How to help your kid sleep when it’s still light outside

I love the summer. My kids love it too. What they don’t love though is going to bed during the summer, it’s still light, surely they should be outside playing, right?! No. Sorry kids but you need sleep and frankly Mummy needs a rest! Getting my kids to sleep at night has pretty much been my main objective over the last four years and during that time we’ve tried and tested a lot of ideas. At the moment though we seem to have hit on a few things that have really helped us to get both our kids (four years old and 18 months old) into bed and staying there until the morning, so these are my tips for how to help your kid sleep when it’s still light outside

Have a routine and keep to it

Kids need routine in their lives, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t try and get things the way they want! It’s ok to change routines a bit for special occasions but I try to keep sleep routines the same pretty much every day.

Screen Free Time

This has been a pretty new one for us. My kids love to wind down at the end of the day by watching TV but when it came to turning it off they’d get stressed just before bed. Now it’s screens off by 6pm latest.

Keep all the house dark

During the lighter months I find it helps if make all the rooms near the kids bedrooms that bit darker near bedtime to give the impression of night time, I use curtains with window blinds behind them to ensure darkness and it seems to work! Pleated window blinds are great for blocking out the light, helping your kids to drift off to sleep.

 

Use Essential Oils

Essential oils that can be sprayed are a great way to help your kid to sleep. We use oils such as lavender to promote restfulness and  using a spray has the extra benefit of doubling as a ‘Monster Spray’ or ‘Bad Dream Spray’ if your little one has any worries. We have to spray ours in every corner of the room to get rid of bad dreams but as it helps we’re more than happy to!

Read together

Reading is a great way to help your child’s literacy skills and it’s a great excuse for a snuggle too! Just as importantly, a story is a great excuse for quiet time,helping to wind down the day and get ready for sleep.

Let them talk!

My son has a set phrase he has to say before he will go to sleep. Actually it feels like about 10 phrases and some nights I’d love it to be a bit quicker to go through, but if he doesn’t tell me ALL the things he needs to say he won’t sleep. Let them say what they need to say, it’s better than them refusing to sleep until it’s said.

How do you help your kids get to sleep? Do leave any advice below!

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