Kerry Davies : Poor sleep should not be accepted as the norm in children

According to reports, one-in-two children will suffer from sleep issues to varying degrees. For adults, one-in-five suffer from sleep problems.

As parents and carers of young children, this will probably not surprise you. As a former nurse turned sleep practitioner going into alternative educational provisions that educate children who cannot attend mainstream education, I believe that there is a general lack of understanding surrounding sleep and an acceptance that poor sleep is simply the norm.

In actual fact poor sleep should not be the norm just as we would not accept poor health as normal in this country.

I believe good sleep can be learnt. We can create good sleep habits if we are educated about sleep.

As adults, we know that a lack of sleep can affect every single aspect of our lives. It affects our moods, and our ability to concentrate and can sometimes affect our ability to physically carry out simple tasks.

This is the same for children. The major issues that we face with the pre-school and early years age group are the inability to fall asleep, night waking and waking up too early in the morning.

Young children are very susceptible to their environments and any change to it. For example If they fall asleep with a carer by their side they expect that carer to be there when they wake up. If they hear birds tweeting every morning at four am they will habitually wake to that. We use white and pink noise effectively to combat external issues that we can't change such as noise.

I have seen first-hand how working on sleep with older children within a learning environment has changed their ability to achieve.

I work closely with alternative educational provision Consilium Evolve. Headteacher Rob Bell is innovative in his approach to tackling sleep issues which he knows are affecting his student’s well-being.

He says “The aim is to get our students back into mainstream school. Many of our students suffer from poor sleep and that plays a part in their behavioural difficulties. Kerry worked with one of our young teenagers who told us that he would sleep from 5pm until 1am and then eat his dinner. He would stay awake until 5am and then sleep again until 11am. He had got into a sleep habit that he couldn’t break which is why he came through to Consilium. Kerry started working with him on his sleep patterns and habits. Within six months he was back in mainstream school with 100 per cent attendance. Kerry also works with our staff and parents to help them better understand how to help our young people get healthy sleep.”

I now believe sleep education should be a big part of a young child’s learning. Normalising sleep is important.

For example, in early years settings, by setting aside time each day to talk about sleep in different ways it becomes something familiar and children begin to understand why they sleep and what good sleep looks like.

As parents, we are told we should be calming our children prior to bedtime rather than doing activities. However, it is proven that using their fine motor skills with a jigsaw or playdough can really help to calm the mind. 

Peer support is paramount when children are young in giving them confidence. By discussing sleep with each other and being guided by a teacher on things like getting to sleep, what cuddly toys they take to bed, and through other simple conversations, children will realise that going to bed is normal, not scary and they definitely are not missing out on anything.

If early years settings can start the conversation around sleep in a positive celebratory way then I believe we are halfway to ensuring we stop sleep problems from becoming a bigger statistic.

• Kerry Davies is a member of the British Sleep Society and owner of the company  - 'The Sleep Fixer'