Three Simple Ways to “Calm Down” Your Child’s Bedroom

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Putting your kids to bed to be a chore; however, what happens when they simply can’t seem to get a good night’s sleep?

Conventional wisdom tells us that children under the age of thirteen should get at least nine hours of sleep per night. Additionally, failure to do could lead to a number of sleep-related problems and symptoms, including but not limited to the following:

• Moodiness or behavioral problems

• Trouble concentrating

• Memory and learning problems

• Slower reaction times

• Overeating

Feeling helpless? Don’t panic.

Keep in mind that the culprit keeping them restless may be lurking in their bedroom, and there are steps you can improve the quality of your child’s sleep. Take quick inventory of what’s going on within your child’s sleeping space and use the following factors as starting points for creating a calmer bedroom.

Presence of Light

The presence of light in the bedroom can have a subtle yet significant effect on sleep quality. Exposure to too much light, natural or otherwise, can increase our heartrates and keep us wide awake. Therefore, consider the following small changes to naturally calm your child’s room in regard to bright lights:

• Investing in room darkening blinds to black out disturbances outdoors such as street lights and the headlights of passing cars

• Removing any televisions, screens or monitors from the room to ensure minimal exposure to light prior to bedtime

• Use less intense light bulbs, dimming bulbs or blue-blocking light bulbs in the room’s lamps and/or ceiling fixtures

Bedding

Everyone is different in terms of what types of fabrics they prefer; however, you should consider how your child’s bedding may impact their ability to snooze. For example, sheets with higher-thread count doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re inherently more comfortable than cheaper, soft cotton options. Considering that the temperature can also effect sleep quality, consider investing in cool, breathable sheets.

Keeping your child’s bedding clean on a regular basis (at least once every ten days) will keep their skin from being irritated, which may also keep them up at night. Bear in mind that changing up your laundry detergent may be hard on sensitive skin: even the seemingly “small stuff” can set off breakouts in children.

Noise

Perhaps most obvious, excessive noise can keep anyone from catching some z’s. If your child’s bed is adjacent to a bedroom with a television or perhaps picks up sounds from outside, even the smallest sounds could mean interrupt them from a deep sleep.

Thankfully, you can combat such interruptions through “white noise,” essentially a constant, ambient sound that can help lull your child to bed. White noise can be achieved a number of ways, such as:

• The whir of a bedside fan

• The running of air purifier or dehumidifier

• Sound conditioners and “white noise machines,” which emulate sounds such as the flow of a stream or the washing of waves on a shoreline

Although it may seem backward that creating noise can help block out other interruptions, listening to a consistent sound can help block out external, auditory distractions in the home.

It may take some experimentation to figure out what’s keeping your child up at night. However, consider first the subtle factors that you can deal with sooner rather than later as means of diagnosing the cause of the problem.