Imagine going for a walk in a cave. Kind of scary but fun and interesting, right? Especially when you’ve been there before and you have your coach, a responsible adult, right there with you.
That’s what a boys’ soccer team imagined in Thailand as they entered a series of connected caves. Problem was, they soon became trapped by water and ended up deep inside with no food, not a good oxygen supply and eventually complete darkness. I can’t imagine anything more frightening.
I wonder if those young boys will have the lasting effects of fear of darkness. I don’t remember being afraid of the dark but many children are.[click_to_tweet tweet=” I’ve noticed a lot of parents using nightlights for their kids but I didn’t and I don’t recommend it.” quote=” I’ve noticed a lot of parents using nightlights for their kids but I didn’t and I don’t recommend it.” theme=”style3″]
In today’s video, I’ll be sharing the reasons why sleeping in darkness is SO important for you and your kids. And then I’ll offer you a special audio for kids to assist them in falling asleep comfortably each night.
Let’s get started.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO directly on YouTube.
Our minds and bodies are made to sleep in darkness. Good quality sleep is the MOST important step you can take for your own health and that of your kids. I’ll say it again. Good quality sleep is the MOST important step you can take for your own health and that of your kids.
That’s right. I’m getting on my soap box here.
We do not get enough sleep. We do not get deep enough sleep. And a lot of our kids don’t either.
Here’s why it’s so important that we do.
“Light inhibits the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that naturally promotes sleep. Even if you doze off, light can be detected through your eyelids—and your brain won’t produce melatonin if it’s confused between night and day,” says Joyce Walsleben, PhD, associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine. ‘You want as much darkness in your bedroom as you can handle without tripping over things.’”
See having light at night is a relatively new thing. Before electricity, we would have our normal day night patterns to regulate our hormones. Sure, there were candles but there wouldn’t have been a light all night long.
And we know that proper hormonal regulation is part of the body’s healthy function. That leads me to some super interesting studies about the links between proper sleep and cancer. The bottom line of the studies was that profoundly blind women had half the rate of breast cancer of women with normal vision. Profoundly blind men had half the rate of prostate, lung, colon and other cancers of normally sighted men.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”What does this mean for your kids? Light exposure at night can lead to decreased sleep quality but also shorter time sleeping. And sleep duration has been linked to childhood obesity. We do not want to go there.” quote=”What does this mean for your kids? Light exposure at night can lead to decreased sleep quality but also shorter time sleeping. And sleep duration has been linked to childhood obesity. We do not want to go there.” theme=”style3″]Kids need a lot of sleep and they need high quality sleep. They need about 1/3 of their sleep to be deep sleep, where growth hormone is produced. Teens spend about 20% of their time in deep sleep. It’s all necessary for good health and your sleep rates over time can accumulate good or poor health.
Ok, but we’re talking about fear of the dark, aren’t we? Yeah, we are. I just wanted to share why sleeping in darkness is important for kids as well as adults.
But now I want to shift over to kids being afraid of the dark.
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The kids trapped in the cave have a really good reason to be afraid. But our kids don’t. They might prefer to sleep in your bed all the time. But that might mean you don’t get much sleep at all. They might just want to push your buttons. Or they might use those great imaginations they have to picture monsters under the bed.
Whatever the reason, you know that it’s important that they sleep in darkness and that they don’t fear being there. There are lots of tips and tricks to use with your child to give them a feeling of security. You have probably checked with them all the places the monster might hide. You can take a can of room spray and make a new cover for it that says “Monster Spray Repellent”. Then you can spray that all over at bedtime to keep monsters away!
My son had nightmares for a while. We started a bedtime routine that included picking his dream. I would ask him what dream he chose to have that night. It might be going to Disneyland or the beach. Sometimes he picked scoring lots of goals during a soccer game. Sometimes it was just a fun day at the creek. But whenever he picked his dream, we had no nightmares that night.
A good night’s sleep is so important for kids, that I recorded an audio to help. I call it The Squirrel’s Sleep Journey. You can download it here. It has music in the background to aid sleep and I tell a little story to calm and relax. Play it each night when your child is drifting off to sleep for a deep and restorative night.
Ok, today I told you why sleep in a completely dark room is very important to your child’s health. I also gave you a couple of quick tips to use if your kid is afraid of the dark. Look out, Monsters! And I made a bedtime audio to send kids to sleep in a safe and gentle way. Whew!
So now it’s time for you to take action. Tell me in the comments your technique for getting your kids to sleep. My friend, Art, has a more in depth post about hypnosis. You can read that here.
If you liked this video and post and want more like it, give me a Like on Facebook and a subscribe on YouTube. You don’t want to miss it.
If you need more help with this and other problems, schedule a session with me, Angie Hernandez, for hypnosis. That bad habit doesn’t have to last forever.
About the Author Angie J. Hernandez, C.Ht.
A graduate of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, Angie J. Hernandez, C.Ht., has her private practice in Milford, Indiana. She is certified in hypnotherapy by the Hypnotherapist's Union Local 472. Angie is the author of "Weight Loss Epiphany: The Workbook", "Charlie's Cuddly Animals for Little Geniuses" and "Weight Loss Hypnosis: Lose Weight with Hypnosis Scripts & Recordings". You can find out more about Angie and how to schedule private sessions by calling (574) 658-4686.
