Have you ever wondered why putting kids to sleep is a process that sometimes goes smoothly one night, and yet on another seems to be an endless struggle? It may be the case that the kids in question are not tired yet. Or, on the contrary, they are so tired that they just can’t relax properly.
Luckily, there are ways to put your kids to sleep easily. We have prepared a few articles for you that should help provide some useful tips to do just that.
To sleep well, kids need to feel safe. For some children, feeling safe is not just a case of lying in their beds. Some of them need to have a night lamp on, an open door in the room or a favourite stuffed animal by their side. They usually feel safest when there is someone they love around: perhaps their mother, father, grandmother or grandfather.
Other factors that can make the process of falling asleep difficult are anxiety and nervousness. Saying ‘hurry up and sleep!’ simply isn’t effective. In any parent’s life, there are likely to be many occasions when children do not just fall asleep as you need them to. When a parent is tense and concerned that sleep is not coming as fast as they would like, this tension is usually passed onto the child, and the arrival of sleep is further delayed. The solution is easy: you just have to let your concerns or anger go and try to relax. Then your children will also be able to pick up on your calmness.
Creating a pleasant atmosphere before going to bed may also help. You can achieve this by recalling experiences throughout the day, or perhaps what you have managed to achieve. You don’t have to come up with anything major, as even little things will help. Try to come up with five different things. Smaller children will need your help, but older ones will probably have no problem remembering. Recalling pleasant experiences can bring satisfaction, making children feel safe so they can relax better. By establishing this as a routine element at bedtime, you will teach them to search for pleasant experiences and support their overall well-being. A short break at the end of the day and a reminder of nice moments before sleep are activities that are definitely worthy of regular repetition.
One of the most common sleep rituals is reading stories. Who doesn’t remember how their parents or grandparents read to them before bed? The large selection of audiobooks available to us today may at first glance appear to provide a low-effort solution. However, over-reliance on these as a delivery method means that children end up lacking the most valuable asset we can give them – our presence. Reading stories in person is a form of quality family time that is irreplaceable. In addition, when reading, you have a chance to tailor the style of storytelling to your children so that they enjoy it more and calm down faster. Choose the content of the stories according to your goal. If you want to put children to sleep and let them have sweet dreams, stories with a relaxed atmosphere may prove useful.
In the Readmio app, we have prepared several stories for you. You can find them in the bedtime stories category. All are designed to evoke an atmosphere of relaxation and safety. The soft sounds that accompany the stories also contribute to the calm mood. You can listen to the sounds of a crackling fire or rain falling on the treetops. In addition, some of our bedtime stories provide children with simple calming techniques, which will further support the relaxation of the whole body and mind so that children can sleep better. You can choose from a range of stories designed for any age range. Younger children, for example, can go to visit an old oak tree and its animal friends, while older ones can explore our universe together with a baby elephant. We also have stories suitable for afternoon naps, such as the one about the ladybird. When reading to children in the evening, don't forget to turn on the dark mode in the app so that the display light does not disturb them. You can also use the recording option and save your bedtime story. In doing so, you will build up a supply of wonderful recorded memories. For example, a visit made by the child’s grandmother could be heard over and over again at the touch of a button.
All the stories in the Readmio app are accompanied by several topics along with questions that you can discuss with your child after reading the story. However, we recommend that you do not disturb children from their sleep with questions. The bedtime stories are written so that the children, after reading them, are relaxed and ready to sleep. You can return to the questions the following day. In the morning, ask them to recall what the evening bedtime story was about and help broaden your children's horizons. For example, you could discuss why rest is so important for our body, or which animals in the forest do not sleep during the night.
In the following article, we will take a closer look at what relaxation techniques are and how we can use them effectively with children.
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