My son is a busy 18-month-old who needs a total of 14 hours of sleep a day. After much training and prioritizing, I’m proud to say he consistently sleeps from 6:30pm to 6am.
In part, I have to thank his super-consistent nighttime routine for his sound sleep. Every single night for the past year, he’s had:
A bath at 6pm sharp
A book about ABC’s with his dad
A breastfeeding session with yours truly (or pumped milk if I’m working)
The whole process takes about 45 minutes, and boy is it worth it.
The routine has worked so well that I recently decided to implement one for myself. It has the same basic principles as my son’s – it’s consistent and relaxing. Here’s what I’ve been doing:
It starts during the day
As I’ve been writing this post, I’ve realized that there are quite a few habits I do in the day in order to sleep better at night…
Caffeine
I begrudgingly cut myself off from coffee at 12:30pm, since caffeine’s half life is about 5 hours.
Alcohol
Alcohol is a bad sedative. While it initially makes you sleepy, it fragments your sleep and decreases the amount of time you spend in REM sleep. Now, if I have a beer, I have it before 4pm. I’m mostly a beer-on-a-patio-on-a-hot-summer-day kind of person, so this works well for me.
Exercise
Physical activity is amazing for sleep. From this 2023 review:
Physical activity can help you sleep better in a variety of ways. First, it increases the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep-wake cycles. As a result, physical activity can assist in falling asleep faster and sleeping better. Second, physical activity reduces stress, which is a typical impediment to falling and staying asleep. Third, physical activity improves mood, leading to increased enthusiasm for physical exercise and a positive feedback loop.
I workout most mornings for a variety of reasons, and one of them is to improve my sleep.
Then there’s the wind down
I start to wind down around 7:30pm, which mostly means that I make sure I’m in my comfiest clothes and relax on the couch.
I also stop eating at this point in the evening. I’ve had GERD since pregnancy, so I can’t eat right before lying down. Leaving some space between your last meal and bedtime might be a good idea for people who wake up in the middle of the night, and for people like me who get acid reflux.
And finally, I do my little routine
As close to 9pm as possible, I start my bedtime routine:
I write down my worries in my journal so I can get them out of my brain
I go upstairs to get ready for bed
I sit on the couch and read a book for 10 minutes
I go downstairs, turn on the white noise machine, and read a book in bed for another 10 minutes (I love reading and usually have 3+ books on the go at a time. I always have one beside the couch, and a different one in my bedroom.)
In case you're wondering, I do this routine every day - even on days off. Although it may be excessive, this strategy works well for me. Plus my son wakes us up at 6am sharp!
Do you have a bedtime routine? Does it work if you have an overnight shift? Let me know in the comments!
Stay well friends,
Dr. Kuhnow
P.S. If you’re looking for sleep hygiene suggestions and what to incorporate into your own routine, I like these 10 tips for better sleep from Sleepwell.ca.
This is the stuff of dreams!
Did you use a specific training method for your little one to start sleeping through the night?