Bedtime battles
Published
No less than 4 out of 5 primary age children are allowed their screens in their bedroom at night, according to new research by OnePoll for `Bed Kingdom. And 1 in 5 parents resort to bribery to get children to go to sleep. So it should come as no surprise that three-quarters of young children in the UK have no set bedtime or bedtime routine.
Young children with consoles and gadgets in their rooms are often not asleep before midnight, according to their parents. But the research showed that nearly 4 out of 5 (77 per cent) of children whose bedrooms are screen-free at night are happily in the land of nod by that time. In fact, most children in the survey whose bedrooms are screen-free at night are fast asleep well before 9pm. Meanwhile, more than 1 in 4 parents have found their primary school age child awake and playing on games in their room after 11pm, long after they originally went to sleep.
Bed Kingdom research reveals some top tricks children use to avoid going to sleep at night:
- Their brother / sister is keeping them awake.
- They are hungry / thirsty.
- There is something in the cupboard / under the bed.
- They want to read more of their book.
- None of their friends go to bed until later, so it's not fair.
- They have stomach-ache /feel ill.
But parents have devised their own strategies for dealing with some of these excuses, including bribery and pretending that the WIFI is broken!
Discover more at www.bedkingdom.co.uk
