Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child Quotes

“...please remember that leaving your baby alone protesting for more fun with you while you get dressed is not the same things as abandonment. Similarly, leaving your baby alone protesting for more fun when she needs to sleep is not neglect. ”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“If the sleep disruption is repeated night after night, the actual measured impairments do not remain constant. Instead, there is an escalating accumulation of sleepiness that produces in adults continuing increases in headaches, gastrointestinal complaints, forgetfulness, reduced concentration, fatigue, emotional ups and downs, difficulty in staying awake during the daytime, irritability, and difficulty awakening. Not only do the adults describe themselves as more sleepy and mentally exhausted, they also feel more stressed. The stress may be a direct consequence of partial sleep deprivation or it may result from the challenge of coping with increasing amounts of daytime sleepiness. Think how hard it would be to concentrate or be motivated if you were struggling every day to stay awake. If children have”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

“Remember, sleep training means starting to respect your baby’s need to sleep when he is a newborn by anticipating when he will need to sleep (within one to two hours of wakefulness), learning to recognize drowsy signs, and developing a bedtime routine. Then your baby will not become overtired.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

“It is a fact of modern life that day care and nanny care have become more common.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Sometimes at about 3 months of age, after the extreme fussiness/colic has dissipated, or in a baby who had common fussiness/crying, a child who had been sleeping well begins waking at night or crying at night and during the day. The parents also may note heightened activity with wild screaming spells. These children have accumulated a sleep debt and decided that they would rather play with their parents than be placed in a dark, quiet, and boring room. Parents who do not recognize the new sleep debt might believe that this new night waking represents hunger due to a “growth spurt” or insufficient breast milk. But when these parents begin to focus on establishing a healthy night-sleep schedule, when they put these babies in their cribs when the babies need to sleep, and when they shield their babies from overstimulation, the frequent night waking stops. If”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“As your child’s biological rhythms evolve for day sleep, your general goal is to synchronize your soothing-to-sleep activities with her internal timing mechanism for sleep. This is no different from being sensitive to her need to be fed or changed. Many”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“The baby who goes to sleep with help from one of his or her parents by nursing, rocking, or holding learns only adult transition skills and needs an adult present in order to fall asleep. The baby or toddler who goes to sleep alone cuddling a stuffed animal, holding his or her favorite blanket, or sucking his or her thumb learns valuable self-quieting skills that can be used for many years to come.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Self-quieting skills refer to a child’s ability to calm himself or herself, with no help from an adult, when the child is unhappy, angry, or frustrated.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“There are three important components to getting a child to go to sleep at night. The child must be: 1. Tired 2. Quiet 3. Relaxed”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“In one study, when children learned how to cope with frustration during the day, they were observed to settle themselves better at bedtime and later at night when they awoke.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“After several weeks of smooth sleeping, instead of giving the child the treats immediately, they can be placed in a “treat bowl” to be given to the child after dinner. This delayed gratification helps the child to substitute heightened self-esteem for the treats. Later, forget the reward but continue with the hugs, kisses, and praise.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Reward your child in the morning for compliance at night and immediately after a nap: a piece of candy, a cookie,”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Teach self-soothing. Learning self-soothing does not mean that your child will necessarily cry. Patience and perseverance will pay off.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“When you or your baby becomes overtired, the body is stressed. Chemical changes then occur to fight the fatigue, and this interferes with the ability to easily fall asleep and stay asleep—that is, the baby gets a second wind.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Separately from short sleep duration, habitual loud snoring is associated with hyperactivity, depression, and inattention. Additionally, habitual snoring has been shown to be a factor in fragmented sleep.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“and systemic inflammation also result from not sleeping well.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Sleep problems at age 8 years predict depressive symptoms at age 10 years.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Also, don’t be surprised if you are criticized by others for being too careful regarding early bedtimes and protecting naps.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Remember, late bedtimes usually cause less night sleep. In addition, sleeping out of phase with the body’s natural rhythms, as shift workers do or as travelers do when crossing time zones, is as unhealthy as jet lag syndrome.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“strife. Family conflict at ages 7–15 years predicts insomnia at age 18, and marital strife at age 9 months predicts a child’s sleep problems at 4½ years.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Interestingly, a part of the cortisol secretion rhythm is related to the sleep/wake rhythm, and another part is coupled to the body temperature rhythm.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“The completely opposite scenario occurs when one parent, usually the father, demands that the other parent, usually the mother, keep their child up late so that he can play with him or her. Not only does the child suffer, but it is the mother who is the unappreciated victim, because she is trying to maintain marital harmony and trying to keep her child well rested—and she can’t do both. Obviously this is not simply a child’s sleep problem but a family problem.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“These are the most common complaints of older children with unhealthy sleep schedules. So if your child doesn’t appear to be very sick but has frequent headaches or episodes of vague abdominal pain, especially near the end of the day, ask yourself if he might be overtired.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“Family, friends, even strangers constantly tell us what a happy, cheerful child we have. The reality is that she is a very well-rested child.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“If insufficient sleep consistently ‘taxes’ young children’s emotion responses, they may not manage emotion regulation challenges effectively, potentially placing them at risk for future emotional/behavioral problems.…”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“many children suffering from insufficient sleep appear fine during most of the day, only to exhibit the symptoms listed below as the sleep tank begins to go dry near the end of the day (4:00–5:00 p.m. for children under the age of 3 years, and 5:00–7:00 p.m. for children 3 years and older). This is known as the “witching hour.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“I think these data support the hypothesis that the failure to establish good sleeping habits in infancy or early childhood has long-term harmful effects, such as adult insomnia.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“a baby becomes increasingly crabby even if her nightly sleep is constantly just a little too brief.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“For example, fatigue produces an increase in adrenaline concentrations. That is, when we are tired, our body chemically responds with a burst of adrenaline to give us more drive or energy.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep

“All in all, at age 3, the children who slept more were more fun to be around, more sociable, and less demanding. The children who slept less not only tended to be more socially demanding, irritable, and fussy but also behaved somewhat like hyperactive children.”
― Marc Weissbluth, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child: A Step-by-Step Program for a Good Night's Sleep