Making Life Easier: Bedtime & Naptime

Making Life Easier: Bedtime and Naptime

1 – Develop a regular time for going to bed, taking naps & waking up. Young children need about 10-12 hours of sleep a day, which can be accomplished by any combination of naps and nighttime sleep.

2 – Make sure your child has outside time or physical activity daily. While keeping the hour before naps and night bedtime free for relaxing and soothing time.

3 – Give your child your undivided and unrushed attention as you prepare them for bedtime or a nap. This will help calm them and put them at ease.

4 – Develop a bedtime and naptime routine. Help your child be ready for sleep. Babies and young children thrive on predictability and learn repetition.

5 – Tell your child about what might happen when they wake up. Their day may have been so much fun that taking a break for a nap or having it end for the night seems disappointing. Letting your child have something to look forward to will help relieve some of that.

6 – Put your child down for sleep while they are still awake. Say “good night” and leave the room. This gets your child in the habit of putting themselves to sleep. If they fall asleep with you or in a rocking device and then transferred to their crib or bed could be disorienting or cause fear of being left alone.