Sleep!
Lack of sleep can cause a lot of stress within a family. There are a lot of pamphlets and web sites offering help, but it can be very hard to make the changes needed to enable a child to get to sleep and to stay asleep. Sleep deprivation causes parents to lose their temper and children to perform poorly at home and school.
Dr Sarah Blunden is the Senior Paediatric Sleep Research Fellow at the University of SA and her answer to sleep issues is: “It’s not a problem until it is a problem for you.” So if your child wakes three times a night but you are able to manage a broken night, then it’s not a problem. If you have a small child sleeping in your bed but it doesn’t bother you, then it’s not a problem.
However, if you’d like to be able to make changes to sleep routines that enable a longer, less disturbed sleep for everyone, then it’s a problem and you can do it. Help is at hand! Dr Blunden (sarah.blunden@unisa.edu.au) is running sleep clinics at two locations in Adelaide offering small group and one to one advice and support to enable families to get the sleep they need.
Judyth Roberts
Seaton Central
Community Development Facilitator
jroberts@ucwpa.org.au
