For many parents, getting their kids to bed every night can be an absolute struggle.
Michelle Wan is one of them. Her 6-year-old son Ben just wonāt fall asleep.
āI would say around (the ages of) three or four, once he started getting aware of everything else in his room, he started getting distracted and it was a bit hard to put him to bed,ā Wan told CTV Toronto.
Michelle tried doing standard bedtime activities with Ben, like reading stories or giving him a bath, but they only served to wind him up more. Then, she consulted The Hospital for Sick Childrenās sleep expert, neurologist Dr. Shelly Weiss.
āOften children who donāt sleep well, they donāt sleep well because they donāt have a set bedtime, they don't have a consistent routine, they don't have a consistent sleep and wake time,ā Weiss told CTV Toronto.
Weiss recommended that the Wan family pare things down at bedtime and do little more than brush teeth, put on pajamas, then get tucked in. Within two weeks, they noticed a change in Ben.
āHe would be a lot calmer, able to focus better if there was homework or schoolwork or whatever it was,ā Wan said.
According researchers, approximately 25 per cent of children suffer from some form of insomnia -- a group of sleep problems that includes trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, or waking up too early. Loss of sleep, researchers say, can negatively impact a childās academic, emotional, social and physical processes.
To learn more about childhood insomnia and how to best deal with it, the Hospital for Sick Children is currently recruiting kids from across the country to participate in a sleep study called āBetter Nights, Better Days.ā
The program will help create a āstep-by-step method,ā Weiss says, āfirst of all learning about sleep, and then learning how to put your child to bed, and good sleep habits, and then learning what to do if your child wakes up at night or early in the morning.ā
You can sign up your sleepless beauty at .
With a report from CTV Torontoās health reporter Pauline Chan
