- 0
- 0
- 0
- 0
- 0
- 0
3-year-old sleep patterns are more affected by changes in the environment due to the increased mental capacity and sensitivity of children. As a matter of fact, 3-year-old sleep disorder is a common problem. In this article, we have compiled the underlying causes of 3-year-old sleep problems from Tracy Hogg’s book “Miracle Solutions to Baby Care Problems”, it’s time to fight insomnia!
1. More influence from family and environment
Children are much more affected by the changes in their families and environments. Many challenging social situations such as changes in family life, having a new baby, a loss in your family, problems in your marriage/divorce, hiring a new caregiver can cause the 3-year-old sleep pattern to be disrupted .
During this period, you can observe that your child has a more curious nature than the younger ones. Anyone can become a playmate for them, no matter who they are with. While she was not bothered by sounds before, the sounds she hears at this age can be enough to wake her little one from her sleep. Unfortunately, it is not possible for him to have a sound sleep.
2. Development of physical skills
Some mischievous ones manage to get out of bed and go to their mother when they are only 18 months old . But in general, before the age of two, children’s heads are proportionally larger than their bodies, so when they try to hang from the edge of the bed, they can feel heavy and fall.
The age of 2 is a period when children have learned how to stand and climb. Children exhibit a lot of physical skills during this period. In this period, if your little one wakes up in the middle of the night and you take him to bed, you will have a big problem for yourself and a big invitation to sleep problems for 3 years.
This is especially likely if you haven’t taught your child to sleep or self-soothe.
3. Social activities
The age of 3 is a period of increased social activity in children and the activities of the child during this period may affect the sleep pattern. Many factors, such as starting a new playgroup, what kind of activities he does, and other children taking part in these activities, can cause a 3-year-old child to have sleep problems by causing excessive stress.
Since the little lamb is not ready to take lessons to learn something when he is a little boy, situations such as having a “coach” or being teased by other children in the playgroup may cause him to falter. This mental state can inevitably affect sleep patterns.
4. Tantrums
Now that your child is in a talking stage, the 3-year-old sleep problem can become more tiring than ever before. He used to say, “He doesn’t understand anything yet.” or “You don’t have it.” While you can pass it off with sentences like, you can lose yourself in anger when your child grows up.
If your child has an ingrained behavior and you, as a mother, did not respond to him in the way he expected, you may be subject to nervous movements that shake the bed he sleeps in. These tantrums, which he can often hold during the day, cause him to think that he can bring you running with him with a few movements at night.
5. Learning to manage their parents
One of the biggest mistakes parents make is confusing their children’s manipulative actions with separation anxiety.
If you haven’t shown some faulty parenting behavior as a solution to your child’s fears, but if you’ve approached him with compassion and trust, separation anxiety should start at 7 and 19 months and end at 15 and 18 months, says Tracy Hogg.
Therefore, when the 2-3 year old child comes to him at night, “He comes to me but has separation anxiety.” It shows that your child has now learned to manage you. At this point, the thing you need to pay attention to is to try not to make mistakes as a parent.
6. Easily influenced
At this age, children have a high level of understanding. There may be some fears they experience because of the things that are read to them or watched. This can affect the sleep pattern of a 3-year-old child. You have to keep in mind that he can be easily influenced because he is in control of what is going on around him.
If you and your spouse are angry with each other, if a child is constantly buying his toys in the playgroup, the little one realizes all of these in this period and the anxiety he has experienced can cause sleep problems.
7. TV and computer causing nightmares for a long time
One of the biggest factors affecting the 3-year-old’s sleep pattern is spending long hours in front of television and computer games. Especially if they contain the kind of content that can cause nightmares.
Tracy Hogg says that whatever you let your child watch, you should watch and do it from a child’s perspective. For example, your child may not enjoy watching animations such as Bambi and Finding Nemo as much as you think. Knowing that the mothers of the main characters in the two films were murdered can be troubling for him. Because there are many examples of this that cause nightmares in children.
For this reason, you should be very careful about what kind of fairy tales you tell your child, what books he reads about, what you watch. Scary tales and dark images may stick in your mind. This can cause a 3-year-old child to wake up at night.
Most importantly, if television and computer are now a part of your child’s life, you should not forget to make time for it before bedtime. Tracy Hogg even suggests introducing the “no watching TV” rule at the end of the day.
