Is your child getting a good night’s sleep? As you well know getting enough sleep is essential for doing well in school. It’s hard to focus on what is being taught to you or your classwork when you are tired. Trust me – I know! I’ve always been a “night owl” and frequently did not get ample sleep when I was in school. I paid a hefty price for lack of sleep. I had a hard time staying awake in class. I literally fell asleep during class numerous times.
As a parent to teenagers I struggle to get my kids to go to bed early. When they were younger we were able to enforce a bedtime. Now that they are (almost) 16 and 18 1/2 it’s easier said than done. We encourage them to get to bed at a decent time but most of the time they go to bed whenever.
There are some things you can do to help your child get a good night’s sleep.
- Disconnect from all devices. It’s been shown that disconnecting from smartphones, iPads and the television at the very least 30 minutes before bedtime can help your mind to settle down and prepare for a good night’s sleep. It’s hard to rest when your mind is racing around thinking about who you need to text, what emails need to be sent and the desire to update your Facebook status.
- Go to bed at the same time every night. Going to bed at the same time every night can help your body to know when it’s time for bed. This is not as easy to do with teenagers, but you can certainly encourage them to go to bed at the same time every night (at least Monday through Friday).
- Watch what you eat and drink before bedtime. Don’t let your child eat a heavy snack before bed. It will sit in their stomach like a rock and it will be hard to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. Also, don’t let your child drink anything that contains caffeine before going to bed. It’s only going to prevent them from getting a decent night’s sleep.
- Do something relaxing, like read a book or listen to a book on tape, to help your child to relax and unwind. Even 15-20 minutes of reading before bedtime should be enough to relax your child to help them ease off to a good night’s sleep.
- Make sure the room and bed are comfortable. The optimal temperature should be between 60-67 degrees. Use a fan or AC to cool a room down or turn up the heat to warm it up. Curtains should block out excessive light. Use “black out” curtains if need be.
Having a comfortable bed to sleep in also helps. A good mattress and a comfy pillow are needed to a good night’s sleep. As someone who sleeps on a sofa bed night after night, I can tell you first hand how important having a good mattress/bed can be. It’s hard to sleep on a thin mattress with a bar in the middle. Sigh…
A good pillow is also a must. Pillows lose their shape after a while, which can effect it’s support. I try and replace my children’s pillows as soon as I see they are getting flat or if they require more than one pillow to get comfortable.
Bedgear recently introduced a great pillow for children called BG-X.
As a highly anticipated children’s category addition, BG-X premieres with three colorful, kid-friendly pillow designs, PUMP™, NITRO™ and CRUSH™. All BG-X pillows feature Dri-Tec® moisture and heat management fabric in a structural pattern to help keep the head cool and dry, Air-X® gussets that create one-way airflow and prevent allergens and dander from entering the pillow core, a blended BOOST™ foam structure that eliminates pillow bounce to help ensure deep sleep and a unique shape that cradles the head for spinal support.
Bedgear sent us one to review. My kids actually fought over it to see who got it. Since my son received another Bedgear product to review (Bedgear Back Support Pillow), it was only fair that my daughter received this pillow to review.
My daughter raves about the pillow. She also sleeps with less pillows at night than she used to. She used to prop herself up with a plush whale and a two other pillows. Now she’s just sleeping with the BG-X pillow from Bedgear.
We have the blue pillow known as “Crush.” I didn’t take a photo of it because we have it in a pillow case. It’s not a standard size pillow, but it will fit inside a regular pillow case (there will be extra material because the pillow is a little smaller). Ours looks like this one (below).
The pillow is also available in “Nitro” and “Pump.”
You could use these without pillow cases. We prefer to use them because we have five cats and a dog and they are always going on the beds. By using a pillow case we are able to wash it clean of pet hair and dander. We couldn’t do that with the exposed pillow.
It’s hard to tell from the photos but the pillow has a slightly curved shape. That is because the curve shape provides perfect alignment for your child’s head, neck and shoulders to ensure deep sleep.
Adults can use these pillows too, but they are a little smaller than standard size pillows. Bedgear has several wonderful pillows for adults, including the one that I sleep with. You can read about my special Bedgear pillow here.
My daughter loves this pillow so much that my son is jealous of her. He wants his own BG-X pillow too. I plan on getting him one as well.
If you would like to learn more about Bedgear’s Backrest pillow visit Bedgear.com. While you are there check out the other bedding and performance products they carrying including pillow, baby crib mattresses, mattress protectors, bedding and more.
Bedgear can also be found across the social media channels. All of the links are found at the bottom of their website.
Kimberly
*I received a free product sample in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.