COVID-19 messing with your sleep schedule?

COVID has changed a lot…but how about your sleep?

Many of the parents I work with are coming to me asking about reasons as to why their child is not sleeping after being home for so many months. The reason why this might be happening from the professional opinion of an occupational therapist?

Well, there appears to be large amounts of routine disruption. A routine disruption often causes difficulties with participation in your daily activities, and like a domino effect, sleep is eventually on that list too.

How to fix that? Well, routine preservation is a great way to start. What I mean by this is to engage and participate in those morning routines for ALL family members. Yes, even if you’re not going anywhere. It means having regular mealtimes, as you would IF you had that prior schedule. Lastly, it means night time routines need to be participated in too, even if you don’t need to get to wake up early. As humans, we crave routines, categories, and order.

The difficulty with keeping routines during COVID is the fact that so much in our lives changed so fast, we have increased anxiety, we have increased worry, and we don’t know what’s going to happen next. With all this uncertainty, ensuring that our home routines are the same as possible is key for sleeping.

I’d also like to mention, if you were particularly active or your children were very active in organized sports, the gym, etc. and COVID protocols have taken those things out of your typical routines, that means you need to do something about that. I don’t mean to be too harsh, but this is so important I want you to hear it through my writing. You need to intiate those routines at home, in the yard, with or without workout equipment. There are many free resources that offer workouts and activities in your own home or yard or local park to get moving. Exercise is commonly known to help increase sleep.

To sum up, routines are vital for feeling “normal”. Keep them up as best as you can!