The Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled Kids

The Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled Kids

Homeschooling is an amazing opportunity for our kids to learn about whatever their heart desires.  Most of our days have plenty of time left over for our kids to pursue their passions, to learn more about whatever subjects they find interesting, and to spend time doing delight directed learning.  When everything is clicking in this way, it brings a thrill to a mom’s heart.

The Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled Kids

But what about when things aren’t going quite as well?  It’s hard to homeschool your kids when they are tired, grouchy, and lacking sleep.  It’s also hard to enjoy the homeschool experience when us moms are exhausted.

Can you relate?

Many kids go through a period during their tween and/or teen years when they require more sleep. Their bodies are growing at exponential rates and the hormones are raging.  During these seasons of life, your kids are probably going to be pretty tired throughout the day no matter what you do.

But what about those kids who have struggled to sleep all their lives?

I have a son who has never been a good sleeper.  From the time he was a baby until now, at age 14, he has rarely slept through the night.  When he was a baby, that meant multiple times either getting up with him or hearing him cry loudly every single night.

The Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled Kids

When he was a toddler, that meant hearing those little feet toddling up to our bed and my husband or I would take turns firmly taking him upstairs and putting him back in bed.  It also meant going to sleep with tension because we never knew how long we’d be able to sleep before being woken up at least once a night.

And I can be crabby when I’m woken up in the middle of the night – so I wasn’t always the kindest mom as I was escorting him back to bed.

Now that this son has gotten older, he doesn’t wake us up anymore.  But the poor kid has had to learn to deal with waking up several times through the night.  He has mornings where he wakes up at 4 or 5 in the morning and isn’t able to get back to sleep… so he just gets up. And he has started keeping books and other activities next to his bed so that he will have something to do to try to distract himself if he isn’t able to fall asleep within an hour or so.

You can imagine how grouchy this makes him when I go upstairs to tell him it’s time to wake up and start his day.

Homeschooling without sleep

The homeschool lessons for this poor kid had become a chore.  He was exhausted and he always seemed a little bit sad.  There weren’t many topics that interested him anymore.

And the love had left his learning.

Homeschool lessons were more about just helping him to make it through the day rather than trying to ignite his passions or determine what God has in store for his life.

We know how important sleep is to our bodies and our minds, so we’ve tried everything short of sleeping pills to try to help him.  He has gone through periods of taking Melatonin and every kind of natural remedy that you can imagine.  Unfortunately, none of these solutions worked for him long term.  And I can’t tell you how exhausting it is to get your hopes up about trying something new only to have them dashed again!

So, when I recently discovered the Dreampad pillow from Integrated Listening Systems, which is supposed to help people with sleep problems, you can imagine how interested I was in giving it a try… although I have to admit that I was guardedly optimistic.

I was given this product for free and will be compensated for my time, but all of my opinions are honest and I was not required to write a positive review.

The Dreampad is very sophisticated.  You connect it to a smart device or an MP3 player and it plays soothing music which gets converted into vibrations that stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.  This is the part of our body which is responsible for calming us, which makes it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled KidsIt’s very easy to set up.  Simply install the dreampad app on your Apple or Android smart device.  (If your child doesn’t have a smart device, you can download their music onto an MP3 player instead.

Then, choose your song and the desired volume and click PLAY.  That’s it.

So, my son chose to listen to sounds of the ocean and quiet classical music.  But this pillow is so much more than just a speaker.  The vibrations are what set it apart.  From the very first night, my son fell asleep and stayed asleep.  There has only been one night since he started using the Dreampad a few weeks ago that he hasn’t stayed asleep all night long.

That is a life changingly HUGE improvement for him.

Before using the Dreampad, my son was asked to fill out a survey about his sleep patterns.  After using it for a few weeks, he filled out the survey again and I was AMAZED at the rapid and clear difference!  Here are the areas with the most improvement for my son.

Dreampad-table

Homeschooling with Sleep

In the past few weeks, my son has been smiling at me MUCH more frequently.  He has also rediscovered his love for drawing and he has been willingly doing his schoolwork without complaint. He’s interested in living life again!  We were starting to think he was clinically depressed.  But he has been a new kid now that he’s sleeping restfully at night!  I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this product!

The Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled Kids
Image courtesy of Integrated Listening Systems

The Dreampads range in price from $159 – $179 which is really pricey for a pillow.  Before we tried the Dreampad, I honestly thought, “Who in their right mind would pay so much for a pillow?!?!?”  But now that we’ve tried it, I can say that it’s a SMALL price to pay to have a child whose sleep issues are virtually gone.  And they also have a 30 day money back guarantee so that you can be sure this product works for you or your child without risking your money.

We are now saving our pennies so that we can slowly purchase Dreampads for the rest of our family as well!

If you or your child suffer from sleep issues, I would highly recommend investing in a Dreampad.  Not only will homeschooling go more smoothly and be more of a pleasure, but your child’s health will be greatly improved as well.

