4 Tips To Creating Healthy Sleep Habits – From A Sleep Consultant
As a parent, helping your child establish healthy sleeping habits can feel overwhelming. Between hectic bedtime routines, constant wakings in the middle of night, and frequent regression, it’s easy to feel exhausted, frustrated, and unsure of what to do next. However, this is exactly where a structured, age-appropriate sleep training approach can help.
Ideally, formal sleep training should wait until a baby is around 12-20 weeks. That said, it doesn’t hurt to start early with foundational practices. In fact, this only makes things easier later on. And while the amount of time that babies sleep throughout the day depends on their age, there are things you can do to begin establishing healthy sleep habits with your child.
Below, I’m discussing everything parents, caregivers, or sleep consultants need to know about developing healthy sleep habits. I’ll discuss a handful of tips, how to change sleep schedules, how to increase deep sleep duration, and more. With consistency and the right approach, better sleep-wake routines are possible, for both parents and children!
Healthy Sleep Habits
Establishing healthy sleep habits can be challenging. But it can feel even more difficult when you don’t know where to begin. This is where a certified sleep consultant can make all the difference! As I discussed in my post, “What Does A Sleep Consultant Do?“, sleep consultants help families navigate sleep challenges by creating personalized plans, offering guidance, and providing ongoing support.
If this sounds like a career path you may be interested in yourself, I encourage you to look into The CPSM Sleep Consultant Certification. It covers the science of sleep alongside everything you need to know about building a successful practice. If you’re on the fence, schedule a discovery call with me, Jayne Havens. As the founder of CPSM, I’d be more than happy to walk you through your options.
If you’re a parent reading this post, listen to my podcast episode, “Working with a Sleep Consultant: From the Parent’s Perspective, with Sarah Gardner.” This is a valuable representation of how a sleep consultant can bring much-needed structure to bedtime.
Tip 1: Eat, Play, Sleep
Creating an eat, play, sleep routine is one of the major keys to success with healthy sleep habits. This will help you and baby get into a rhythm and you will start to be able to understand your baby’s cries. If your baby is used to eating at this time and they’re upset, they’re probably hungry. If they’re bored, you will be able to recognize that. Most importantly, you will be able to notice patterns in your baby’s behavior when they’re tired.
This routine will also help your baby learn to fall asleep without relying on feeding. Once they start falling asleep on their own, they are less likely to wake at night to feed. Your baby will learn that they get to eat after nap time.
Having a routine like this will also allow you to plan your day more efficiently. It is much easier to get out of the house when you are not on an “on-demand” schedule.
Tip 2: Feed More During the Day
Along with feeding after nap times rather than before, try to make sure your baby gets a full feed every time. Bottle-fed infants should get between 28-32 ounces of breastmilk or formula each day. Babies tend to eat every 2-3 hours during the early months and every 3-4 hours as they get older. This will ensure that when it’s time for bed, they are well fed and will not wake up hungry a few hours later.
Tip 3: Keep Everything Consistent
Establishing a consistent routine is crucial to developing healthy sleep habits with your child. Having your baby sleep in the same place every time, or as much as possible, is important. This means putting your child into the crib or bassinet during nap times, as well as at night.
It is also important to implement a solid bedtime routine that you do with your child every night. This will signal to your baby that it is time to settle down for sleep. I recommend the same bedtime routine to every parent. Over time, your baby will associate those cues with bed time.
You should also implement most of the same routine during naps. If your bedtime routine usually includes a bath, you don’t have to do this for naps, but you should be doing the same or similar steps each time.
This should start with a feeding. Baby will be nice and full for a good night’s rest. Then put your baby into a sleep sack, read a book, and sing a song. Then you should, ideally, place your child into the crib or bassinet while calm, relaxed and awake.
Tip 4: Remember to Stay Calm
Despite all of these routines and guidelines, try to stay calm and flexible. Not every day will be the same and it will take some time to really establish these healthy sleep habits. Plus, parenting is hard enough as it is. This is especially true during the newborn stage. Just remember that it is okay if you have days that are harder than others. Don’t be afraid to reach out for support when you need it.
How to Change Sleep Schedule
Shift Bedtime Gradually
Trying to abruptly change bedtime routines can do more harm than good. Rather than immediately moving bedtime by an hour or more at once, try adjusting your child’s schedule by 15-20 minutes every few days. Small changes are much easier for children to adapt to. Plus, this also helps protect the quality of their sleep!
If you’re interested in learning more about this approach, read my post, “Infant Sleep Training Methods Sleep Consultants Use.” In this guide, I talk about a handful of similar ways to improve your sleep routine and encourage a good night’s sleep.
