My kids stay in their beds every morning until at least 7am. {Please don’t hate me for saying that} Is it because I’m Super Mom? {I spit my coffee out laughing when you said that} No-I’m far from being Super Mom. Is it because I have perfect children? {now I’m laughing even more} No. We’re just a normal family that has tried a couple of tricks that worked really well. The good news is I’m going to share those easy ways to help kids sleep in so you can enjoy more sanity!
When your kids sleep in, you’ll gain the freedom to get up early and get some things accomplished before they wake up. Or you can enjoy a little more sleep yourself. The choice is yours! Some mornings I workout, or read my Bible & pray or I write. Busy parents like you need to have some time to invest in yourself so you can be ready to face the challenges of the day.
Before we get started I just want to say this — I am not an expert. I’m just sharing a couple tricks and tips that worked for me in the hopes that they will help you as well!
Easy ways to help kids sleep in
For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links to products I think will help your kids sleep in a little later. See my full disclosure here.
Use A Visual Cue
One of the challenges of getting kids to sleep in is young children often can’t read a clock. They don’t know when it’s time to get up. I used this kids sleep clock that turns on a light telling the child when it’s okay to get up and it works! It helped put my kids on a predictable schedule giving me more freedom.
Buying a sleep training clock is worth every penny because it will help get your kids stay in their bed longer in the mornings while putting them on a more predictable schedule. This will give you you more time to sleep, catch up on extra things or just enjoy a little time to yourself before they get up. Children that are on a schedule are more likely to get more sleep and are often better behaved. It’s an investment that will pay off in more sleep and sanity for everyone.
Make It Dark
You want to create a environment in your child’s room that encourages sleeping. To accomplish this, keeping the room dark is a must. If your child’s room is dark during sleeping hours, they will be more likely to sleep. The best way to do this is to use some light blocking curtains to block out sunlight during sleeping hours. Another benefit of using light blocking curtains is they will help hold heat in the home in the winter and keep hot air out of the room in the summer.
These are a good deal since they come with two panels. This panel is a little more expensive, but offers a lot more color options and the reviews are good (keep in mind you’ll probably need two panels to cover one window)
Use White Noise
White noise is a fancy term for a constant, low volume noise in a room. As a mother, white noise has become one of my BFFs! I use this air purifier and it’s been a lifesaver. My children fall asleep to a constant yet calming noise which helps to block out noise in other parts of our home, which in turn helps them sleep.
In conclusion, taking these three easy steps will help encourage your child to sleep in a little later. Of course, I can’t promise immediate results but I do know this has worked very well for my own family. I hope it works well for yours too.
My daughter used to wake us up in the early mornings until we got her a sleep clock. We set the time the clock should turn from night light (the moon) to orange sun light. We told her only to get up after the clock turns orange. It worked.
The brightness of the bedroom definitely influences the time they wake up. Now that it’s getting brighter in the mornings, they are getting up earlier.
What we found counterintuitive is that when they sleep late, they end up waking early. This is a consistent pattern we see.
You bring up a good point Leo. Sometimes if kids sleep in it may make bedtimes a little more challenging later in the day. To try to combat that we let them sleep in a little (about 30 minutes) so that way it doesn’t mess up the rest of the day. I hope that helps!