A night routine entails all your activities with your child before putting them to bed. The objective of a good night routine is for the child to fall asleep alone, without watching TV, being rocked, or lying by their side. When your child links falling asleep with watching TV, for instance, if they lose sleep sometime in the night, likely, they won’t fall back asleep until they watch TV. Your child’s activities for their bedtime routine should be in the same order every night. To be more effective, dim the lights and turn off screens before starting the routine.
1. Establish a Comfortable Sleep Environment
A few minutes before you start your child’s night routine, dim the lights in the house. This will signify to your child that it’s time to sleep soon. Keep your child’s room quiet, dark, and cool to promote delta sleep waves or deep sleep. Delta waves are slow waves in the human brain. They are most common among young children and infants and are linked with the most profound healing, restorative, and relaxation sleep levels. If your child is afraid of the dark, you can leave a dim nightlight or leave a door cracked to allow hallway light through.
When you put your child to bed, stay with them for a while to ensure they are getting sleepy and are comfortable. If they have a security toy or blanket, ensure they take it to bed to make them feel secure as they fall asleep when you leave the room.
Do not give your child a phone or tablet while in bed. This is because blue light available on screens represses natural melatonin production. Melatonin is the hormone responsible for sleep. Blue light affects children more than adults, and its presence affects their natural sleep-wake cycle. This may make your child not fall asleep even when tired.
2. Stick to the Routine
Kids love routine, thrive on it, and it’s effective. It helps a child to be sleepy, like reading in bed makes an adult sleepy. A good night routine allows the child to associate their bedroom with good feelings and provides a sense of control and security. No specific routine works for everyone, but your routine should generally include the activities your child requires to do before they go to sleep. Such activities include washing up, brushing teeth, putting on PJs, and having a glass of water or a snack. Irrespective of the activities, make the routine short, not more than 30 minutes, excluding the bath, and be strict about concluding it when it’s time for bed.
Be cautious about the kind of bedtime snacks you give your child. A small snack before sleep will help fuel your child’s body through the night. Provide healthy snack options such as a piece of fruit, graham crackers, or whole-grain cereal with milk. Avoid giving your children heavy snacks when approaching bedtime, especially older kids, as a full stomach can obstruct sleep.
3. Work as a Team
Have a regular sleep and wake-up time for the whole family, and ensure you follow them, even during weekends. You can tell your child is having enough sleep if they sleep within 15-30 minutes of getting to bed, quickly wake up in the morning, and don’t dose during the day. Discussing and agreeing on a bedtime routine for your child with your partner or spouse is essential as working as a team to execute it consistently. Otherwise, your child will neither learn nor change their behavior.
When starting a new bedtime routine for your kid, involve them by explaining the new plan if they can understand. For younger children, you can use a picture chart to help them learn the new routine, illustrating actions like reading a book, brushing their teeth, and changing clothes.
Conclusion
It’s not difficult to set a bedtime routine and stick to it. The key to doing this is consistency. If the routine starts with brushing your teeth, don’t start with changing clothes some days. Make your child understand that once they get to bed, they must stay there until morning unless they have to go to the bathroom. Building an effective night routine for your children will also allow you to sleep well without disturbances.