Keep Wake Times Consistent
When your child wakes up is just as important as when they go to sleep each night. More specifically, one of the most effective ways to reset a child’s sleep-wake schedule is by maintaining a consistent wake-up time. Even after a particularly challenging night, waking your child at approximately the same time every day helps regulate their internal clock. As a result, not only does this help them fall asleep, but it also ensures they get quality sleep.
Adjust Naps Carefully
If your child still naps, evaluate whether nap timing is affecting bedtime. While a late afternoon nap can be beneficial, it can also sometimes interfere with sleep. As a result, children lose “sleep pressure” in the evening, either having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. This can often lead to a delayed internal clock, fewer hours of sleep at night, or reduced sleep quality.
Not sure how to approach this? Listen to my podcast episode, “Celebrating One Year in Business with Jamesa Bailey.”
Create Predictable Sleep Cues
Children often do best when they have consistent structure, especially around bed and wake times. For some families, maybe this is reading a storybook 30 minutes before bedtime. For other families, this may look more like using relaxation techniques, like belly breathing or calming stretches. The habits matter less than the consistency.
How to Increase Deep Sleep Duration
Prioritize Age-Appropriate Hours of Sleep
Often times, overtired children are more likely to experience more fragmented sleep. To prevent this, ensure your child receives the appropriate amount of sleep for their age. That last part is important. For example, a toddler will generally need more sleep than older children.
Prioritizing the same routine for different ages can ultimately be ineffective, causing more problems than necessary. Ensuring your child receives the recommended hours of sleep for their age can help promote more restorative sleep cycles throughout the night.
Encourage Active Play During the Day
Children who have more opportunities to move, explore, and exercise regularly throughout the day often settle more easily at bedtime and experience more restful sleep. More specifically, physical activity actually spends energy and regulates the internal clock.
This natural tiredness not only tells the brain that it’s time to rest, but it also increases the production of natural melatonin. Together, this is the perfect recipe for deep, rejuvenating rest.
Limit Stimulation Before Bed
Bright lights, exciting activities, and electronic devices can make it harder for children to wind down. Not only does it keep their energy up, but it also suppresses the production of melatonin. To prevent this, opt for more calming activities and techniques, like reading a book or listening to soothing music.
Beyond calming children down, this can also work well as a strategic approach to creating a bedtime routine. With consistency, these same habits can signal to children that it’s time to relax, get ready for bed, and fall asleep more quickly.
Avoid Large Meals Before Bed
As an adult, you’ve probably heard countless times to limit eating a few hours before bed. However, the same remains true for children. Avoiding larger and heavier meals before lying down helps reduce stomach discomfort, lower the body’s core temperature, and slow the heart rate. These are all essential factors in encouraging deep, restful sleep.
How Does Sleeping Help When Sick?
When children are sick, sleep becomes even more important. This allows their body to direct their energy away from activities and toward healing, recovering, and feeling better. However, knowing how this works allow you to better understand the importance of healthy sleep habits.
Boosts Immune System
As children sleep, their body produces infection-fighting proteins and generates protective white blood cells. With enough rest, their immune system is better equipped to recognize, respond to, and recover from illness.
Gives the Body Energy to Heal
When children are awake, their bodies use energy for everything from playing and learning to moving and growing. Sleep allows the body to redirect more of that energy toward recovery. During this time, tissues can repair themselves, inflammation can be regulated, and important healing processes can take place. This is one of the many reasons why children seem sleepier when they’re sick. Their bodies are working hard behind the scenes to recover!
Can Improve Mood and Comfort
Illness can cause children to become frustrated, uncomfortable, and emotionally overwhelmed. Getting enough sleep can help them regulate their mood, reduce irritability, and make it easier for them to cope with systems such as congestion, coughing, or stomach discomfort. While sleep isn’t a cure, it can help children feel better equipped to handle the challenges that often come with not feeling good.
If you need help with healthy sleeping habits, visit the CPSM!
Establishing healthy sleep habits can feel like uncharted territory, especially if you feel like you’re doing it on your own. However, consistency, patience, understanding the proper approaches can make all the difference. And when you still aren’t sure where to turn? Consider contacting a certified sleep consultant! This can be your secret weapon to helping your children achieve more consistent, resultful sleep.
For those interested in helping families establish healthy sleep routines, Enroll in the CPSM sleep consultant certification course today. Or, if you’re not sure you’re ready to commit, you can download our free ebook for a closer look at what the career actually involves before you take the next step. Also, make sure to join our Facebook group, where aspiring sleep consultants can learn more about the profession and ask questions.