Have you noticed that your child is having a harder time with going to sleep at night? Do you feel that your child had been going to bed every night and something has changed? This is starting to happen more as our routines continue to be different along with the pandemic continuing.

Having an established bedtime routine can help with this. If your child knows what to expect and how the steps of the routine proceed, then their body will get used to going to sleep at the end of the routine. This routine does not need to be complicated or long, but enough to help your child start to calm his or her body and be able to fall asleep.

Some common bedtime routine elements

· Bedtime book

· Bath

· Talking about the next day’s routine

· Prayer

· Bedtime stories

· Reading independently in bed (if old enough)

Your routine does not need to include all of these elements; these are just provided to help you determine what you want to include in your routine.

Some parents are reporting that their child is having a hard time falling asleep, but that this has started more recently. This could be due to anxiety as there have been many changes lately and there is still uncertainty about what is happening in the world. Children may want to talk about what is causing them anxiety and this is important to do. Right before they go to sleep is probably not the best time to do this as it may make it harder to fall asleep. Make some time earlier in the day to talk about these concerns so that they are hopefully not as prominent in their mind when it is time to fall asleep.

The other factor that is important to work on is trying to keep the time of going to sleep and waking up as similar as possible. While it can be tempting to let them sleep in or stay up later on the weekend, but if the times are consistent, your child’s body will be prepared to go to sleep when it is time. This can be difficult at times, especially during the holidays. You should try to keep it similar, but if you need to have a few special nights, most kids recover from this.

If you have further questions, reach out to me at my email.