Toddler sleep expert5/17/2023 ![]() ![]() Toddlers thrive in situations where they know what is coming up next, so consider creating a bedtime chart to help your child visualize and prepare for each step of their routine. ![]() If you already have a bedtime routine in place, that’s great! But even the best bedtime routine may need some tweaking in the toddler phase. On top of the colors, the cartoon characters, and everything else on the screen that stimulates your little one’s brain, the bright light emitted from screens inhibits the production of melatonin, which is the naturally occurring hormone that helps our bodies fall asleep at our proper, age-appropriate bedtime. Your toddler’s amazing little mind is already running at about 100 miles per minute, so no need to add to this in the minutes leading up to Snoozeville! Avoid any screen time at all at least 1.5 hours before bedtime. ![]() While it’s certainly not always a breeze to “reason” and “negotiate” with a 3 year-old who is constantly getting out of bed, it can be a piece of cake compared to attempting to rationalize with a 2-year-old who does not have the same comprehension level and reasoning skills as an older child. The reason for this is related to your child’s level of comprehension at this age. I suggest that children sleep in a crib until at least the age of 3 and do not transition to a toddler bed or bigger bed before that time. If your toddler has expressed a fear of the dark (this is a learned thing, so some toddlers express this fear while others do not) then you could consider a small night-light to calm their worries, but ensure it is quite dim so as not to be distracting (and I recommend an LED option so it does not get too hot and become a safety issue). Avoid loads of toys piling up in your child’s room to keep distractions and early morning Lego parties at bay.Įnsure the room is very dark, to avoid street lights causing bedtime challenges, or sunlight causing napping struggles. Consider your toddler’s room environmentĭistractions in your child’s room environment can play a key role in toddler bedtime struggles. This will help them to be more ready for rest when they hit the hay.Ģ. If your toddler is having a later nap of, for example, 1 pm to 3 pm each day, it’s likely that they can handle a bedtime of 7:30 pm. In some (more rare) instances, toddlers aren’t having quite enough awake time before bed and it could be that they are not quite ready for sleep when mom or dad is tucking them in for the night. Most toddlers who wake for the day around 6 or 7 am and nap for a couple of hours at noon each day should be in bed for the night at 7 pm to avoid over-tiredness. This is not necessarily the case so the first place to look when trying to solve those bedtime struggles is the timing of when your child goes to bed to ensure they are not overtired. Many parents will assume that because their child is now a bit older, bedtime should be later. Here are my top tips for managing the toddler sleep regression: It will take some time, it will take consistency, and-like everything else with toddlers-it will inevitably take loads of patience. Not to worry, tired families-this, too, can be managed. While other sleep regressions, like the one that often occurs between 8-10 months, were often about physical development (crawling, pulling to stand, cruising), the toddler sleep regression is about your child learning and exerting control and independence, and testing boundaries to determine how the world really works. Instead, sleep regression is likely to rear its head whenever your little one is going through her first and biggest phase of learning control and independence. Why the quotation marks? Because, much like other sleep regressions, this one doesn’t necessary happen in the precise months the books told you it would. Brace yourself, mama: Your little one has likely just hit the “18-month sleep regression.” Or, your already-challenging night-waker is now 2 years old and naps are newly non-existent while nights are an even bigger struggle. ![]() So your previously perfect sleeper has just turned 18 months and is suddenly battling bedtime. ![]()
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