Search Results for: blog getting enough sleep

How to Help Your Kids Fall Asleep

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Sleep is important. We all know what it feels like to have to get up and start the day after not having enough sleep. Before parents can turn in for the night they need to make sure their children are asleep. What can you do if your child is resisting bedtime or getting up at night? Here are some ideas that could help your kids to fall asleep. How much sleep do kids really need? The National Sleep Foundation has some recommendations that are based upon the age of the person. Adults need less sleep than children and babies do. … Continue reading →

Sleeping in Separate Beds: You’re Not Alone

Our culture believes that couples who sleep in separate beds are either experiencing or inviting problems in their marriage. Because I’m a light sleeper, I’m a firm believer that couples should be free to sleep separately if necessary. Jon and I almost always sleep together, but if one of us is restless we move to another bed, to keep that person from being woken up. I know that sleeping in the same bed improves intimacy. Once kids are part of the equation alone time between couples is scarce, and time in bed together, even if it’s just the process of … Continue reading →

Sleep Deprivation or as I Like to Call It…Perimenopause

If you look up the symptoms of perimenopause, you will see that sleep disturbance is one of them. Sleep disturbance is too a nice a phrase for what’s going on with me. It’s more like sleep twister. Or maybe sleep turbulence. If I am lucky enough to get to sleep, I wake up in the middle of the night then toss and turn until the clock goes off. Last night (I woke up at 3:02 am) was better than the night before (I woke up at 1:14 am). For the first time in my life, I am having trouble getting … Continue reading →

Getting Ready for Back to School: Smooth Mornings

If there is one thing I dread about the start of a new school year, it is the mornings. I’m hoping other moms of teens can relate to the sometimes frustrating task of trying to wake a sleepy child. Although I may not be able to do much about that, I do know that I can help us get ready for the new school year by at least planning for a smooth morning. The key to this is preparing the night before. It used to be that most of the preparations fell on me. But in the past few years … Continue reading →

Getting Ready for Back to School: Family Calendar

Next week my teens go back to school. Although this school year will be a bit easier to manage (now that our oldest has moved out), I know I still need to make sure I am planning and preparing for a successful year. Now when I say successful, I mean organized and flowing. My goal is to reduce the number of chaotic mornings we have and make sure everyone knows what is going on each day. One of the systems I implemented last year and have faithfully continued is our color-coded family calendar. It is a dry erase calendar, hung … Continue reading →

Do Your Best And That Is Good Enough

“Even the best players don’t hit it every time”, I reassured Dylan after he asked me why he did not hit the tennis ball that I had tossed in his direction. He picked up his bat again and smiled, ready for me to toss the ball again and again. Every time he asked me why he did not hit it, I offered some variation of the above statement as well as praise for his continued efforts. He is two and a half years old, and I feel that it is important for him to understand that missing the ball is … Continue reading →

Good Sleep Habits

We all know how important it is for kids to get enough sleep at night. Without it they turn into the monster we want to hide in the closet. One of the most crucial things for kids as they are learning good sleeping habits is to have a strict bedtime routine. Kids thrive on consistency, it helps them feel comfortable and secure. The earlier you start the easier it will be, but because good sleep habits are so important, it is never too late help your child get into a routine. When kids have a bedtime routine they train their … Continue reading →

Getting Enough Rest

When you are pregnant, it is important that you get plenty of sleep. After all, your body is working hard day and night to grow your baby, in addition to performing the other activities that you do every day. In a perfect world, once you became pregnant your schedule and list of obligations would adjust accordingly, providing you with plenty of time to sleep as much as you felt like sleeping. Unfortunately, that is not the case, but there are a few things that you can do to ensure that you get the rest that you need while you are … Continue reading →

Help Falling Asleep

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As I was helping my son fall asleep, I was thinking about the potential problems that I am created by actually helping him fall asleep. So many of the other moms of young boys that I know do no such thing as laying down in their son’s bed to help him fall asleep (I must be crazy). A small part of me wishes that I could get my son to just go to sleep on his own without being scared. Perhaps this is a behavior that I can teach my two year old, but as I lay next to my … Continue reading →

Sleepwalking

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When I was little, I used to sleepwalk. I have always been pretty active during sleep. That may sound ridiculous, but it is true. I would sleep walk as a child, I have had many lucid dreams (where you are aware in your dream that you are, in fact, dreaming), and even now, I have very busy dreams. But, that’s for another blog. I remember my mother telling me once that our dog stopped me from going down the stairs one night when I was sleepwalking by barking until my parents woke up. One night not too long ago, I … Continue reading →