Christmas is so exciting especially for little kids. Knowing Santa is coming during the night and they will get to open their presents in the morning, sometimes they can’t sleep or want to stay up to catch a glimpse of Santa.
Professor Colin Espie from the University of Oxford has given his top 5 tips to get kids to sleep on Christmas Eve.
- Be active during the day.
Regular exercise has been shown to help you sleep better. As well as simply tiring out your kids, it has been shown that for every hour a child spends inactive, adds three minutes to how long it takes them to go to sleep. So head to the park, or to the pool this Christmas Eve and avoid too many Christmas movies.
- Stick to bedtime routines.
Keeping to your childs regular routine will help signal its time to sleep. It can be difficult if you have travelled and not staying at home, but try and keep the same order as you normally would (dinner, bath, teeth, story, bed etc) Bring familiar toys or pillows that might help your kids relax and feel secure away from home.
- Don’t let them get overtired.
Anyone with children knows how cranky they can be when they are overtired. Most kids won’t admit they are tired and can often lead to hyper behaviour. Try not to keep them up at night if you are out and put them to bed early if they are consistently overtired at night.
- Give plenty of notice.
Don’t be a party pooper in your kids eyes and just cut play time out sending them to bed. Give them a warning – in 10 minutes when the show is finished it will be bath time and then a story before bed.
- At a last resort…
Sometimes all the excitement of adults staying up and catching up with family is too much to miss out for the kids and they simply won’t stay in bed. Maybe suggest that if they want their presents in the morning they should remember that Santa knows when you’ve been sleeping and knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!
Original article http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/health/sleep/5-tips-to-get-your-kids-to-sleep-on-christmas-eve-11364029935414
