The Benefits Of A Good Night’s Sleep For The Whole Family

Sleep Tips from Dr Anna Persaud, This Works CEO

Sleep, our favourite topic at This Works. As a mother of three and CEO, I know that sleep can be an unpredictable journey, especially when the blessing of children come into our lives.

As the experts in sleep, at This Works we know creating and maintaining bedtime rituals that promote good sleep and healthy evening routines are fundamental to increasing our wellbeing, so we’re thrilled to introduce our latest arrival to our sleep franchise, Baby Sleep - a collection of natural, vegan bedtime products designed to train the next generation of good sleepers and help the family sleep better.

Even before we are born, our lives are governed by our internal circadian rhythm. A newborn instinctively mimics their mother’s sleep pattern learnt in the womb and generally, will sleep during the night – albeit in shorter bursts. Within months, babies start developing their own circadian rhythm and so, without a proper sleep routine, they may become less inclined to follow their parents’ preferred sleep patterns.

One of the invisible milestones in a baby’s sleep routine is the development of their pineal gland, which starts when they are nine to ten weeks old. This gland produces melatonin otherwise known as the sleep hormone. As baby gets older, they produce more melatonin and develop their own circadian rhythms, which is when parents should enforce a consistent routine and schedule for sleep.

 From around the three-month mark, parents should have some habits for their baby to reinforce the development of their circadian rhythm. For example, try to keep your little one active during the day, when they’re not napping, to help them start differentiating day and night-time. This is also the time to start positively reinforcing a bedtime routine to signal to baby that it is time to sleep – such as bathing, massage or singing a lullaby.

At This Works, we understand a healthy sleep pattern helps to reduce stress, anxiety and promotes resilience over general wellbeing. That’s why we developed our new Baby Sleep collection. A range of natural, vegan bedtime products featuring four gentle bath and body care products to help establish healthy sleeping patterns and create positive bedtime rituals.

How To Have a Good Night’s Sleep with This Works…

Whether your child is experiencing a one-off bad night's sleep, sleep regression, or behavioural insomnia – reinforcing positive sleep habits will help set every baby up for a good night’s rest. Here are my top tips to do just that...

• Avoid bright lights in the evening as this will impact sleep. If you have an older child who might enjoy playing with an iPad or phone, switch it off at least an hour before bed. At bedtime keep the room dark or have only dim light – preferably red or yellow, not blue.

• Develop a relaxing bedtime ritual with a predictable sequence of events for your little one – a bath, gentle massage, singing a lullaby, reading a book, a goodnight kiss, dimming the light - and end with putting them in their crib or bed drowsy, but still awake. This will help your baby to learn to sleep on their own, self-soothe and not be dependent on parental presence to fall asleep. As adults, we often forget to wind down ourselves, which is just as important. Before bed, I spritz my pillow with our deep sleep pillow spray. Proven to help you fall asleep faster and wake feeling more refreshed, with our natural Superblend of Lavender, known for its deeply relaxing, tension-relieving properties, calming Camomile and soothing Vetivert.

• For breastfed babies, it's important to remember maternal milk is a time-related nutrient, known as a 'chrononutrient'. This means mum’s milk communicates information about the time of the day to baby. In the evening breast milk contains a higher level of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep. So, if you’re expressing milk for nighttime feeds, try to ‘time stamp’ the bottle to ensure babies circadian rhythm is not disrupted.

• Remember, children are a lot like more responsive adults. Just as we would wake if our room was too hot, cold or loud, or may get nightmares from scary films, your baby won’t sleep either. Keep an eye on room temperature and noise levels and stick to the sanitised versions of fairy tales!

About This Works:

At This Works we create clean, targeted skincare and wellness solutions that work in harmony with your body clock 24 hours a day - backed by science and proven to work. Our formulations are as clean as our conscience, free from sulphates, GMOs, phthalates, petrolatum and synthetic colours and we strive for all our products to be at least 98% natural. Our panel of 900 real people ensures that our products deliver on their promise every time as 70% of selected panellists must agree 'This Works' before a product is launched.

You can now shop the This Works Baby Sleep range at www.thisworks.com and follow us on Instagram @thisworks!