Sleeping Solutions for Summertime

 

It’s nearly summer…which means the sun is shining early and late. Although this is wonderful for plants and trees…it is often not great for getting your kids to go to bed (and stay there). What kid wants to go to bed while the sun is still up, anyway?

 

The fact is, most young children need 11-12 hours of sleep each night. This means that your child will probably be both going to bed and waking up while the sun is brightly shining.

 

Here are a few suggestions for ensuring that your child gets enough sleep in the summer.

 

1)  Stick to a consistent routine. If you usually give your child a bath at 7:30 and put them in bed at 8, keep up with the same routine in the summer. With the exception of special occasions and holidays, your child needs the consistency to ensure he/she gets a proper amount of sleep each night.

 

2) Use blackout curtains. Find some way to keep the sunlight out of your child’s room at night and in the mornings. We purchased blackout curtains when our oldest was about 18 months old and decided that he wanted to go to bed (and wake up) with the sun. Many stores also sell blackout liners that you can attach to the back of your existing curtains.

 

3) Teach your child not to get out of bed until the clock shows a certain time. If you have a child who is naturally an early riser despite your best efforts to block out the sun, you might consider putting a clock in his/her room. Tell your child that she can only get up when there is a 7 on the first number of the clock (or whatever time you want her to get up). If your child is too young to recognize numbers, you might consider trying a nightlight with a wake-up indicator. This will help regulate her natural sleep cycle and ensure that she isn’t waking you up at 5:30 every morning. :)

 

What suggestions do you have for ensuring your child gets enough sleep in the summer?

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14 Comments

  1. Black out curtains are a life saver!! Our 16 month old sleeps from about 730pm -7am, but he has been sleeping thru the night since he was about 3 months old! We are so blessed! Our next kiddo will probably never sleep lol. I’ve bookmarked that wake up indicater alarm. That’s fantastic and I will so be using that!

  2. We love the Okay to Wake clock in our house-it’s a lifesaver for our three year old. We started it when he was around 2 1/2 to fix those 5:30 am wake up calls and it was worth every penny!! I find that getting outside in the afternoon, after naps (if your child takes them), is the best solution to wearing them out! Also, I try “no television” after 4 pm as I feel that the best way to exhaust them is to play, play, play. Pretty common sense, but it has helped with my two HIGH energy boys!!!!!

  3. we’re heading into winter over here in Australia – I always find it’s easier because it’s darker and piling on the blankets helps! – that said our second daughter is still TROUBLE – bless her, she’s a treasure in many other ways, but sleep is just not her gig!! – good luck everyone! x

  4. Yeah – this is always a problem during the summer. Plus, the street is noisier, too, it seems and the kids want to be part of the action. Good luck. Thanks for the suggestions, Renee

  5. My neighbors just lined their kids windows with foil. Not the classiest look, but it did the trick for much cheaper than black out curtains. I think I’ll do the same for our 2 year old son’s room.

    1. We considered that as well, but the home owner’s covenants at our old house didn’t allow foil to be on the windows! Crazy, huh?!?

      We don’t have a Homeowner’s Association where we live now, but we already bought the curtains and moved them with us! :)

  6. So even if we stick to our betime routine, the neighbor’s kids are still running around in the garden shrieking and laughing. …

  7. I’m so glad to read this post! Just yesterday I was complaining on Facebook about how my 2-year-old recently went from sleeping 12 hours at night to 10. I had someone mention the curtains, someone mention the clock, and someone also mentioned making her afternoon nap shorter… she still sleeps 2.5-3 hours in the afternoon. Hopefully some combination of these will help, my day goes so much better if I get some “me” time in the morning before she gets up!!

  8. We take advantage of the light in the room from the window and allow them to lay in bed with a book (they are two and four, so these are picture books) until they fall asleep. It doesn’t take them any longer than usual to drift off despite the distractions, and they are happy to climb in bed without complaining.

  9. We use both black out curtains and the clock. It took my 2 and 1/2 year old about a month to start going by the clock (mommy was too tired to enforce it consistently enough before that; we had a new baby at the time). Now he will stay in his bed and read books or play quietly before coming to get me in the morning. And the black out curtains also help cut down a little on noise coming through the window, too.

  10. What a timely post! We’ve been encountering this with our 3 and 4 year olds, but buying the wake up clocks at $30-$40 a piece (they sleep in separate rooms) was a hard pill to swallow. So, we found wooden clocks that they painted. We put start stickers on the wake-up time and the hour hand (so they had to match-up the stars stickers). They’ve been sleeping later since, but we’re still unsure if it’s because of the clocks. At least they’ll learn about time! It cost us about $7 per clock and making it themselves got them really interested.

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