Sleep, naps, rest - all three often are a hot potato when it comes to early childhood, for both educators and parents. So many needs and wants - and not always the child’s.
When it comes to sleep routines every child has their own rhythm, that fluctuates over time - due to well-being, health and maturity. Our very youngest citizens need the most sleep - so much is happening in the brain, and the brain is busy trying to access the world through all the senses and then process them, as well as training the body to be able to access more of the world and to interact with it in more ways.
Sleep and rest is essential for mental, physical, emotional and cognitive well-being and development. Rest is also together with play as article 31 of the UN Children’s Rights. We need to take it seriously.
Naps and rest time should be something beautiful. A space to feel safe and relaxed in. Rest time should be like a gift to rejuvenate curiosity and wonder and the desire to explore and get to know the world.
Naps and rest time should not be a battle ground for adults to exert control. I get it, rest time and nap time can be enormously frustrating too. I remember when my daughters (twins) were babies and how they would refuse to fall asleep but at the same time cry because they were so tired and how I would feel so frustrated with the whole nonsensical situation of not sleeping when tired. Of course they would pick up on my frustration and the whole scenario would get worse. It took practice and patience (with myself as much as my children) to let go of that frustration and accept a different pace of falling asleep - a more peaceful way of resting. It also meant knowing how to create a rhythm that suited my children and not my own agenda.
Yesterday I observed a group of 20 three and four year olds rest and nap at Dorothy Snot preschool in Athens, Greece. For an hour they all kept to their spaces, no teachers barking at them to stay still or to be absolutely quiet - there was constant small movements amongst some of the children, small whispers too - not to each other, but that talking to oneself in play kind of murmuring. It was peaceful - which I think is far, far better than silent. Silent isn’t the same as peaceful.
What I found interesting was that so. many of these three and four year olds were just so ready for their nap - they stretched our on their blankets and slowly dozed off. More than half the group got some sleep of varying lengths. Very possibly the Mediterranean culture of staying up later with the family (because the evening is when it is cooler) might have something to do with this.
The children who stayed awake either were lying still with a daydream glaze over their eyes or engaged in small play that can only happen in such circumstances. Yesterday on my Instagram I shared some photos of a child role-playing with her toes… her toes had become small characters who were talking to each other and engaging in all sorts of adventures, from close up to each other, legs in the air and passing her sock from one foot to the other using her toes to grip the sock… all the time chitchatting under her breath what could be clearly heard as different characters interacting with each other.
This quiet kind of play can only happen in quiet, peaceful places. When rest time becomes a sanctuary it can be a place of imagination and thus freedom. If children are keeping still through fear of being told off, then they are not free to imagine and dream.
Many of the children had books, and in the first half of the rest time many were leafing through the pages before lying down.
I noticed how one boy for about 15 minutes moved a page back and forth looking intently, it was as if he was imagining the pages were creating a tunnel and a story was happening in his head… or maybe it was a pure fascination of how the light caught the pages, the two different colours of the pages and the transformation of how the page curved and created a new space. Check the film and share what you think might be going on in his mind (of course you can’t see the child, but you can see the page)
What a gift to be given the time to gently play with the pages of a book in this way. To be given time to daydream. To wonder. To be.
So often I feel preschools and parents forget to value the sacredness of rest.
Rest allows us to refuel. To process the morning and look forward to the afternoon. Over the years I have met children who have been negatively stressed about rest time, and it has been my responsibility to help them feel more at ease and to learn to enjoy this time. One of the sticking points for may of the 3-5 year olds that I have worked with is that they have been afraid of falling asleep and missing out on something. So I always promise that if they do happen to fall asleep that I will wake them up when rest time is over. And because they trust me, they are able to relax and enjoy rest time, and yes, sometimes they fell asleep, not always, but sometimes, and at the end of our 30 minute rest (for the non-sleepers) I would wake them up gently - and sometimes they would ask to sleep a little longer.
Most times when children who did not usually fall asleep during rest time suddenly did it was often due to them about to get sick (or they had a rough night - so important that parents inform educators if their child has slept badly because it impacts so much, especially their emotional and social regulation capabilities, which can create uncomfortable situations for the child and also for others so it can be good to know how to pace the day for them to be able to cope - but ideally, if your child has slept badly they should stay at home to recover, because exhausted children are not able to learn like well rested children. Another reason is that exhausted children (and adults) have a weaker immune system and are therefore more likely to succumb to the usual variety of viruses etc that tend to constantly circulate where young children gather - especially when not all parents are vigilant at keeping their children home when sick).
I have always worked with both parents and children to explain the importance of sleep and rest and how we can create a rest time that feels good. This starts from the very beginning and works the way up… sleep and rest should be considered a positive part of the day - as beautiful as mindfulness or yoga. Not a time for the children to be silent and still so that teachers can go on the breaks and be “managed” by less adults, but as an important part of the pedagogical day for the children’s learning, their creativity, their emotional and mental health, their physical health…
Play. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
We should be offering all children
the best opportunities for play (and possibilities to try new things)
nutritious and delicious food (and opportunities to try new things)
a healthy sleep hygiene where rest time is a beautiful space of peace
and that this should be repeated over and over as a chorus of joy and well-being
By beautiful I do not mean it has to look a certain way, but that it has to feel a certain way. Feel free while being considerate for the sleep and peace needed of others; feel peaceful so each child can feel relaxed; feel relaxed so that each child can feel free to imagine.
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