Bedtime routine for kids is an essential component of their daily life. A good night’s sleep is a peaceful transition from the entire day’s hustle and bustle. It is also an integral part of the overall development of your child. Welcome to TheMommysCorner once again. In this post, we will explore the importance of establishing a consistent bedtime routine. This routine is essential for nurturing your kid’s physical well-being. It also supports their mental well-being.
As a child need balanced diet food, they need a structured bedtime routine too for their overall growth and development. A well rested mind and body will prepare your child’s next day with positive mood. The early you start your child’s bedtime cycle, the easier it will be for them to get accustomed. So keep reading to know the best tips and tricks to keep a consistent bedtime routine for kids.
Benefits of Bedtime Routine
A structured routine to hit the hay is very important during childhood. Early years of children are the perfect time to make their foundation strong to have a better life. Preparing your child for a good sleep by creating consistent schedule for their bedtime have many benefits like :-
- Children have good quality sleep in the night.
- Children wake up with positive mindset.
- A consistent bedtime routine make your child’s body prepare to fall asleep faster.
- It enhances child’s cognitive skills by having proper rest and stress free time.
- Adopting a consistent routine before going to bed teaches children about self-care and foster the sense of responsibility.
- This stimulates emotional stability among children. Adhering to a proper routine reduces their anxiety. It creates a sense of comfort.
Creating A Bedtime Routine
Bedtime should be calming and pleasant experience for everyone. It is the time to get free from stress and take rest. Bedtime for kids should be consistent and involves kids in the process. Creating a bedtime routine help children to understand the importance of healthy sleeping habits. When you set up a routine for your child’s bedtime, your child also knows the time to wind down. Hence it is easy to manage their moods and energy levels.
Though bedtime routine activities and duration will be different for different age groups and need of children. Some children need little extra time to prepare themselves for bedtime while some are quick to the transition. So you can adjust that according to your child’s age and need.
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Here is the chart for your help to understand child’s sleep hours and bedtime routine according to age.
Pre-Bedtime Activities
We all know a good tight sleep plays a vital role in a child’s physical and mental development. But getting your child to sleep is quite a difficult task. A consistent bedtime routine is helpful. The child repeats some activities daily before going to sleep. This helps the child understand that it’s time to sleep. You can craft a structured bedtime routine that consists some calming pre-bedtime activities to help your child sleep easily. The activities will act like clues for your child to understand that its sleeping time.
Here are the pre-bedtime activities to inculcate in your child’s bedtime routine.
1) Reading Book
Reading book to your child or reading together is one of the foremost ways to end the day. The process of reading helps mind to relax. Reading also helps you to slow down to feel stress free after a hectic day. Reading book to your child also instill the interest of book reading. They start loving to read more stories and share their thoughts too about reading. It promotes a positive bond between parent and child. And your child end the day on positive note to wake up fresh next day.
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2) Listening to some soothing music
Playing a soothing music before bedtime help to calm down children. The transition from energetic activities to listening soothing music makes them feel good and sleepy. It helps parents to ease the bedtime routine of their child. As children easily drift off to sleep while listening to some peaceful instrumental music before bedtime.
3) Bedtime yoga
Incorporating a habit of doing yoga before bedtime has enormous benefits in our lives. If you include yoga in your child’s pre-bedtime activities, they will become accustomed to it. This habit will help them later in their life. when kids practice yoga before bedtime, they focus on yoga postures. It includes relaxation techniques and breathing exercises. These help them to have a peaceful sleep. Yoga journal have explained many yoga poses to help kids sleep better.
4) Have a chat about the entire day
A child’s conversation with parents while cuddling on bed before sleeping is like a reset button for them. That is the moment when they pour their heart. They share each small and big things that happened during the entire day. When children shared their thoughts and feelings with parents, they feel secured and loved. This is one of the best way for children to end their day with parent’s love and care.
5) Coloring
If your child has a knack of art, you can use coloring to wind down. Involve your child in some coloring or drawing activity after dinner. It will calm them and prepare them for a restful sleep. Apart from this, it will help your child to develop their imaginative and creative skills.
Bedtime routine steps
Consistent bedtime routine is very essential to have a smooth transition from a busy day to sleep mode. There should be some routine steps that we should encourage our kids to follow everyday. Consistency is the key to have a peaceful wrapping up at night with kids. When kids follow same steps everyday before going to bed, their mind understand that it’s time to sleep. Aim to keep the routine simple. Make it easy to follow, as kids don’t have much energy left at the end of the day.
Save this chart of basic bedtime routine for kids to follow before going to bed:-
Tips for success
Reading parenting tips and incorporating them in your life with kids is indeed two different things. But these are not impossible. If you make it habit, the transition will be smooth for you and your child both. I always believe if you want to adapt any new habit, don’t make it much strenuous. Try to keep it simple so that you don’t loose motivation to continue it.
Adhere to a simple and easy bedtime routine for your kids. This routine can be practiced daily. As consistency is the major element to adapt the change and make it a habit.
Avoid high energy activities for kids before their bedtime. Like running, jumping or engaging in screen time before bedtime should be avoided. Make sure to engage your kids with some activities that are lighthearted and relaxing.
Don’t hurry to checkoff all the to-dos of bedtime routine list. Take time and let the things go gradually as children need time to get accustomed with new routine or habit. Be patient and flexible according to your lifestyle and family.
Common challenges and solutions
Studies show resistance to bedtime routine is normal for kids. Being a parent you can face challenges while maintaining a bedtime schedule for kids. As children have an urge to say no and show disobedience to parents during a phase. During this phase they have a tendency to say no for everything. But we have to find ways to encourage them to have a healthy lifestyle.
#Challenge 1
Your child wants you to sleep or stay with you for longer time during bedtime.
# Solution
Spend time with your child before bedtime. Involve yourself in pre-bedtime activities like reading a book. You can also have a conversation about the day. It is good to stay with them till they start feeling drowsy but also encourage them to sleep more independently.
#Challenge 2
Asking for extra time and showing reluctant to go to bed to sleep.
#Solution
Children have the tendency to say “no”. So we have to go according to that and find a midway solution. Start your child’s pre-bedtime routine little early and its expected your child will ask for extra time. Allow them some time and your allowance will make them happy. This will help to conclude the day for both of you with peace.
Conclusion
Having a proper sleep is very essential for children and for this maintaining a consistent bedtime routine is equally important. Sleep deprived children don’t have overall development in their childhood that have an adverse effect on them later in life. Hence following a bedtime routine is the solution to this problem. Just encourage your child to follow a simple bedtime routine as early as possible. And they will naturally adapt to these routines when they grow up.
