What should you do when your child’s sleeping patterns change? I’ve always been something of a stickler about the bedtime routine. The kids have them for a reason, I think, and we remain committed to them. But even with very good consistency, we still go through phases when the same old routine doesn’t quite work as well for various environmental or developmental reasons. What to do in these phases is hard to know. Do we stick with the routine as it has stood? Or do we tweak it? Is there something else going on?

The bedtime routine is about – of course – establishing good sleep hygiene so the kids can get the rest they need. It’s also about consistency in the home routine so my husband and I can keep things going around the house, and have a little grown-up time in our day. When suddenly one of the kids can’t fall asleep consistently and it’s not attributable to illness, it disrupts more than just the kids’ routine – it affects the whole house!
Look at the bigger picture
Is there something else big going on in your child’s life that might be affecting bedtime? A developmental achievement or transition? A stress in his or her life? I remember vividly each of my kids’ sleep disruptions around the times they each learned to crawl – it was like they didn’t want to go to sleep else risk forgetting how to do this cool new trick they learned. In those cases, riding out the disruption and making no change to the routine was the right thing to do. Within about a week or so, the routine and the sleeping all went back to normal.

Similarly, during school transitions sleep routines might get disrupted a bit due to excitement or anxiety. In these instances, I find a little validation and reassurance goes a long way – right along with keeping the sleep routine consistent.

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