Watching the Clock

Could a strict bedtime be the answer to your over-tired toddler's mood swings?

By Lisa Hurt Kozarovich

At 7:30 every night, 18-month-old Tanner Swift is nodding off to sleep in his crib, where he'll doze contentedly until about 7 the next morning. After putting Tanner down, his mom Kim enjoys a late dinner and some time to herself. "Everyone tells me how lucky I am that he goes to bed early. But it's not luck, it took hard work to get to that point and it takes work to stay there," says Kim, a 32-year-old nurse in Louisville, Ky.

But it's important work, according to Dr. Will Wilkoff, author of Is My Child Overtired?

"In my experience, most parents seriously underestimate their children's sleep needs," says Wilkoff, a pediatrician in Brunswick, Mn. "I'd say a day doesn't go by that I don't see a parent whose child has a sleep problem or a child that has a problem where sleep is a key issue tantrums, hyperactivity, night terrors." Too often, he says, children are diagnosed with attention deficit disorders when the real problem is that they're chronically sleep deprived.

In other words, "sleep is a health issue, plain and simple," according to Dr. Edward O'Malley, director of the Norwalk Hospital Sleep Disorders Center in Norwalk, Conn.

"You wouldn't feed your children cups of sugar at dinner, and you shouldn't let them decide their bedtime," says O'Malley, who is also father of a 3-year-old and 9-month-old. "They need the proper amount of sleep to be healthy, happy children it's a basic need, just like food and clothing."

OK, so your child shows the classic signs of not being well rested you have to wake him in the morning, he falls asleep on the way to day care, he's whiny, sucks his thumb a lot and has frequent tantrums. What can you do about it?

Want to see more?

• Night Time Wanderings: Getting Your Toddler Back in His Own Bed
• Ease Your Child's Blankie Blues
• Night Terrors
• Toddler Terrors
• Sleep Issues Discussion Board