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Keeping Kids on a Sleeping Schedule:

Parents tend to think of a lot of aspects when it comes to their kids' sleeping habits, such as whether they will be sleeping in their own bed, or in the parents' bed, in their own room or their parents' room, what type of bed they will sleep in, and more. One aspect, though, that many parents frequently overlook is how important it is to keep your child on a steady sleep schedule. This doesn't only apply to bedtime either, it also applies to naptime. Here are just a few reasons it is important to keep your child's schedule regular:

• Sleepy children are cranky children. This is one of the most commonly known reason that it is very important for your child's sleeping habits to remain unchanged as much as possible. Even being just thirty minutes late for a nap can make a big difference in your child's whole attitude.

• More accidents happen when children are sleepy. It may not seem to be that big of a deal to an adult, but if a child misses out on a nap that they needed, they are much more prone to accidents. This is because they simply can't be as focused on their surroundings or what they are doing, and this makes them susceptible to many more injuries than normal.

• Once the schedule has changed (even a tiny amount, even just one time), it is extremely hard to get it back to normal. As adults, we can stay up late one night and our schedule can be back to normal the very next day. Since this is the case, it makes it extremely hard to remember that it isn't the same with children. It isn't, though. If you let your child skip a nap one day, it is likely to throw off their normal schedule for a week or better. This is because it is likely that they won't make it through the entire day before falling asleep (at a late time like 7:00 PM), then, by the time they wake up from their little nap, it's almost their normal bedtime. You can still put them to bed at this time, but it's not very likely that they will go to sleep (after all, they just woke up). Then, they are staying up late, which means they will sleep late the next day. This also means they won't be sleepy for their nap until later than normal, and the cycle can just keep going like this.

Ways to help keep your child's sleeping schedule intact:

• Stick to the same time everyday. It is often a real temptation to let your child stay up as late as they want to on the weekends, because then they might sleep a little later, and you might get to sleep in, too. But, this isn't a good idea, because your child will have an extremely hard time catching back up on sleep and getting back to normal with their schedule.

• If something does happen to change things up (and these things do happen on occasion to most parents), you will want to get them back to normal as quickly as possible. This means that if your child takes a late nap and stays up late, don't let them sleep late the next day. If they went to bed late and you still made them get up early, this can cause them to be sleepy early and take their nap at their normal time. Be wary, though, of getting them up too early. If you do this, they may take a nap much earlier than normal, and this isn't any better.



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