Good sleep quality is very important for children's nervous system, growth and development, and is of great significance for promoting children's cognitive, emotional and behavioral development, physical and mental health and improving immunity. Does your child have a sleep disorder? How to interfere with children's sleep disorders in daily life? This article will solve this problem for you.
Sleep is a physiological process, a regular and recurring reversible state of organisms, and an automatic behavior and physiological function necessary for survival. Sleep disorder generally refers to the abnormality of sleep quality and quantity, or the abnormality of regularity.
For autistic children, sleep disorder is actually one of the common symptoms of autistic children. Studies have shown that the incidence of sleep problems in children with autism spectrum disorders is significantly higher than that in ordinary children. According to different research surveys, 40% and 86% of autistic children have sleep problems, and both high-functioning and low-functioning autistic children are prone to sleep problems.
The common sleep problems of autistic children are: irregular sleep day and night, difficulty in falling asleep and maintaining sleep, poor sleep quality, early awakening or frequent awakening; There are interference and resistance behaviors before going to bed, including crying, screaming and losing temper, as well as sleep problems such as insomnia, talking in sleep, sleepwalking, nightmare grinding teeth, sleep apnea and excessive sleep during the day. The younger the child, the more obvious the performance.
Sleep disorders will not only affect children's physical and mental health, neurological development, daily study and life, but even aggravate some typical symptoms of autistic children, including behavioral stereotypes, social difficulties, emotional and behavioral problems. Sleep problems will also affect children's learning, including excessive sleep during the day and loss of learning opportunities.
Adequate sleep can ensure the normal development of children, and develop good sleep habits from an early age, and children will benefit for life.
For families with autistic children, children's sleep disorder has always been a headache for parents. To this end, we have listed some methods that can interfere with children's sleep disorders in daily life, which may be helpful to parents.
1, Sleep environment and diet adjustment
Children's bedrooms should avoid objects that children may be afraid of, followed by soft lighting, quiet and comfortable environment, keeping the room dark and the indoor temperature suitable. Before going to bed, children should not eat too much caffeinated food and do high-intensity stimulating activities.
2. Sleep mode
The establishment of good sleep patterns mainly includes the management of circadian rhythm and proper sleep arrangements. Reasonable sleep time should be determined. Napping can reduce or cancel the nap time. You can arrange some adequate exercise during the day. Brush your teeth, take a shower and tell stories according to the routine before going to bed. The content of storytelling and activities should be changed, and some quiet parent-child activities and other low-intensity activities can be done to avoid stimulation. Finally, parents should wake up their children regularly every day.
3. Fading strategy
Children's sleep time can be temporarily extended backward, then gradually adjusted forward, get up when the alarm clock rings in the morning, and encourage children to get more sunshine in the morning. During this period, parents can gradually reduce the time and frequency of their appearance in their children's bedroom, and the time for checking their children's sleep will gradually transition from 2 minutes to 5 minutes and 10 minutes.
If the child resists before going to bed, parents should also extend the waiting time for the child to cry and lose his temper, from 5 minutes to 10 minutes and 15 minutes. Or parents completely ignore their children's sleep resistance behavior. If the child leaves the room, the parents will send it back immediately, and there can be no eye contact, hug, conversation and other reactions during the return process. However, this method should be avoided when children are injured or sick.
4. Reward strategy
Children can be rewarded for showing positive sleep behavior according to their parents' requirements. For example, children can get 1 post if they follow their sleep habits, don't cry, don't refuse to sleep and don't lose their temper.
Step 5 plan a wake-up strategy
Planned wake-up strategies are often due to the intervention of children's nighttime wake-up problems. Parents need to record the time when their children wake up at night, wake them up by touching them about 30 minutes before they wake up at night, and then let them fall asleep. Repeat this every day until the child can stay awake for a week. Then, parents will suspend 65,438+0 nights of planned wakefulness in the following week and 65,438+0 nights of different wakefulness in the following week. If the child doesn't wake up at night, this strategy should be repeated.
Step 6 set a timetable
Make a graphical timetable and form a standardized and consistent timetable. Show the sleeping process through visual pictures, including bathing, changing pajamas, quiet games, going to the toilet, milk and so on. These activities are repeated every night, and the children are allowed to finish them in order on time.
7. Role play/demonstration
Parents will show their children their favorite toys and appropriate sleeping behaviors, such as "It's getting dark, the doll should rest, and we should send her to the bedroom to sleep."
The above behavioral interventions should also consider children's cognitive ability and development level. For example, bedtime stories may not be suitable for children with limited language understanding. Therefore, for some young autistic children, it may be too difficult to add stories to the bedtime rules. Parents can design reading picture books or other quiet activities with high participation.
In addition, in the process of children's sleep disorder intervention, parents need to remind their children what to do next to reduce their anxiety and correct them in time when they make mistakes.