ABSTRACT
If you have ever supported or been a member of a family where someone is struggling to sleep, you do not need to be told how important sleep is. However, sleep patterns can be difficult to establish and just when you think you have it cracked, another developmental phase or a bout of illness comes along and it can feel like you are back at step one. But how can you support a baby and the family to establish sleep patterns that everyone can live with? And what practices should you follow when a child has other ideas than following the sleep schedule their routine insists upon? Should you leave them to self-settle? Should you go in every time? In this chapter we are going to look at what is going on when we sleep, when we need it and how we can encourage our little ones to get it. Having read this chapter, you will:
Know what is happening to our bodies and minds when we sleep and how much sleep children need at different times in their lives
Understand sleep cycles and the importance of establishing routine
Be supported in your approaches to encouraging children to sleep and how to ease them back into it now and in the years to come.
