The Importance of Sleep: Ensuring Your Toddler is Well-Rested for School

Parents  always want to provide the best for their child’s development and learning. Do you know that a good night’s sleep is essential for your toddler’s well-being, growth, development, and active engagement in school? Sleep and naptime are often taken for granted but it is very critical for a toddler’s engagement and involvement in school. If you want your child to participate in curricular and extra-curricular activities at school, you must ensure that your toddler is well-rested to attend school. When your toddler is well-rested then, it ensures they are in good physical and mental health that boosts the attendance rates which directly and indirectly affects their performance at school. If you are wondering how sleep impacts your toddler’s performance at school, then this guide is meant for you. Read through the end to understand the importance of sleep and strategies to ensure your toddler is getting enough sleep.

Importance of sleep on toddler’s school performance

Many researches have proved that an appropriate amount of sleep is essential for a toddler. Research has proved that toddlers who get a good amount of sleep are more attentive and engaging in school as compared to toddlers  who are sleep deprived. If you want to understand the importance of sleep, then go through the below mentioned benefits your toddler can seek from getting a good sleep.

Focused attention

Toddlers who get quality sleep before attending school feel fresh and active. This helps them to stay focused in school and pay attention to the content discussed in class. Such focused attention helps them to better understand the concepts discussed in class and actively participate in class discussions.

Academic success and attendance

Toddlers who get an adequate amount of sleep are likely to perform better academically. This high correlation between sleep and good grades is owed to toddlers’ attention and focus in the classroom that enables them to perform better in school. Also, such high-performing students enjoy the academic environment and show a positive attitude towards attending school which further helps them to show good grades. The more motivated students are to attend school, the more attention they pay to classroom content that helps them grasp academic concepts and show good grades. This is why you can experience a positive impact of attendance on grades.

Behavioral regulation

Adequate sleep has a significant impact on emotional and behavioral regulation among toddlers. Toddlers who get quality sleep show fewer mood swings and behavioral problems such as aggression and hyper-attitude. Adequate sleep keeps the toddler’s mind at peace which helps them showcase good and mannered behavior at school.

Effects of absenteeism on learning

Sleep deprivation affects toddlers’ physical health which results in absenteeism from school. Toddlers who do not attend school regularly find it hard to keep up with other classmates as they lag behind others in getting class notes and understanding concepts discussed during absenteeism. This leaves a negative effect on their overall academic learning lowering their academic performance and harming their test scores.

Improved physical health

Appropriate sleep helps in strengthening the immune system among toddlers. It lowers the chances of illness and improves their physical health. The better the health of toddlers, the better they can participate in academic and extracurricular activities.

Coping with school-related stress

Toddlers often feel stressed to manage school-related responsibilities effectively. It is quite common to feel stressed but toddlers who get adequate sleep before attending school are more likely to cope with that stress and pressure effectively. This ability to cope with stress lowers their absenteeism as well because they feel confident attending school and managing all academic responsibilities efficiently. This way they can also seek out the benefits of regular school attendance.

Boosts memory

Quality sleep improves memory consolidation among toddlers. It helps them retain the learned information in an improved manner. Good sleep helps toddlers to recall the learned information in a better way as compared to those toddlers who are sleep-deprived before attending school.

Development and growth

Sleep is extremely critical for toddlers’ development and physical growth. Studies have proved that toddlers who get quality night sleep are more energetic and healthier than toddlers who do not get enough sleep. Nap time and sleep time help in the cognitive and physical development of toddlers. This is why you need to ensure toddlers get good sleep at night time and nap time.

Active school engagement

Well-rested toddlers are more likely to actively engage in school. They feel mentally fresh and physically healthy that gives them the confidence to engage in class activities and also participate in social activities such as games.

Strategies to ensure enough sleep among toddlers before school

Now that you understand the importance of sleep for toddlers’ well-being, development, and performance at school, you must be thinking of effective strategies to ensure toddlers get enough sleep. Do not be worried because we have got you completely covered. Here are some effective strategies that you can follow to make sure that the toddlers are well rested before school time, feeling all active and fresh.

• Consistent bedtime routine: Being a parent, you can set a consistent bedtime routine for your toddler. You can do so by inflicting a regular bedtime for them that they must follow every night to get a good sleep. Of course, it is not practical to set a particular time, but you can set a time range, for instance from 9:00 PM to 9:30 P M and tell your toddlers that they must hit the bed between this time to make sure they get a calm sleep time.
• Soothe toddlers for a good night’s sleep: Toddlers are quite sensitive and need your love. If you soothe them before bedtime, then you can ensure that they get a calming sleep. You can soothe them by giving them a good bath, singing a lullaby, or narrating a story that can keep their nerves calm before sleeping. When you make the toddlers fall asleep in this pattern then they are likely to get quality sleep time and wake up fresher and more energetic for school.
• Limit screen time: Let us face it, we are all glued to screens in this era. To make sure that your toddlers sleep on time, the most essential step that you need to take is to limit their screen time near sleep time. Turn off laptops, smartphones, and any other electronic devices before their bedtime to make sure they are not tempted to stay up.
• Importance of school attendance: One of the best strategies is to educate toddlers about quality night sleep. You can educate them on how important it is to get good sleep so that they can wake up active and energetic for school time. You can also reinforce this concept by emphasizing the importance of school attendance for good performance in academics and extracurricular activities.

Conclusion

Sleep is critical for a toddler’s cognitive, physical, and behavioral development. Many research has proved the importance of quality sleep in better development and growth of toddlers especially when it comes to their performance in school. This is why experts emphasize ensuring quality sleep time among toddlers before school. The importance of sleep is evident from its impact on toddlers such as toddlers can pay focused attention at school, achieve academic success, and maintain regular attendance. Not only that, but quality sleep also regulates behavior, lowers the rate of absenteeism (which can affect learning), improves physical health, prepares toddlers to deal with stress, boosts their memory, aids in growth and development, and ensures active school engagement among toddlers. To ensure that the toddlers get a good night’s sleep, you can follow the strategies of inflicting a consistent bedtime routine, soothing toddlers before putting them to bed, limit screen time before bedtime and educate them about the importance of sleep and school attendance. To ensure your toddlers understand the importance of sleep and good habits you can enroll them in the best ICSE schools in Bangalore which educate toddlers about the importance of quality sleep time. Such schools prepare toddlers for a better academic journey which is evident from the toddler’s academic success at Sherwood High