Sleep. It is as important to humans as breathing.
And yet, recent studies have suggested that more than half of young people have trouble sleeping.
But we don't want YOU as a caregiver to lie awake because your child can't sleep...
Coincidentally, we have just completed 3.5 years of research into sleep and dreams for our new LEGO® DREAMZzz™ franchise, which focuses on these concepts. You can learn more about the series in our The Creation of article .
Now, though, we're going to delve deeper into the science behind sleep, explain why it can be such an important creative tool, and provide tips to help your kids sleep better.
To help, we're sharing our LEGO DREAMZzz research and advice from Dr. Shelby Harris, professor of neurology and psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. You know she's smart when she works at a school named after Einstein...
What is good sleep for children?
How much sleep children need changes with their age.
These are the guidelines regarding sleep for children, as set forth by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine:
- Babies (4-12 months) – 12-16 hours, including naps (how lucky...)
- Toddlers (1-2 years) – 11-14 hours, including naps
- Preschoolers (3-5 years) – 10-13 hours, including naps
- Teenagers (13-18 years) – 8-10 hours
Falling asleep
A noticeable shift as children get older is that they take fewer naps. By the time they are 5 years old, they usually no longer have them. (Often this comes back when they are teenagers, but for different reasons...)
Fewer naps give us as caregivers the opportunity to use more routines when it comes to sleep and children.
“Our brains like patterns and routines,” says Dr. Shelby Harris. “The times we sleep and wake up are an important routine to establish and maintain.”
Keeping the same schedule works almost like an exercise program for children. If you're struggling to get your kids to bed quickly, one of the most common causes is a lack of routine.
Stay sleeping
Sleep disorders in children can often be attributed to nightmares, which affect about a third of all children. But why do children have nightmares?
“What we often see is that the stressful or complicated things that happen in our children's lives can affect their sleep and their dreams,” explains Dr. Harris out. “This then influences their imagination and their ability to unleash their creative potential.”
As we'll discuss in our sleep and kids tips, having enough time to wind down before bed helps prevent children from processing difficult or complex emotions as they fall asleep (or "enter the dream world") as it is called in LEGO DREAMZzz).
And while children's nightmares are a common sleep disruptor, the solution to better sleep isn't avoiding dreams. On the contrary...
Positive dreams
“Dreams are a great way for our brains to process emotions, be creative and even come up with solutions to things we've thought about during the day,” said Dr. Harris. “Dreams inspire children to see different possibilities in the world and to believe in their own creative abilities.”
Two-thirds of the 23,000 children we recently interviewed said that dreaming is an important way for them to be creative.
In the same global research project commissioned by the LEGO Group, two-thirds of all children said that dreams were also an important way to help process and deal with negative emotions in their daily lives, caused by stress at home, school, social media and more.
This is exactly why we chose to celebrate the power of dreams with our newest franchise. They are certainly not something to avoid.
And as you'll see, they can play a pretty big role in your child getting a good night's sleep...
Tips for your children to sleep better
1) A good bedtime routine . We have already seen how important patterns are regarding our sleeping habits. It is especially important for children.
- Dr. Harris says, "Make sure you encourage your child to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time as often as possible."
2) Relax . Several studies have shown a clear link between the use of electronic devices before bed and poorer sleep quality. You can think of removing electronics before bed as mindfulness for children. We 'd recommend playing with LEGO DREAMZzz sets instead... but why not let the scientists do it for us?!
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Dr. Harris says, “Make sure your child has 30-60 minutes without electronics before he or she crawls into bed. Use this time for quiet, imaginative play. Reading, coloring or even playing creatively with LEGO bricks can stimulate the imagination and help you unwind before bed.”
3) Relax . Smartphones aren't the only things that distract kids before bed. Consider things that can cause overstimulation, such as light, temperature and sound.
- Dr. Harris says, “Set the stage for a good night's sleep by making sure your child's bedroom is quiet, calm, cool and comfortable. A nightlight is great if they don't want their room to be completely dark, but otherwise make sure they don't have electronics in their bedroom.”
4) Show interest in your child's dreams . This will help children think about their dreams and look forward to going to sleep to explore their own dream worlds. You can get inspired with our innovative LEGO DREAMZzz sets by encouraging children to build their dreams. By creating LEGO structures, children can recognize colors, locations and characters from their nighttime adventures.
- Dr. Harris says, “Ask open-ended questions about their dreams and encourage them to paint a vivid picture for you through their words. Don't analyze it, explore their dream world and affirm their creativity and imagination.”
Help your children through nightmares
It was impossible for us to ignore nightmares when we were designing the LEGO DREAMZzz franchise. We use nightmares as the antagonists, with the heroes of the series battling them and finding exciting ways to defeat them.
We hope this attitude from Mateo, Izzie and the rest will help young viewers realize that nightmares don't have to defeat you. By confronting them with the right attitude, you can overcome them.
And just as our imaginative LEGO DREAMZzz sets can encourage children to dream positively, they can also help children talk openly about their nightmares. Recognizing elements from their nightmares in their toys or rebuilding them with bricks can be a way to make them seem less scary.
However, if your child regularly has disturbing dreams that negatively impact his or her sleep – or if your child is afraid of falling asleep – it's important to talk to your doctor, who can recommend treatments that may help.
And that's it!
Sleep well!
