DOES your child struggle to stay asleep during the night?
If they do, there’s an easy way you can help them get some quality snoozes in, and you’ll love it just as much as them.
Child psychotherapist Hayley Rice took to TikTok to share the clever hack, which is based on research from the Sleep and Brain Plasticity Centre at Kings College in London.
“Scientists found that belly laughter, like genuine laughter before bed increases melatonin, releases tension from the body, allows an outlet for anxious kind of energy and helps children to fall asleep and to stay asleep,” she explained.
It has to be “genuine” laughter rather than laughter from being tickled, Hayley added.
“You might find that your child is drawn to being giddy before bed because their body will want to naturally release any residual anxieties or tensions from the day,” she smiled.
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“So let it out!”
Parents were quick to take to the comments section to weigh in on Hayley’s advice, with one writing: “We call it power hour.”
Another added: “Ok one of my twins laughs hysterically when he’s going to bed it’s low key scary especially being pitch black but this makes sense.”
And someone else commented: “Omg this makes sense now, whenever we have fun before bed my son literally sleeps even longer and I have trouble waking him up early.”
“This is so true, I’ve been playing and getting my baby to laugh and he lasts asleep longer,” another mum added.
Others joked that their partners would feel “vindicated” by Hayley’s revelation that laughter is the best way of helping kids to fall and stay asleep.
“I don’t have kids yet but I always tell my husband he’s gonna be the kind of dad who gets them riled at bedtime,” one woman wrote.
“Now he’s gonna feel so vindicated.”
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And a dad added: “Is this why most dads get in trouble for stirring up their kids before bed?
“We just know it works!”
