Tips For Better Children’s Sleep

1) Give Kids A Routine For Bedtime

To encourage better sleep patterns, you can build a regular pre-sleep routine for your children. This should start at the same time every night. For younger kids, a typical routine might start with bath time, continue to a story reading, and end with being tucked in. Older children would benefit from a more independent routine, perhaps starting by reviewing the day with you and then featuring some private time for them before it’s time to go to sleep.

2) Keep Bedtime And Wake-Up Times Consistent

If at all possible, hold wake-up times and bedtimes to the same one-to-two-hour window every day. This consistency encourages your child’s body clock to develop its own patterns. Stick with the same schedule not just on school days, but on weekends and holidays as well.

3) Let Children Relax At The End Of The Day

It’s not realistic to expect your kids to go straight from full activity to sleep. Children that take more than 30 minutes to get to sleep probably need more relaxation time before going to bed. This can be part of the private time mentioned above for older kids; they can wind down by reading, listening to calming music, or doing breathing exercises. Furnish their bedroom with areas designed for them to chill, find out more about Ashley Furniture delivery times.

4) Encourage Feelings Of Safety At Night

Being afraid of the dark is very common for younger children. Keep your kids away from scary or exciting TV, movies, and video games in the evening. Praise them when appropriate for behaving bravely. And finally, keep in mind that a night light sometimes works wonders on nighttime fears.

5) Don’t Let Older Children Nap Too Much

Childhood napping typically tapers off between three and five years. If your child continues to nap after this age, there’s nothing wrong. Just try to keep napping confined to early afternoon at the latest, and keep naps to twenty minutes at most. Napping longer and later than this can make it harder for your kids to get to sleep.

6) Make Sure Children’s Rooms Have Healthy Lighting For Sleep

A healthy light environment is critical for sleep — for children as well as adults. The light from screens (TVs, computers, mobile devices) makes children feel less sleepy by suppressing melatonin levels. Any bright light can have a similar effect on younger kids.

Light Tips:

* Turn off all devices an hour before bed

* At night, remove screens from your child’s room when possible

* For children five and under, dim the lights an hour before bed

* For night lights, use dim lights and warm colors, not bright lights and cool colors

7) Align Eating And Sleeping Schedules

Sometimes when children don’t want to go to bed, the culprit is an unpleasant feeling of hunger or fullness. Schedule your kids’ evening meal at a reasonable time, neither too far nor too close to bedtime. At the other end of the day, you can get children’s body clocks ready for daytime activity by providing a healthy breakfast not long after wake-up time.

8) Banish The Clock

Children who are struggling to fall asleep will often repeatedly check the time. Ease their minds by making this harder; turn or move bedside clocks so that they’re not visible.

9) Keep Caffeine Away

Caffeine crops up in a lot of drinks that kids love — not just soda, but also things like hot chocolate. Check your child’s drinks and make sure to keep them away from caffeinated beverages after the early afternoon.

10) Give Kids Natural Light

Natural light is great for your children’s sleep rhythms, particularly in the morning. Sunlight suppresses melatonin and wakes kids up early in the day. Then, after enough exposure, they’ll feel naturally sleepy at bedtime.