Your five-year-old starts kindergarten and suddenly wants to sleep in your bed. Or your previously easy-going, self confident first grader awakens in the night and runs into your bedroom.
Today’s post is the second in a series about sleeping issues in kids. Read the first post on infant sleep here.
Your five-year-old starts kindergarten and suddenly wants to sleep in your bed. Or your previously easy-going, self confident first grader awakens in the night and runs into your bedroom.
What is going on? You rack your brains wondering if he hates school, is being bullied, or if he has some serious psychological issue he’s battling.
Many young children in early elementary school suffer from sleep disturbances. About one third of the children this age that I see in my office experience sleep disruptions. I have come to routinely ask parents of children in elementary school about sleep because it is so common. Here’s where I start.
First, we parents must understand that between ages 5-9, children are cognitively maturing. They begin thinking about deeper issues like life and death. Often they worry about their parents dying but don’t want to verbalize their worries for fear that saying them out loud will make them come true. Many feel superstitious.
At this age, they begin to understand that bad things happen to people and that they and their loved ones could be those people. Since they are young and unable to care for themselves, they worry about what would happen to them if Mom or Dad died.