Summertime means longer and brighter evenings and potentially brighter earlier mornings too.  Personally, I love this time of year, the weather is warmer, the fact that there is a stretch to the evenings signals that you could get more time doing things before settling in for the night.  However, all over Ireland, children may have start to resist bedtime because it is still bright outside!  It can lead to unforeseen bedtime challenges that parents will need to manage to ensure that this does not become the start of a negative sleep cycle.  Just because the evenings are brighter and we could potentially push out bedtimes a bit, not all children will tolerate this and slowly it may take your child longer and longer to achieve sleep and also, your overnight sleep may start to degrade too, leading to unnecessary night time waking.

Manage the challenge:

If now due to brighter evenings, your child starts to object and resist sleep; create a response plan to manage this.  Avoid delaying bedtime much from your original working bedtime as this will probably represent your child’s natural bedtime.  Acknowledge that a large percentage of children from 4months to 6 years of age benefit from a bedtime between 7-8pm.  If your child does not routinely sleep well overnight then the earlier side of this bandwidth the better, especially if you are planning on trying to improve their sleep this season.

Just because the evenings are brighter, this is no reason to push out bedtime, especially if you want to maintain a good overnight presentation.  The use of blackout blinds and curtains, still creating a dark environment will help indicate to your child that it is time to sleep and also encourage a deeper, rested sleep tendency.

Have a formal bedtime routine; make sure that this happens in the bedroom that your child will sleep in.  This encourages positive associations with the bedroom and sleep and this also helps to ensure that you don’t break the spell of the bedtime relaxation qualities; taking them away from the busyness of the day and preparing their body to give way to sleep.

Don’t be afraid of having play time outside, but once it is 20-30 minutes before sleep time, bring them in, provide their last drinks and a wash up and commit to a calm bedtime routine, without screens, in a dimly lit space in the bedroom.  Using the darker environment will help to send the right message to the brain that it is time to sleep-underpinned then, by your actions, relaxing them with songs and stories and connected time too.  This all helps to promote the sleep hormone melatonin and the relaxing chemical oxytocin too.

To ensure that your child is still getting enough sleep overnight-make sure that there is no light entering the room early in the morning from any source and that, when possible, there are no disturbances in the home before you would like your child to wake.  Either way, always treat any wake up before 6am as nighttime and have a predictable response in line with the decisions you have made with regards to their sleep.  If necessary at bedtime and overnight use my Stay-and-Support approach to help your child achieve and learn to maintain their optimal duration of sleep.

As you look towards the summer holidays too, do your best in the run up to the season to already have your child in an established age-relevant sleeping pattern.  My books or online courses can help you lay a foundation.  When possible then when you are planning to travel you will already have a working sleep model to take on vacation with you.  Add layers to your bedtime routine that you can bring away with you, an established bedtime routine, a sleeping bag that you can adjust to the season.  Familiar story books and toys that you can easily transport and your child associates with bed and sleep time.  This way your child will easily transition to sleep in another location from home.

Maintaining positive associations for sleep, does not need to be entirely restrictive, you can always encourage some naps in the buggy or car on the go, it is just not a good idea to miss a nap or have too many late bedtimes in a row either.  Happy Summertime!