Temperament Traits That Keep Kids Awake At Night
Temperament can be described as the way children naturally react to any stimuli around them. The temperament which is shown by the child at the beginning of their infancy remains more or less consistently throughout their life. Sleep is also very much connected to such temperament patterns.
Since temperament of a child shows how the child will react to a particular situation, it also shows how they react in case of a subject like sleeping. Given below are some of the temperament traits found in a toddler and how it affects their sleeping behavior:-
Intensity – intensity can be denoted as how strong are the emotional reactions of the baby towards any situations. The low intensity child sleeps easily. If the child is highly intense, then they need the help of an adult to calm down. These children take a lot of time in order to unwind properly. What keeps them awake at night is that they react strongly like screaming or throwing tantrums if left alone for long. And if they wake up in between naps they become angrier.Another important point to remember in case of the intense child is that they are easily affected if their parents get intense about anything. Hence, no matter what, the parents must keep their cool.
Adaptability – adaptability denotes how quickly a child can adapt to a particular schedule or routine. In this case the problem arises with the ones who are slow to adapt. Such children need to be put on a regular routine as they cannot stand not knowing what will happen next. If there is ever the slightest change of routine, they may end up being awake as their body cannot adapt to the new routine that easily. Comparatively, toddlers whose adaptability is quick can adjust themselves to any routine easily.
Regularity – this denotes how regular the child’s biological functions like sleeping or eating patterns are. Needless to say, a child with a regular temperament is comparatively easier on the parents as they know exactly at what times they’ll get hungry or will fall asleep. Whereas in case of the irregular ones, they may not feel asleep during bedtime or may sleep throughout the next day.
Energy – the energy level in a child dictates if they will sit quietly or run around. Children who are calm tend to sleep easily. But the ones with high energy find it difficult to settle down for a nap when they’d rather be running around. If they are not put to sleep when they feel sleepy it won’t be long before they charge up again!
Mood and sensitivity – sensitivity denotes how the child reacts to the conditions around like heat, noise or even texture of the blanket! Needless to say, a very sensitive toddler will be harder to put to sleep as little things like change in temperature or levels of noise may wake them up. On the other hand, mood denotes whether the baby is generally happy or whiny. In case of the latter parents may need to be very patient during bedtime as they tend to fuss and whine a lot.
Persistence – persistency denotes if the bay is strong willed or accepts things easily. In case of a highly persistent child, it would be harder to dictate terms on them, including sleeping, as they tend to get stubborn. It is easier with the less persistent ones as they often do what is told.
