How to Make Children Sleep

While you cannot exactly make children sleep, there are a number of strategies that can help your children go to sleep quickly and stay asleep through the night. Implementing good sleep strategies and smart sleep habits is not only good for your young child, but will continue to be beneficial throughout his life. Improve your little one's sleep patterns in a way that is gentle, respectful and good for the whole family.

Things You'll Need

  • Night light
  • Room-darkening shades
  • White-noise machine
  • Calming lotion or relaxing bath products
  • Bedtime stories
  • Nighttime CD

Instructions

  1. How to Make Children Sleep

    • 1

      Create a restful sleeping space for your child. A clean and orderly room is conducive to good sleep. Install room-darkening shades or curtains, purchase a night light and consider a white-noise machine to add to the relaxing environment.

    • 2

      Estimate how much sleep your child needs. Different children need varying amounts of sleep; however, many children simply do not get enough sleep. Realize that bedtime may need to be earlier than is convenient for the adults in the household, especially with a very young child or a natural early riser. Typically, preschool age children need 10 to 12 hours of sleep, young school-age children approximately 10 hours and preteens around 9 hours. Teens need 8 to 9 1/2 hours of sleep nightly (see References 1).

    • 3

      Plan an evening routine that works for your family. Dinner should be followed by relaxing and quiet evening activities. Be sure to allow time to wind down from active play. You should allow about 30 minutes for your child's bedtime routines.

    • 4

      Bathe your child or send her to take a warm bath or shower before bed as the beginning of the bedtime routine. This start to a bedtime routine is a good choice from infancy through the teenage years. Use a calming bath product with a lavender and chamomile scent for a young child or purchase soothing fragranced bath items for an older child. Get the last trip to the bathroom and dental care handled during this time.

    • 5

      Tuck in your child. Keep the tradition of a bedtime story as long as your child is interested and encourage him to read for a bit before bed once he has outgrown the desire for a bedtime story. Take this time to talk about the day.

    • 6

      Say good night. Some children may go to sleep more easily if they have soft music or a meditative bedtime CD playing in their room. You may also find that white noise can help children sleep or soften the sounds from elsewhere in the house.

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