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Many children will experience difficulties with sleep, nightmares and/or night terrors. Most children will grow out of them and they will not cause any long-term harm to your child.

In many cases there may be no obvious reason why a child has trouble with sleep. However, sleep disturbances, nightmares and night terrors may all be more common in children following significant life events such as loss of a loved one, parental separation, bullying, change of school/home, a traumatic experience and children who are struggling with emotional difficulties including anxiety, and low mood.

There are several things you and your child can do to manage these difficulties and this guide contains many tips that you might find helpful. Not everything in here will work for every child, therefore it is important that you try things out and work together to find out what does work. To help with this, there is a sleep diary and dream journal that you may like to use to keep track of your child’s progress in the PDF document below.

If you are concerned that your child is continuing to experience difficulties, you may wish to discuss this with your GP. If you believe that your child’s difficulties with sleep are linked to other emotional difficulties or started following a loss or other significant life event, you may wish to consider making a referral to us for further support or guidance.

Sleep Disturbances

Every child has problems sleeping at times. Often children will find it difficult to get to sleep or may wake up in the night and find it difficult to get back to sleep. This is perfectly normal, and these problems often resolve themselves after a short period of time. However, if sleep problems persist, they can have an impact on your child’s energy levels, mood and how much they are able to concentrate. As such, it is important to take steps to help your child to get a good night’s sleep.

Establish a Routine

Support your child to try to go to bed and get up at roughly the same time each day. By doing this the body starts to associate times of the day with sleep. You may need to do this for several weeks to establish a regular sleep/wake cycle.

Children are more likely to struggle with sleep if they are tense or excited when going to bed. Therefore, it is important to help your child to relax before bed and to develop bedtime rituals. There are many ways you can do this, but you may like to encourage your child to:

There are many ways you can do this but you may like to encourage your child to:

  • Have a bath

  • Have a warm milky drink or glass of water that they take to bed

  • Read a book or listen to soothing music or an audio book

  • Listen to relaxation apps

With younger children or children who are struggling to feel safe, you may also find it helpful to have some time for cuddles to help your child to feel secure.

More information can be found in the downloadable document below:

Sleep Difficulties

CHUMS Family Wellbeing Team is offering two virtual workshops, which will provide strategies to help overcome a variety of sleep difficulties. If you are interested in attending one of these workshops?  Read More

DOWNLOAD SLEEP PDF

If you are concerned that your child is continuing to experience difficulties, you may wish to discuss this with your GP.  If you believe that your child’s difficulties with sleep are linked to other emotional difficulties or started following a loss or other significant life event, you may wish to consider making a referral to us for further support or guidance.

MAKE A REFERRAL

Getting Extra Advice and Support

Websites

The National Sleep Foundation

The National Sleep Foundation

The Sleep Council

The Sleep Council

The Children’s Sleep Charity

The Children’s Sleep Charity

NHS

NHS

Young Minds

Young Minds

Childline

Childline

Relaxation Apps

Download Relaxation App PDF

Books

For Younger Children

“What to do when you dread your bed”

by Dawn Huebner


The Virtual Library

Reading materials and books for children and parent/carers.

Other Bedtime Stories

“CHUMS have really helped me and I will continue to practice the techniques you have taught me”

“The impact CHUMS has had on both our lives has been nothing but positive!”

“CHUMS has given us reassurance, an ear to listen and the confidence to move forward again”

“It was great to channel my anger and to practise how to be good at school”

“Before, I didn’t ever stop to think about my choices but now I can stop and see what options I have”