How to Get your Child to Sleep!

Helping Your Baby or Child Sleep Using Easy Behavior Strategies

Getting your baby or child to sleep is a common challenge for parents, but it’s crucial for their growth and development—and for your own rest! Luckily, we can use some basic behavior principles to make bedtime smoother. These strategies are based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), but I’ll break everything down into easy-to-understand language!

Here’s how you can use simple behavior strategies to help your baby or child sleep better:

1. Set a Clear and Consistent Bedtime Routine

Kids do well when they know what to expect. A consistent bedtime routine helps your child understand that it’s time to settle down and get ready for sleep. This might include:

• Taking a bath

• Putting on pajamas

• Brushing their teeth

• Reading a book together

By repeating these steps in the same order every night, you’re sending a clear message: bedtime is coming. This makes the transition to sleep much smoother. Also remember to provide warnings before you move onto another activity. For example, tell you child “We’re going to take a bath in five minutes” instead of giving him that instruction without any warning. It will help him prepare himself for the next transition and hopefully an easier night for everyone!

2. Reward Good Sleep Habits

In behavior terms, "positive reinforcement" means rewarding behaviors you want to see more of. When it comes to sleep, this could mean praising your child or giving them a small reward for going to bed without a fight or staying in bed all night.

For example, you might say, “I’m so proud of you for laying down so calmly! Let’s pick a special breakfast tomorrow.” It’s all about rewarding the good choices they make at bedtime.

Even with babies, you can reinforce calm behavior by gently soothing them when they’re quiet and ready for sleep!

3. Slowly Reduce Sleep Aids

If your child depends on things like rocking, nursing, or bottle-feeding to fall asleep, it’s important to help them learn to sleep without those aids. A strategy called “fading” means gradually reducing how much you use these sleep aids.

For instance, if you usually rock your child for 10 minutes, start by cutting it down to 8 minutes for a few nights, then 6 minutes, and so on. This way, your child gets used to falling asleep more on their own.

4. Teach Them to Soothe Themselves

Self-soothing is an important skill for babies and kids to learn. This means they can calm themselves down if they wake up in the middle of the night.

For babies, you can practice this by letting them lay in their crib awake for a little while and only going to them when they need you. For older children, teach them simple techniques like taking deep breaths or thinking about something happy and relaxing when they have trouble falling asleep. Purchasing nightlights and small child friendly flashlights can also be super helpful if your son or daughter appears afraid of turning out the lights. Make sure to show them how to use the flashlight!

5. Handle Bedtime Troubles Calmly

If your child keeps getting out of bed or calling for you, it’s important to manage this behavior without giving it too much attention. When children see they’re getting a lot of attention from you for getting out of bed, they may keep doing it!

A simple way to manage this is by calmly walking them back to bed without much talking. Keep it quick and calm—this shows them that getting up won’t lead to extra attention and more attempts at leaving their bed!

6. Stick to the Plan

Consistency is key when helping your child with sleep. It’s easy to feel frustrated if things don’t improve right away, but it’s important to give any new strategy time to work. Stick to your routine and the strategies you’re using for at least a week or two before making any big changes!

Final Thoughts

Helping your baby or child get into a good sleep routine can take time, but by setting a clear routine, rewarding positive behaviors, and using gradual changes to help them sleep on their own, you’ll start seeing improvements.

Remember, every child is different, so it’s okay if you need to tweak these strategies to fit your child’s needs. The key is being consistent and patient—and before long, you’ll have a bedtime routine that works for everyone! You can do it!