7 Simple DIY Sleep Aids For Children

Last Updated on November 30, 2018

Your children’s health is affected by a number of factors, with sleep being the main one. As long as they are getting enough sleep every night, you can be sure that they are going to be as healthy as possible and have a much better chance of remaining that way.

But if they start to lose out on sleep, then it can soon become a real problem. If this happens, you will want to try and fix the issue right away. Are you doing everything you can to help your kids sleep better?

Here are six natural DIY tools you can use to help improve the quality and quantity of your children’s sleep.

 

Stress Management

One of the major issues that stop anyone, no matter what age, from getting enough sleep is stress. If you are doing everything you can to keep the stress down in your child’s life, then it is much more likely that they will get a decent amount of sleep every night. Start by taking a look at your home environment, which is one of the biggest influencers of your child’s mood. As long as it is peaceful most of the time, then you will have a calm child who is happier and balanced internally. Therefore, when it comes to bedtime, they will have improved sleep patterns and it will be easier to get to sleep in the first place. You can also reduce stress by encouraging older children to talk openly about any problems they might be having. If stress is managed effectively, then your children will be able to get restful sleep at night.

Comfort

It goes without saying that you need to make sure your child is as comfortable as possible in order to sleep well, but a lot of people fail to really grasp just how important this really is. Take a look at your child’s bed and see whether any improvements could be made. In some cases, you will need to treat them to a new bed entirely, which is absolutely one of the surest ways of getting them off to sleep. But even if you just want to make them be a little more comfortable, then looking at new kids beds is likely to be very helpful. Comfort is necessary if they are to sleep well every night, so this is an easy solution that has real long-term results.

 

Lullabies

For younger children, there is the tried and tested method of the traditional lullaby. Research shows that singing a lullaby not only helps a young child get to sleep more easily, but is more likely to enable them to stay asleep for longer as well. The lullaby is entirely up to you, and that is part of the fun, but as long as you make sure that it is something soothing and calm, you will be able to see the results. As your children get older, this will be less likely to be your go-to method, but while they are young it is definitely worth considering. It can be a really powerful method for aiding toddler sleep.

Reading

As they get a little older, the lullaby turns into a bedtime story, which is another great way to help your children get a restful sleep. Not only will reading in bed help them get to sleep and make sure that they sleep even more deeply, but it has been known to improve the experience of their dreams. Reading to your children is also strongly linked with the development of many other intellectual qualities, and is shown to help your children develop in a strong way later on in life as well, so you are helping them out in so many ways.

Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises are another tool to help children relax before bedtime. The exercises can be simple, and indeed are usually best when they are. Just encourage your children to breathe in and count to four, hold for four, and breathe out for four. With this straightforward practice, their body and mind will relax, and they will be able to go to sleep much more easily. Breathing exercises may seem too easy to really be effective, but nothing could be further from the truth. When done correctly, they are especially powerful, so try them out in your home tonight.

Limiting Screen Time

If you allow your children to use screens during the day, you might want to consider limiting their use of them in the evening. The light from screens has been shown to inhibit the production of the sleeping hormone melatonin, which is the chemical in our body that tells our internal clock when it’s time to sleep and wake up. So if you can manage to cut out screen use at night, you will find that everyone in the home sleeps a lot better. Children will especially benefit since their internal clocks are still trying to learn the right rhythms. Think of all the extra interactive family time you will have when those screens are turned off! Keeping the screen usage down will really help you as a family, so it’s worth considering.

Activity

The more active your children are, the easier it will be for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. The body needs to actually feel tired in order to be able to sleep properly, so if there is not enough moving around in the day, it can really affect this in a big way. If you encourage your children to be as active as they can throughout the day, this will absolutely have a positive effect on their sleep. Keeping your children active is part of looking after their health anyway, so there is more than one reason to ensure that they are getting a sufficient amount of exercise.

What tricks do you use to help your children fall asleep at night?