Importance of sleep and reasons why kids require a good night's sleep

Types of sleep

There are two states of sleep:

• NREM (non-rapid eye movement) or “quiet” sleep. During this state, blood supply increases to the muscles, energy is regenerated, tissue repair as well as growth occurs, and essential hormones for development and growth are released.
  
• REM (rapid eye movement) or “active” sleep. In this state of sleep, your brain functions actively and this is the phase when dreams occur. Your body becomes immobile, heart rate and breathing is uneven.

Sleep and children

Newborn babies will sleep at least ten to eighteen hours per day on an uneven interval and awake for one to three hours. The snooze time may end few minutes to some hours. Throughout the sleep, they seem very active, smile, twitch their legs as well as arms and generally appear restless.

For infants, night feeding is not essential and they sleep throughout the night with short naps until they reach the age of one year.

Toddlers need 12 to 14 hours sleep in a day. When they are 18 months their sleeping reduces by one to three hours. Don’t make your child sleep too close to bedtime, as it may delay their sleep at night. Most of the toddlers face sleeping problems like sleeping late or waking up several times at night. Nighttime dreams and fear are also common.

Preschoolers usually sleep 11 to 13 hours at night. Even at this age, they experience nightmares and dreams. In addition to this, they will also experience sleep talking and walking problems.

Children from five to 12 years of age require at least 10 to 11 hours of sleep. At this age, they show interest in computers, TV, mobile, and caffeine products as well as the internet - all these will lead to trouble falling asleep and disrupts their sleep.

Sleep troubles and disorders are quite common during this period. Insufficient sleep causes behavioural problems like hyperactivity, cognitive problems as well as mood swings. These problems impact on your children's activities, learning, etc.

So, you need to take some precautions to make your child sleep such as make a regular sleeping schedule, choose a correct mattress and so on. All these will help them to sleep properly without any disturbance.

If you want to purchase a perfect mattress for your children, kids memory foam by Amerisleep.com is the best choice. They provide a high-quality memory foam mattress that gives good comfort and support to your child. You can also visit the official website to know more about the products.

The following are a few tips that help you to find a right bed for your kids:

• Correct size - These days mattresses are available in different sizes like twin, extra-long, etc. Choose the right size mattress based on your child age and height.
  
• Correct support - Do the trial test before buying a mattress and make sure whether it can provide a good comfort and support to your child. Don’t trust the salesman or dealer advice - check and make your own decision.
  
• Internal material - Before buying, research and gather information on materials including box spring, coil count, mattress thickness, gauge of steel, etc. This helps to choose the best suitable mattress.

Purchasing a mattress for children is a difficult task, but you need to take all the precautions to enhance your child's health as well as future.