To learn more about Integrated Listening Systems and to stay updated on their special offers, visit their website or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

The Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled Kids
Look interesting? Please pin it for later!

Question:  Do any of your children struggle with sleep issues?  Have you found ways to help ensure that your children are well rested before they start their lessons?  Please leave a comment below.

 

17 thoughts on “The Benefits of Sleep for Homeschooled Kids”

    1. Yes, homeschooling definitely helps because we don’t have to wake them up at the crack of dawn. You might want to look into ways to stimulate his parasympathetic nervous system and see if it helps him. I can’t express to you the difference that has made for our son! And be sure to enter the giveaway for the pillow! 🙂

  1. We have struggled with the same problem for my soon to be 13yo daughter. From the day she was born until present day :(. This sounds like a good solution.

    1. It has been for us! My husband and I have also struggled with sleeping issues all our lives. I’ve been fortunate to find some herbal remedies that have helped me… but he is the next one we’ll be getting one of these pillows for. It’s amazing how much someone suffers when they aren’t sleeping well night after night. 🙁

  2. I love the freedom that homeschooling gives us to sleep a little later. We live on a corner that is a school bus stop and sometimes the high school bus wakes me up in the morning. I am so thankful when my son is still sleeping. Note: I tried to do the Pinterest pin and received the message that it was unable to fetch the image. I will try again later. I would love to try out this pillow!

    1. Yes, I love that freedom as well. I’ve been getting up early with my husband so I can see him before he’s out the door to work – but I love that my boys don’t have to be up that early. 🙂

      Thanks for the heads up on the pin. Please do try it again and let me know if it doesn’t work. I just updated the post so I may have been doing that when you tried before. I just tried it and it looked like it was going to work. Thanks, Debbie!

  3. My 13-year-old twin sons both need much more sleep lately. One of them also has very disrupted sleep patterns, which makes it tough for him to keep up with a morning seatwork schedule. I’m grateful for the freedom we have to adjust our plans to fit each day. ~ I’m also interested in learning more about the pillow. Thank you, Michelle!

    1. You’re welcome! The pillow was new to me, too. It has definitely been a Godsend, though. I’m discovering that LOTS more people have sleeping issues that I ever realized before.

  4. I have a nearly 13 yo son and a just 14 yo son. Mr 14 has always slept well and still does. However Mr 13 has ‘never’ been a sleeper and like your son has been put back to bed (patiently) and back rubbed and and sat with and the list goes on. It also takes him a long time just to fall asleep. Even though he is busy on a farm when he is not schooling (one of my reasons for doing distance ed was the ability to let the boys have a sleep in) he still cant wind down. It definitely makes for difficult days. I am going to have a look at the dream pillow here in australia.

    1. I feel your pain! Parents who don’t have a struggling sleeper don’t understand. I’ve been told that I didn’t “properly sleep train” this son… but apparently I did with my older son?!?

      It sounds like you’re trying everything you know to do to help your son with his sleeping issue. And if you’re always patient about it, then you did a better job than I have, that’s for sure! 🙂

      Yes, take a look at the Dreampad – and be sure to enter the giveaway!!! I hope it helps!!!

  5. Our doctor asked us this year what I was going to do when my son really hit the teen years and started sleeping later… my reply was “we’ll homeschool later in the day; I’m certainly not going to wake him.” I wasn’t sure how my comment was received but I think sleep is too important for growing kids (of any age!). But we were pretty lucky that all of our kids are pretty heave sleepers; we’ve even had the smoke detector go off a few times in the middle of the night and they don’t so much as roll over; scary if we ever really have a fire and need them up but a relief when the smoke detectors are malfunctioning.

    1. Good response to your doctor! FYI – I read somewhere that most children sleep so heavily that they won’t be woken up if the smoke detector goes off… so you need be prepared to go get them out of bed if there’s a fire. Funny you would mention that about malfunctioning ones… When my boys were younger, I found myself praying during loud thunderstorms that God would help my boys to sleep through it. LOL

  6. Of our 4 children, we have a few sleep issues..our oldest seems to have a hard time falling asleep and consequently our home school day seems to suffer. She is almost 15..

  7. Not to say disrupted sleep isn’t a problem, and certainly children and everyone need enough sleep, but I’ve found very interesting the concept of biphasic sleep: that it is natural for the body to awake for a while in the middle of the night. Before the electric light this was a very common circadian rhythm. I bring this up because sometimes just thinking one has a “sleep problem” is worrying enough to keep them awake! We’ve also been experimenting with orange and red bulbs after sundown, to keep the blue light out, so as not to disrupt the natural cycle. I’ve never heard of the approach this pillow takes, I’ll check it out, thanks!

    1. Our minds are powerful, that’s for sure. I’ve never told my son that he has a “sleep problem” for that very reason. I’ve just observed that he has had problems sleeping since birth. I’ve always hoped he would outgrow it – but so far, that hasn’t happened. How do you use the orange and red light bulbs? Do you have them in your overhead lights?

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