HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 August 1942, Page 6

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

CURFEW FOR CHILDREN? BENEFITS OF RESTFUL SLEEP. (By the Health Department). Early to bed and plenty of restful sleep is the finest prescription that a child can be given. Unfortunately evidence gathered by responsible observers in New Zealand indicates a tendency to allow children too much freedom. Indulgent or thoughtless parents keep no check on their bedtime hours, and late nights and disturbed rest are tending to raise an irritable and nervy generation. Indeed, the position is regarded as so serious that a curfew for children has been suggested seriously as a corrective. What sleep should a child get? These figures are a useful guide: Children of one year require 14 to 16 hours; of two to three years, 12 to 14 hours; of four to five years, 10 to 12 hours; of six to ten years, 10 to 11 hours; and from 11 to 16 years, from 9| to 10 hours. A late night now and again will not matter if the child makes up for it at other times.

Sleep that is restless and disturbed is of very little value. The great disturbers of sleep are noise and anxiety. They can be eliminated into the home. See that the children go to bed in plenty of time; also that the bedclothes are warm in winter, and that fresh air is circulating in the room — winter and summer . It is one of the best safeguards against colds.