What are the dangers of insufficient sleep in young children?

The hot summer months can make everyone feel a little bit crazy, especially the kids. They may want to take a nap when it is cooler during the day, but they cannot sleep at all when it is hot at night. If you turn on the air conditioner, you are afraid that their children will kick off the quilt when they sleep restlessly at night. Nowadays, more and more children do not like to sleep, especially during the day when they should take a nap, they will not lie in bed for a while. I don’t sleep well at night, and I’m really worried about not getting enough sleep.

Studies have found that children who do not get enough sleep at night and are sleepy during the day not only develop slowly, but also have prominent learning problems and relatively poor attention, memory, organizational skills, creativity and motor skills. Especially in terms of behavioral problems, children who go to bed late at night are more likely to be aggressive, and may also have symptoms such as ADHD, poor self-control, and lack of concentration. In terms of emotional regulation, they are more likely to be irritated.

In addition, during growth and development, lack of sleep at night will disrupt the normal secretion of growth hormone, causing damage to the immune system, endocrine disorders, metabolic problems, and easy weight gain.

Sleeping habits should be cultivated from the age of 0. Yu Wen, deputy chief physician and child health expert at the International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, told reporters that good sleeping habits for children should be cultivated from the age of 0. Many of today’s bad sleeping habits are caused by parents.

For example, many young parents worry that their children will be hungry in the middle of the night, so they wake them up to feed them. Before going to bed, I hold my child and coax and pat him/her to sleep, even picking him/her up if he/she cries in the middle of the night. Experts believe that these practices are wrong. It is completely normal for your baby to wake up 4 to 6 times in the middle of the night. You should cultivate the habit of letting him fall asleep again automatically after waking up.

We should cultivate good sleeping habits in children from an early age, and let them rest when the time comes. We should not let them not sleep when they don’t want to, or fall asleep at any time when they want to. Parents must play a good leading role. A reasonable diet and a good schedule are necessary conditions for a child's normal health.