How to Get Your Kids to Adhere to a Regular Bedtime

Kids need to get adequate amounts of sleep for many reasons. They need sleep to help them succeed in school, to help with their concentration, and to avoid unruly meltdowns during the middle of the day.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Discipline
• Patience

1. Try to keep your evening activities as routine as possible. Even though everyone in the typical family these days is very busy, try to get folks focusing on settling down at the same time every night if possible.

2. With younger children, sometimes it helps calm them down by taking a nice warm bath. Let the bath time be the start of your routine.

3. Keep the volume in the house down slightly when the bedtime routine starts. Turn the TV down or off, listen to nice soft music, keep things calm.

4. Even though the above may seem like a dream, this may also help the adults in the family enjoy their evenings more.

5. After bath time, if you have a younger child, allow him or her to pick out a short book to read. When you're reading the book, speak in a lower volume voice, and speak slowly.

Tips & Warnings

• It's important to try to adhere to the same routine every night at bedtime. This will help the child's mind calm down and prepare for a good nights rest.
• Try to avoid sugary sweets and juices 1 to 2 hours before bedtime.