The Hour Before Bed

Sleep is more responsive to small, consistent changes than almost any other area of childhood wellbeing. The work is rarely dramatic. Done patiently, the following make a meaningful difference for almost every primary-aged child.

• Devices out of the bedroom at night. The single biggest sleep intervention any family can make. The dark-bedroom-bright-screen combination is the most disruptive of all. Charge devices in the kitchen overnight.
• A wind-down routine starting 30 to 45 minutes before bed. Bath, teeth, pyjamas, reading, lights low. The brain reads the sequence as “sleep is coming” and starts releasing melatonin. Predictability is the active ingredient.
• Cool, dark, quiet bedroom. 16 to 18 degrees. Black-out blinds. No standby lights or digital clocks. A surprising number of sleep difficulties resolve once the room is properly dark and properly cool.
• Same bedtime, same wake time (even weekends). Children’s sleep architecture is shaped by rhythm. The Saturday lie-in costs more than it gives. Hold the rhythm and the body will hold the sleep.
• Reading together is the foundational settling moment. Even after children can read alone, being read to a few nights a week into Year 6 is one of the quietest, most settling things a parent can do.
• Avoid food, drink, or exciting content close to bed. A small snack two hours before bed is fine; the late biscuit is not. Action films at 7pm sit in the body for hours afterwards. The hour before bed is for slow content, or none.
• Manage night wakings gently, not dramatically. Go to them, brief and quiet. “It’s still night-time. I’m here. Close your eyes.” Bringing them into your bed feels kind at four in the morning and prolongs the problem by months. The going-to-them is the better way.