Sleep and Wellbeing Workshop

Across the Primary School, we have been focusing on the importance of sleep and well being on children’s physical and emotional well-being. We have been working closely with Family Medical Practice and during the month of April they delivered three parent sessions on the importance of sleep in children. The sessions were delivered by Dr. Maria Santos.

During these sessions, the doctors at Family Medial Practice covered a variety of areas including:

Why is sleep important to my child?

Is my child getting enough sleep?

How can I help my child sleep better?

They discussed the recommended hours of sleep and gave some very useful guidelines for our parents to follow, which were:

Infants (4-12 months): 12-16 hours

Toddlers (1-2 years old): 11-14 hours

Pre-school 3-5 years: 10-13 hours

Teens 13-18 years old: 8-10 hours

They also shared some very useful tips and strategies that parents can use to ensure that their child gets a good night’s sleep. Here were some of their top tips:

• Give your child a warm bath or shower within an hour before bedtime.
• Avoid giving caffeine or caffeine containing products such as chocolates/soda/energy drinks; a heavy or spicy meal within 4 hours before bedtime. Instead, provide a light snack (milk, cracker/toast or fruit) within 2 hrs before bedtime.
• Avoid using TV or any electronic devices to try to make your child fall sleep, instead read books with soothing stories.
• Make sure your child sleeps at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each day. Avoid staying up late and sleeping in during the weekends.
• Use the bed only for sleeping and not for watching TV or playing games with toys or electronic devices.

The staff at Family Medical Practice were very excited to collaborate with us on this important topic and we are looking forward to working with them more in the future. We hope you find this information useful and if there are any questions you have, please do let us know as Family Medial Practice would be happy to offer any advice and support.

Holly Carmichael

Phase 1 Leader / Primary Teacher