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

Regular bedtime routine
Blackout curtains
Good bedding

And patience!

My tip would be to recognise that all children are different- just like adults. The amount of sleep one child needs is not necessarily the same amount another child needs. My eldest daughter was a bad sleeper and didn't sleep well at all until 2 years old, my son slept through at 8 weeks old and my youngest daughter has only just started sleeping through at 18 months, but not consistently!

Whats a tween? Misses point of thread!

Sorry yes routine worked here- bath, story, bed with white noise and dummy. Luckily by 7/7.30 ds has always been shattered so fell asleep easily. Day time naps took a bit longer to sort but again a routine and being at home helped.

We went through months of trying to stick to a 7 0'clock bedtime but ended up moving it to 8 o'clock as she just wasn't ready at 7! Now she knows that 8 means no more messing about and straight to sleep.

Listening to music or relaxation podcasts helps me to drift off and sleep better.

Meant helps us all to sleep better, we all have music to help us sleep and dd has always had to have some kind of noise, we used white noise all them time when she was a baby, people gave me the weirdest looks when it was coming out of the pram! We've got blackout blinds but also a groclock, as it has a soothing nightlight which comforts them if they wake up during the night.

Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.

I find this helps adults and children. If I stay up too late on the weekend and sleep in I find my routine goes to pot.

The children stick to their routine and go to bed well these days.

Routine and ritual....but stick to them!

Fuzzy parenting boundaries around bedtime are not an option!

A set wind down routine in evening, bath, quiet story, bed.

Fresh air and sunlight (if possible) in the daytime helps everyone sleep.

Remember they're only little for a short while, and whatever you do for everyone to sleep is fine as long as you are happy with it.

I have had a bedtime routine, with lots of stories and cuddles. My boys have always slept better if I stay with them until they fall asleep when they were little. After they've finished feeding in the night, they come to our bed if they need a cuddle or some reassurance. For my older ds's I keep a chair bed and blanket in my room in case they need to sleep in our room for whatever reason.

I put my children to bed at the same time every night to ensure that they have a routine. I give them a bath, then we read a story, I also lightly spray an organic lavender sleep spray near but not directly on bedding, just for a slight hint of lavender which is very soothing.

Do those pillow sprays really work?

Do I sound desperate? That's because I am. 9yo DD has become a bloody nightmare to get to sleep - I have so far invested in a white noise/sleep therapy machine which seems to have some impact. No obvious cause for anxiety, except the not sleeping itself - she works herself up into a state because she "knows" she won't sleep, and it's late, and she'll be tired in the morning, and she won't sleep, and.....

From when my DD and DS came home from hospital I started making day and night very different. At night the bedroom (then the nursery when they moved into it) was completely dark. Daytime sleeps/naps were taken downstairs in the carrycot attachment for the pram without any curtains being drawn. We were guided by the needs of DS and DD as to when "night" should start. For a while their bedtimes and getting up times were a couple of hours adrift but as they got older they became synchronised. When they were old enough we always had a bedtime routine which finished with a story told in a very low light level. During holidays and weekends we kept to the same going to bed and getting up times.

If I can't sleep after 20 minutes of trying, I get up and do something else for 20 minutes and then try again, nothing worse than lying there trying to force yourself to sleep (periodic insomniac here)

If I can get DD to lie down quiet and still she's usually asleep within minutes - it's just getting her to do that in the first place that's the challenge!

Routine.

Routine.

Yes, routine.

As they get older, variations don't cause problems but, in the early years we were slaves to nap time and bed times and had lovely children as long as we stuck by it.

Routine.

Routine.

Yes, routine.

As they get older, variations don't cause problems but, in the early years we were slaves to nap time and bed times and had lovely children as long as we stuck by it.

Routine.

Routine.

Yes, routine.

As they get older, variations don't cause problems but, in the early years we were slaves to nap time and bed times and had lovely children as long as we stuck by it.

Another vote for a routine.

I'm also a firm believer that when they're young if they're tired that letting them sleep doesn't stop them sleeping at night, quite the opposite in fact.

Overtired children are far harder to settle than those who are just approaching tired.

Its okay to be in bed and not asleep. Its rest and rest is better than nothing.

Routine when a baby, dinner,play, bath then bed time story. Still followed now by 12 year old, but play has been replaced by homework and bath shower. thankfully he reads his own bedtime stories now
Yoga breathing works for me, two deep breaths in, two out x 4, then four in/out, rising to six etc. though I have never got to eight zzzzzzx

7yo DS has had some terrible phases where he was still bouncing off the walls when I was going to bed. I wept. With hindsight, a bit about midsummer nights and a lot about being anxious and over wound. What helps:
Keep the evening relaxed. We turn down invitations that leave us in danger of DS having a late night.
No more screen time after evening meal.
After evening meal approx. half an hour of "arty crafty time" with at least one parent sitting with him doing colouring/painting/junk modeling/Hama beads/kinetic sand whatever and having a chit chat. This was suggested to us by a sleep specialist, not only does he have time to relax, he sees Mum and Dad relaxing too.
Don't leave teeth and pyjamas to the last minute, this is where the drama happens so don't have it right before he gets into bed and don't leave it till he's properly knackered. After two terrible nights, last night he had an early tea, shower, jamas, arty crafty, bed and dozing off by 7.30. Result.
Don't be afraid to make a change if judgment suggests. E.g. last night I strongly advised DH NOT to read a bedtime story as they were locking horns and getting shouty. Left DS to read to himself for 15 minutes and had the best bedtime of the week. No one for DS to argue with.

When the children were younger, we found having a routine worked well. We had a certain song and a certain book. For all ages, I think reading before sleep helps to relax the mind. We also have a cut off point for phones and Ipads.

my son 9 struggles to sleep and is up late as he has autism sometimes he sleeps in my bed but at least we both get a good nights sleep. i do try to get him calm and ready for bed but it depends on the day.

We had a successful bedtime routine from around 12 weeks old. I was one of those smug mothers! However, around 18 months my DD wouldn't go to sleep unless I was visible in the doorway. It started taking longer and longer as she wouldn't got to sleep because she knew I would leave as soon as she dropped off. From previously taking a few minutes to drop off, it was now taking an hour.

This solution which was suggested to me was both brilliant and simple.

As I put her in her cot, I told her a long and repetitive /simple story about bedtime routine. All the children have had a bath, Jasmine has had a bath, Daisy has had a bath, Amelia has had a bath. I repeated the story for each aspect of the routine using her friends' names.

It finished with all the mummies are kissing the children. All the mummies are going downstairs, all the mummies are tidying the kitchen, all the mummies are washing the floor. Etc

I said it all in a very calm soothing voice. From the first night it worked. She let me leave the room. When she called me back, I just said I'm only downstairs like the other mummies. I can hear you. All the mummies are listening to their babies. It worked! Genius!

I had to do it for quite a while, but the story I told got shorter and shorter until one day I realised we didn't need it. Good luck if you are struggling.

With my nearly 4 year old son the key is to let him play until dinner time to tire himself out. Then it's dinner, bath time and quiet time, bed and story.
By the end of the story he's usually asleep, but if not a cuddle will do it.