Contents:
- Medical Video: Five Tips To Get Your Baby To Sleep Through The Night
- Tricks for children to learn to sleep alone
- 1. Start slowly
- 2. Create a pleasant room atmosphere
- 3. Don't rush the child to sleep
- 4. Reduce the source of interference
- 5. Overcoming fear
- 6. Stay firm and consistent
- 7. Set the right bedtime
- 8. Appreciate children's business
Medical Video: Five Tips To Get Your Baby To Sleep Through The Night
When your child is old enough to sleep in your own room, you will face new challenges. Most children who have been accustomed to sleeping together with their parents from a baby will have difficulty learning to sleep alone in a separate room. You and your partner must fight so that the child wants to sleep alone. Children who dare to sleep alone will become more independent and responsible. In addition, you and your partner can sleep better so that in the morning your family will wake up full of energy.
Keep in mind, this adjustment process is not easy and may take quite a long time for months until the child is really used to sleeping alone. So, you and your partner must also prepare themselves with patience and various tricks so that children want to sleep in separate rooms.
Tricks for children to learn to sleep alone
Usually a child who does not want to sleep alone in his room will create various reasons so that he can sleep together with his parents. Therefore, you must be smart to outsmart the reasons given by your child. Try the following eight tricks so that children can get used to sleeping alone quickly.
1. Start slowly
You should prepare your child to learn to sleep alone long before the time comes so that your child is not surprised. Try not to frighten children with scary stories or use their own threat of sleep as a weapon to discipline children. You just have to get around so that children feel enthusiastic about their new room. Involve children in arranging their bedrooms ranging from paint colors, choice of bed linen, and various other room furniture.
You can also use lures that are of interest to children such as, "Later in your new room, you can build your own doll palace." You must help children believe that sleeping in their own room is a pleasant and proud experience, not a scourge.
2. Create a pleasant room atmosphere
So that children want to sleep in their own rooms, he must feel safe and comfortable in his room. So, arrange for your child's room to feel alive, but it is peaceful enough to rest. Prepare dolls, pillows and bolsters so that the child feels safe and calm while sleeping. Also let your child keep some toys or reading books in the room so that a sense of belonging arises and the child quickly feels at home in his new room.
3. Don't rush the child to sleep
If all this time you take your child to sleep in a hurry, the child will not feel sleepy and want to sleep. He will actually feel anxious and consider sleep is a time that is hated. So, make sure that children's sleep time is a priority for you or your partner. No need to rush a child to urinate, brush his teeth, or pray before going to bed. Alert by advancing children's nighttime sleep. That way, the preparation can be more relaxed. The child feels relaxed before closing his eyes. So that children are more happy when the time for the break arrives, read or tell interesting stories to take him to sleep.
4. Reduce the source of interference
Children will usually find it harder to sleep at night if there is a lot of interference in his room. So, as much as possible keep the source of interference that can emit light such as televisions, computers, game consoles (PlayStation or Xbox), and other electronic devices from the child's room. If your child already has smartphone yourself, offer to keep it as long as the child sleeps and promise to return it in the morning.
5. Overcoming fear
Some children do not want to sleep alone for fear of darkness or ghosts. To overcome your fear you can provide a lot of dolls, pillows, or blankets that surround the bed so that the child feels safe. Pretend asking for help from one of your child's dolls to keep him as long as he sleeps to be more calm and feel protected. Convince the child that you or your partner are not far from the child's room so that they can always monitor themselves.
If the child is still afraid, you can check into the child's bedroom every 10 to 15 minutes. When you check and the child is still awake, praise his courage for staying calm in bed and not following you or your partner. After that, wait longer to check the child again in his room, about half an hour or one hour. Usually at that time the child is fast asleep.
If your child is afraid of the dark, watch with a light sleeper with soft light. Invite the child to attach stickers that can light up in the dark to divert fear from his mind at night. If your room is adjacent to his room, you can also open the door a little so that there is light coming in and the child can still feel your presence and your partner.
6. Stay firm and consistent
This is not to be forgotten when you and your partner try to get children to learn to sleep on their own. When a child cannot sleep and follows your room, gently invite and accompany the child to return to his own bed. Tell the child firmly that he must go back to sleep because it is late. If you let it sleep with you and your partner, it will be increasingly difficult for children to learn independently.
However, if the child experiences a nightmare, immediately deal with it by asking for his dream and making sure that it is only a real flower of sleep. You must still invite the child to go back to sleep. Don't let your child use nightmare reasons as a weapon to avoid sleeping alone in his room.
7. Set the right bedtime
Your child will have trouble sleeping if the biological clock is a mess. So, you have to make sure that the child sleeps in time. Don't force him to sleep too fast, but try to keep the child from sleeping beyond his sleep. If a child is having a hard time sleeping at night, you can cut or advance his nap time. Also make sure your child is full and has gone to the bathroom before going to bed so he does not make these things an alibi to get out of his room at night.
8. Appreciate children's business
So that children are more enthusiastic about learning to sleep on their own, you can give rewards after he managed to sleep alone in his room. Make sure the rewards are simple and not too excessive, for example by giving a kiss, praise, and thank you in the morning. You can also serve your favorite breakfast menu as a form of appreciation. That way, children will be increasingly encouraged to learn to sleep on their own.
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