Thoughts create behaviours, behaviours create feelings and feelings create thoughts.
This is Cognitive Behaviour Theory.
I think we are going to have a bad night -
Thought
You start huffing and stressing or rushing - behaviour.
Your child feels uncomfortable and so feels unsettled.
One of the important parts of sleep training is getting ourselves into a good mind set. Positivity breeds positivity just like sleep breeds sleep. When we feel stressed and exhausted, we give off a stressful vibe.
During REM sleep, the limbic system (emotional brain) becomes very active while the prefrontal cortex (logical brain) is deactivated. Meaning you can’t rationalise as well when woken. This can show in children if they have been disturbed during REM; they get very upset and find it hard to settle.
When young children hear that they are bad at sleeping, they can often take that on as their belief. I remember when it dawned on me, that I was regularly talking negatively about my pride and joy, due to the exhaustion and needing support from people around me to get through the torture.
When I stopped speaking negatively about my daughters sleeping in front of her, we saw improvements.
When talking with families, I hear parents say they can’t or they won’t. Children need parents to believe they can, give them the strength to learn that they are capable of anything and parents are there to be their cheerleaders along the way. It’s my role to support you though the challenge and get you to the happy well rested family you want.
If this feels relative to you. Let’s start our journey together and get you to the bright side
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