Sleep Management Tips for Multiple Children
Sleep is vital to kids regardless of their age. Whether they’re a newborn or 5 years old, all of those hours of sleep are the time when a child’s body is developing and growing. It’s important to set bedtimes and wake up times for your children. Setting a solid sleep foundation for kids is key in helping them get the best sleep they can. Figuring out bedtimes and wakeup times when you have more than one kid can be a challenge but if you can align even just a few of the items in their bedtime routines it can make things go so much smoother.
Some families are able to divide and conquer so one parent can take a kid or two and tackle bedtime together. Other families may have older children and younger children so the older kids can be a bit more self-sufficient when it comes to bedtime, but they can still help and be involved in some aspects. Below you’ll find a few tips that can help you tackle all things sleep with multiple children.
Sleep Management Tips for Multiple Children
Pick a basic bedtime routine and stick to it every night!
Having a bedtime routine that you follow nightly cues your kids that it’s time for sleep and helps their bodies start to wind down. A bedtime routine can be as simple as putting on jammies, offering a feeding (depending on age), brushing teeth, reading a book and snuggle and then lay down and tuck in for bed. Say you have an infant and a 2 year old – you can lay your infant down in a bouncer or something similar after getting their jammies on, help your toddler brush their teeth, read them both a bedtime story, let your toddler spend time looking through a few more books or playing quietly while you feed and put your baby down, and then back for a few more snuggles and then bedtime with your toddler.
Find what works for you and your family and stick with the basics of a bedtime routine and it will make things SO much easier on everyone!
Aim for a consistent bedtime for each child.
If your children aren’t at the ages where their bedtimes or sleep schedules are the same or similar, try and let your older child spend some quiet time in their room reading or quietly playing while you do bedtime routine with your younger child. Like I mentioned above, it’s great if you can have your kids even do one or two steps or their bedtime routine together, but it doesn’t always work for everyone. Even if your child’s bedtimes are different by 30 minutes or so, simply reading a book together can have huge positive effects for everyone.
Start winding down about an hour before your first child’s bedtime.
A great tip is to play in one child’s bedroom with your kids. If you’re able to avoid screen time in the hour before bedtime, it can have huge impacts on how easily your child is falling asleep and staying asleep. Playing a board game, reading a book, or just letting your kids play together before bed can be so helpful in winding down before you start your bedtime routines and hop into bed. If your child has recently stopped napping, this last hour before bedtime can be a hard one because they are getting so tired and ready for bed. Having their siblings around to play and wind down with can be so helpful in making it through that last stretch before bedtime. Make sure to shut off all screens at least an hour before bed.
If we can help our children learn and implement the basics of independent sleep at a young age it can have huge lifelong benefits in regards to their sleep. Getting into a solid routine once you have more than one child has major benefits to you, as the parent, which can have positive impacts on the whole family. I hope these tips are useful to you as you navigate parenting and sleep with multiple children.