Breaking Bad Sleep Habits in Children: Getting Your Child on a Healthy Sleep Schedule

A sleep schedule, is like everything else with a child. They want to test their limits, and give them a week when you are sick and too tired to go through the "fight" at bedtime and then you have a schedule that is messed up. I have always heard that children like a routine, and I never paid much attention to it. Well that was before my kids sleep schedule got all out of whack and they were trying to stay up all night. My husband who works at 6:00am in the morning was threatening to leave me, and I think that he was somewhat serious. He would try and sleep and the children were running through the house at 10:00pm at night keeping him awake. Don't assume that I am a push over either! I am actually the disciplinarian of the household, and I do discipline. When a child gets on a schedule of staying up late they are going to do it. Its the same when they are on a schedule of going to bed early, then thats what they are going to do. To top it all off my girls feed off each other, My oldest would say " Lets stay up", and my youngest would of course stay up. You really have to set a routine, and I have some tips for you to make it easy and I promise if you follow these steps your child will be on a schedule in one week.

Day One: This is going to be your hardest day, if you make through this bedtime then it will get easier I promise! Now I know when mine were staying up until midnight ( yes I am serious) they would sleep until 10:00 am. The first step on day one is waking the child up earlier. I started in 30 minute intervals, First day 9:30am, second day 9:00am etc. So we followed our day as usual, and then that night at around 10:00 pm I started with the ritual allowing myself 30 minutes before bedtime. Now ideally I do not want my children staying up until 10:00 pm, but If you do not change the schedule slowly. You will end up with an exhausted child taking a nap during the day and staying up until midnight anyway. So at ten that night I gave them a half an apple each as a bedtime snack, I also made up a sippy cup of water to take to bed, and then it was off to the bathroom to brush teeth and potty. This covered all the bases. How many of you take your child to bed only to hear the famous excuses " I am hungry", "I have to pee" . If you cover all the excuses right before bedtime it makes it easier on you and your child. And once I did get past the excuses it was a lot easier to get them to sleep. Now stay strong this will be the hardest night a lot of getting up, Monsters in the closet, and Please five more minutes. Do not give in!

Day Two: Now wake your child up 30 minutes earlier than the day before. It was 9:00am in my house and it was still a little difficult, but I felt better and I could tell the kids did too. They were watching cartoons and my youngest said " I have never saw that cartoon before" I told her " By going to bed early she would get to watch it every morning". We followed through with the same schedule that day. Then that night I started the bedtime ritual at 9:30pm. Now you can tailor this ritual to your individual household, but stick with the same routine every night. By doing this you are conditioning your child for bedtime. It took me a long time to realize, but children do better on a schedule. You are the main factor in this as well, by maintaining and keeping the schedule you are helping you and your child.

Day three: Now when you wake your child or children up this morning it should be a lot easier. I woke my children up at 8:30 am on this day. And followed all the above and we started our bedtime routine at 9:00pm. This night my children went right to sleep and I felt like I had just won the lottery. I even watched a movie by myself before going to bed!

Day four: We woke up at 8:00. My girls were really excited about all the " New" cartoons that were on. I was starting to feel like I was gaining a handle on all of this. Now that night the girls went back into their bedroom and ask me to turn on a movie for them, it was 8:00 pm. I went back to check on them at 8:20 and they were both fast asleep. I jumped for joy, but not too loud I did not want to wake them. And I headed in to spend some time with my husband.

Day five: I had reached my goal by this day, so it was the 8:00 am wake up, and then we started the bedtime ritual at 8:00am. Now different ages of children will require different amount of sleep. My children are 3 and 4, so they still require quite a bit of sleep. But with any age routine is the key in successful sleep patterns.

Day six and Day seven: These days followed the same pattern as above. I am not saying that at bedtime I never had a fight again. Thats not true they are children and for the most part unpredictable. I can say however that bedtime was definitely easier, and my husband and I were able to spend sometime together alone.

It is healthier for anyone to have a routine. You feel better and so do your children.