Articles

Sleep hygiene is for your sleep what dental hygiene is for your teeth. You can improve your sleep as much as you can improve your teeth. All it takes is the right set of practices and understandings, coupled of course with the diligence to follow through on them.

Sleep hygiene refers to the set of habits and guidelines that promote consistently restful and sufficient sleep at night and complete alertness during the day. It's what you can do (and in some cases, not do) to help your child (and you, as a consequence) sleep easy and well. Like dental hygiene, sleep hygiene isn't just for children; it's for everyone, no matter the age. And like dental hygiene, instilling good sleep hygiene habits early on in life will promote the retention and sustaining of those good habits throughout one's lifetime.

All childhood sleep experts address the importance of sleep association, the cardinal rule of which is this: All children should fall asleep under the same circumstances that they will experience when they awaken during the night.

In the process of putting together DreamChild Adventures in Sleep & Relaxation, I worked closely with the parents and caretakers of many children who struggled with sleeeping problems as well as a variety of other psychologyical issues fairly typical among children and teens. In this article I will briefly and broadly map out the connection that I have found exists between sleep and other childhood issues.