Helpful Bedtime Routines

With darkness wrapping around us earlier each evening, autumn invites us to more and better sleep. Experts say fall’s cool air is the most conducive to refreshing sleep. Snoozing more helps us respond to the quick temperature changes and more purposeful activity of fall. More sleep also helps maintain strong immune systems.

On the other hand, not getting enough sleep compromises adults and children mentally and physically. Many of the challenges we fret about with children reflect the reality that our children don’t sleep quite long enough. Crankiness. Overactivity. Tiredness. Tantrums. Complaints about not feeling well. Children need 11 to 12 hours’ sleep every night. On November 1, we’ll be setting our clocks back, a process that inevitably causes a few ripples in children’s sleep schedules and raises questions about getting them to sleep in a timely way.

Today more is known about the kind of bedtime routine that allows children to slide early into sleep and get enough rest. An hour before bedtime, children need to relax their bodies, which means disengaging from watching TV, playing videogames, or racing through the house tickling each other. Electronic gadgetry and nature take the body in opposite directions.

Going for a walk before or after dinner brings our bodies into a natural connection with the rhythms of nature. Walking releases stored emotions and provides a time for parents and children to talk in a way that restores calm and well-being.

Encouraging a child to talk about the problems of the day before bed has the opposite effect, and might even make a child wake up grumpy the next day. At the end of the day, we want to focus on accomplishments and hours well spent. But especially for young children, it’s wise to avoid stimulating topics.

Conversations about the day might touch lightly on happy highlights. We can keep recollections of the day soothing by discussing them in in almost monotonous ways. “First you saw your friend in the hall, then you put your homework in the folder.” A review of the day works best when the busyness feels finished, as if the events themselves are over and ready to be put to bed.

A great bedtime book doesn’t involve adventure or mystery, but soothing repetition, repeated phrases, and images that reveal loving connections. Since bodies needs to prepare for sleep by letting go of excitement and concerns, reading stories that lead a child through progressive relaxation can lead to sounder sleep.

Bedtimes are a wonderful time for parents to relax and let go of the day too. Adults and children benefit from rituals that signal the brain that they are in a perfectly peaceful place to allow their minds and bodies to restore.