10 ways to encourage your reluctant sleeper | Mum In The Madhouse

10 ways to encourage your reluctant sleeper

I have posted many times that Mini Mad has issues with getting to sleep.  It is something that he (and us) has suffered with since being a toddler.  In January this year it got so severe that we sought some professional guidance and we have been consistently working on it since then.  So how do we go about encouraging our reluctant sleeper?

10 ways to encourage your reluctant sleeper

Finally some nine months later I feel that we are getting on top of it and feel confident enough to share what we have been doing that has been helping us.

10 ways to encourage your reluctant sleeper

  1. Set rules and stick by them. We have set bedtimes and do not deviate from them unless there is an exceptional reason why.
  2. Have a bedtime routine that works for you.  We have no screens after 6pm and after dinner it is wash, PJ’s, reading and family time before bed.
  3. Set realistic expectations – be honest about what you want to achieve and share it with your child.  We had a chart showing the bedtime rules.
  4. Be consistent – this is hard, but essential
  5. We allow Mini 30 minutes reading time in his room.  Thanks to his Lumie lamp, which dims automatically over 30 minutes we often find him asleep with his specs on and a book in hand.
  6. Mini had a mid sleeper bed, but we moved to a single bed frame , which he much prefers.  We passed on his bed and thinner mattress to Frugal Family.
  7. Work out if rewards or punishment work for your child or even both.  For mini we found that removing his screen privileges were a big motivation for keeping him in his bed room!
  8. Blackout blinds really help in summer
  9. End the night on a positive note.  Each night we write down three positive things that we are grateful for that day.
  10. If Mini is finding it really hard to relax then we use a Relax Kids CD

reluctant sleeper

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