Share your top child and adult sleep tips with BleepBleeps – £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

Whether you have babies or tweens, getting a good night’s sleep isn’t always easy. In fact, bed-time can be a long and tiresome task. There’s getting your DCs to sleep in the first place – often taking hours – and then there’s waking up in the night and early mornings. BleepBleeps wants to know what your top tips are for making this process easier. Have you mastered a bed-time routine which means you and your DC both get a great night’s sleep?

Here’s what BleepBleeps has to say: “BleepBleeps has made, and is still creating, neat little gadgets which make parenting easier, including your night-time routine. We offer a range of devices which make it possible for you to keep an eye on your DCs from your smartphones so you have peace of mind whilst they’re sleeping.”

Do you have a bedtime strategy in place such as co-sleeping or controlled crying? Do you use devices like nightlights and baby monitors? Or other products that help your child fall asleep and/or keep them in bed till the morning?

Whatever your tips and tricks are, add your comments below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard T&Cs apply

Whatever you do, remember the Parenting Mantra: "This, too, shall pass".

(So easy for me to say...when my non-sleeping child is now 9yo and goes to sleep easily and stays asleep! )

A consistent bedtime routine.

Recognise that different children need different amounts of sleep. We used to go through agony trying to get DD to bed at 7pm when she was younger, and then realised that she didn't need to go to bed until about 8pm as she just wasn't tired enough, and it also meant she wouldn't wake us up so early either!

I believe routine is ultra important and god daytime naps when they are small.

Sleep begets sleep.

I'm a huge fan of timers, so BleepBleep has it right! Set a timer for tooth brushing, then a timer for the last ten minutes playing before bed. Kids can see it counting down and it's consistent (none of this ten minutes stretching to twenty and so on)

Works for us (although we have plastic sand timers, maybe we need to upgrade to digital!!)

Realistic expectations is key. Children aren't robots so the magical 7-7 may never happen!

Good routine from early on.
Never use bedtime as a punishment, sends the message that going to bed is a bad thing.
Cherish bedtime, even at 16 yrs old I still pop in and say goodnight and have a chat about the day.

Blackout blinds!

Blackout blind + white noise = magical baby sleep.

Arrrghh! This is an issue for us with DD1 (3) at the moment. The whole bathtime/bedtime routine has gradually elongated and she won't go to sleep unless DH or I are in the room with her. No problem when that only took 10-15 minutes but now it's more like 45! It started when she moved rooms and then DC2 arrived shortly after. We've decided on a strict limit to bath time, books with her in bed and then gradually withdrawing from the room e.g popping out for a minute or two and then gradually leaving it longer and longer before we pop back. It doesn't seem fair to just stood cold turkey, as it isn't her fault we've let it slide a bit. Fingers crossed!

Fortunately they both sleep well overnight. I think white noise in the early years really helped with this.

Choose your battles. Mine are 5 and 7. I've given up fighting with them about sleeping in their own beds. As long as they sleep, I don't make a fuss about whose bed they are in. It's like musical beds and I just get into whichever bed is left. I know this doesn't work for everyone but I choose sleep.

I am still breastfeeding so this helps to get my little one sleeping and then I pop her in the cot. If she wakes up I sit and hold her hand whilst listening to ocean sounds. Most nights she sleeps through but I feel it will all change once I stop breastfeeding! Will be trying the withdrawal method though as found the controlled crying to stressful!

Routine for naps and bedtime are key. Didn't want to put DS into a strict routine when he was little, but he was desperate for it from about 4 months.

Routine, routine, routine! A relatively early bed time so they aren't overtired. Bed time stories, songs and cuddles. Once old enough a cuddley toy to sleep with!

I think a portable routine before sleep, and something that involves no gadgets, screens or activity in the hour before bed is important. We tried a growclock and ds thought it was waaay too much fun. A basic digital clock worked much better

Massive sleep deprivation is nothing compared to the stress of googling about baby sleep and trying to sort it out. Stop googling, go with what feels ok and the sleep deprivation will be more easily handled

Structured nap routine in the day, good bedtime routine and a busy day with lots of fresh air.

I've always stuck to quite a rigid general routine with all three of my children and I'm either very lucky or the routine works because I don't have any trouble getting them to bed or them staying in their own beds and sleeping through. My children are 14, 12 and 4. What works for us:
Keeping the same bedtime every night where possible.
A daytime nap every day to stop over-tiredness.
Not threatening or using bed as punishment.
Bath & story at bedtime.
One of the best things thats worked for me is getting them used to falling asleep themselves rather than falling asleep on the sofa first or watching tv in bed and not having them in bed with us unless they need comforting for a while.
A warm drink and snack before bed.
Ending the day on a positive note with smiles positivity and cuddles

Routine definitely helps, doesnt have to be strict but if they know its bath, teeth, story, bed, then they know what's coming.
Be aware of naps for toddlers; I have found myself making good use of time while toddler napped, only to regret it later when he refused to go to bed!
And remember 'this too shall pass'! :)

must have a routine, bath, story, bed

For kids bathed book and bed
For us sex shower and bed 🙈😜😊

For kids, being consistent and firm whatever else you do, any not beating yourself up if your routine goes out the window one day. Just get through the night and try again tomorrow.

For adults I have surprisingly found the secret is also in having a routine. Whether it's just half an hour of no screens, a bedtime drink and a hot shower or something really elaborate. I find I sleep better having wind down time for myself and the more simple I can keep it the better as it means I can do it when I travel as well.

To ensure a really good night's sleep (for you) send the children to a relative's house.

Send them to their grandparents for the night if you can!! It gives you the chance for a break and them a change of scenery and in my experience they always behave and sleep for them!

For little ones who are old enough to understand them - the clocks that show the sun when they are allowed to get up is great - it gives them some responsibility for staying in bed until morning - if they see the moon or stars they know to stay in bed and it encourages them to go back to sleep.

We use good sleep hygiene- no light, no electronics/tv. Bedrooms should only be used for sleep. We use a gro-clock on weekdays which works well for us. We make sure DS gets out and is ready for bed. No sugar in the afternoon, and a well established bedtime routine We are lucky DS likes his sleep but this all helps IMO.

Having a routine really helps sometimes that saying my DD is 2years now and to this day since she was a newborn she has troubled me with her sleeps even to this day if she takes a 10-15 minute nap in the afternoon she will be hyper till around 10-11am at night but for the past few weeks she has been going to bed at a decent time the only thing i noticed that i changed was to get her out and about each day for probably about half hr or so to get her tired and if its a rainy day putting on some dancing kid movement videos such as from (Patty Shukla & debbie do) to get her a bit active and tired aswell x so far this has been working and she has stopped napping altogether through the whole day on rare days she naps in the afternoons x