Parents have a crucial role to play in establishing healthy habits and providing a supportive environment for children to thrive. So, parents are required to:

(i) Establish a calming pre-sleep pattern, by having adequate activities such as reading, storytelling, or anything that can make the children calm and ready to sleep.

(ii) Families should have fixed time to sleep daily and wake up. Nobody in that family should sleep and wake up at his/ her own time. This approach will reduce both excessive screen time and sleep disrupting habits in the families.

(iii) Parents should ensure that children sleep in a quiet and dark place, and at a comfortable temperature. Parents are required to switch off light in the bedrooms where the children are sleeping. Most people, both children and adults, find it very difficult to sleep comfortably in the bedrooms where the bulb is switched on.

(iv) Sleep time should be separated from screen time. Children are not required to get up from the screen and walk straight into their bedrooms to sleep. It is necessary that a child leaves the screen for about 30 minutes before walking into the bedroom to sleep. It is possible that some screen contents do not allow a sound sleep immediately one goes into the bedroom. Contents from social media can disprupt sleep pattern adversely in children though they may not tell parents about them.

(v) Physical activities during daytime is necessary to burn off enough calories to make the child sleep well at night. 

A regular sleep pattern is necessary for a child's development because it plays a key role in the physical growth, brain development, emotional regulation, and overall well-being of a child, laying the foundation for healthy living and success in the society. 

Please, share with your friends and loved ones. Thank you very much.








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