00:06If your little ones are going back to nursery, childcare, school, and you want to start thinking
00:12about how you're going to get them the best bedtime routine to get them settled after a
00:17summer of fun, then these are my best tips for you. So first things first, it's thinking about
00:23bringing in that bedtime routine that we will have had months back when childcare and school
00:28was all normal. And that will include something like a bit of a wind down routine. So what we try
00:34best to do is to not have screen time in the couple of hours running up to bedtime. So ideally
00:41after
00:41dinner, having dinner a good sort of one and a half to two hours before bedtime, giving them time
00:46to digest their food, and also then trying to have no screen time after that. We're trying to relax
00:52their bodies and screen time is not only very exciting, but there's also the light that emits
00:58from the screens, which can reduce our levels of melatonin, which is the sleep hormone we need
01:02to go to sleep. So ideally a nice wind down routine. Now in the hour running up to going to
01:09bed itself,
01:10it would be nice to have a nice relaxing bath, spend some time maybe reading stories or playing
01:16some quiet games with them. So puzzles and just really giving them that one-to-one attention because
01:23what they're going to be craving, having not been with you all day, is literally that it's you.
01:29And that can often have a knock-on effect at bedtime too. So give them as much attention,
01:35cuddles, love, fun as you can in that hour or two before bedtime and really, really give them,
01:42fill up their love tank so that they're feeling really well loved and ready to go to bed and also
01:48tired too. So some fresh air after school before going to bed would be great as well if you can
01:54fit
01:54it in depending on what the weather's like in the winter months coming. So we're looking at
01:59reinventing their bedtime routine so there's lots of time with you. They get some nice relaxing times,
02:05having a nice bath, having some one-on-one time. Stories are a great way of unwinding, taking their mind
02:12off of what may have happened or not that day at school and just generally sort of lulling them into
02:17that sleepy zone that we want them to get into. Something else that you can use with your younger
02:24children is also mindfulness. Now we love mindfulness. Mindfulness is great for adults but also children
02:30too but it will take some time for them to get used to it. So you can just bring mindfulness
02:36in
02:36really slowly and very, very subtly too. So that may include after your bath and after stories,
02:44possibly laying with them in their bed and listening to a nice piece of music. Maybe just
02:49a couple of minutes, something classical would be lovely and just laying with them and trying to get
02:54them to listen to the music. I totally understand that younger children may not stay still but it's
03:00still you're showing them the practice of mindfulness by being still and mindful yourself. So listening
03:06to music together is a really nice way of helping them start to relax too. You can also practice some
03:15mindful breathing. Now if you have done hypnobirthing you will know loads about breathing and how it can
03:22be used to relax the body. If you're into mindfulness you'll know that too but we can do some mindful
03:28breathing where we will breathe in for four and breathe out for five and that type of breathing
03:37starts to basically shut off the sympathetic nervous system. So what we've got is we've got two
03:44different nervous systems at play in our bodies and if we can shut off the sympathetic nervous system
03:49that is responsible for producing the cortisol and the stress hormones which we don't want at bedtime.
03:56And if our children go to bed with high levels of cortisol they're actually more likely to wake early
04:02in the morning too. So we want to try and shut that system off and bring in the parasympathetic nervous
04:08system. So by doing that breathing we're going to really really help our children. I'm not saying
04:16they're going to do it first time again it will take some practice over a number of nights but if
04:20you can
04:20practice it with them and you can also find a little teddy and if they've got a teddy you can
04:25lay back
04:25and they can put the teddy on their tummy and you can actually show them visualisation so you can show
04:30them the teddy so you can say what happens to teddy when I breathe in and what happens to teddy
04:36when I
04:36breathe out and teddy will move or teddy will fall off their tummy but it's a really nice way of
04:42visualising
04:43what's going on with their breathing and also that will really really help calm them for bedtime too.
04:50And then of course you've got your bedtime stories, your cuddles, your kisses and you say good night
04:54and it's really nice I think to talk through your day and talk about something like what made you happy
05:01today and focus on obviously the positive stuff. You can also bring in some gratitude so mindfulness
05:06covers gratitude and gratitude is being grateful for something during the day. So as they get a little bit
05:12older and they can understand what that means you can talk to them and ask them what were they grateful
05:17for today, what went well today, what made them happy today. Even with two three-year-olds you can
05:22still ask them what made them happy today at nursery. So it's a really nice way of finishing off their
05:28evening routine in their day so that they go to bed well rested, calm, relaxed, low cortisol,
05:34more melatonin and happy little well rested children who will hopefully sleep well.
