Sleep Hygiene Tips – 20+ Easy Ways to Improve Sleep Quality

Last week, I published a post about the benefits of children getting quality sleep. This week’s post builds on that to give you over 20 sleep hygiene tips that help them (and you) get enough of that all-important restorative sleep.

It’s difficult enough for us adults to stick to healthy bedtime habits. I’ve been really trying hard to improve my sleep habits since the new year, making small changes to improve the quality of my rest. I still have a way to go – keeping my phone out of my bedroom is tricky – but I’m trying!

In an ideal world, your kids will be bathed, snuggled in bed, read to and dozing off for a full night of undisturbed slumber every night. But let’s get real – that’s just not going to happen.

Read on for a collection of tips to help you improve your child’s bedtime habits and sleep quality.

Try one at a time, stick at it for a while and see how you get on!

What is Sleep Hygiene?

We usually associate ‘hygiene’ with cleanliness. But in this case, it has a different meaning and isn’t about brushing your teeth before bed!

‘Sleep hygiene’ is a term that describes the habits and routines that play a part in getting quality sleep on a regular basis.

It isn’t just the things that you do as you wind down in the evening that are part of sleep hygiene. What you do during the day can influence your sleep quality too.

Why is Sleep Hygiene Important?

Regular quality, restorative sleep has a huge impact on physical and mental health. As I wrote in my last post, primary school-age children require between 9-11 hours every night. Any steps that we can take towards improving how they sleep will play a role in having a good quality of life.

Even though they may be tired at the end of the day, it can be difficult for kids to get to sleep. Thinking about the day’s events, stress and worries or even the bedroom itself can all prevent sleep from coming easily.

Our bodies run through specific 24-hour cycles, these are called ‘circadian rhythms’ – we often think of them as our ‘body clock’. It is during these cycles that our bodies coordinate essential processes in our mental and physical systems. Circadian rhythms are controlled by light and dark – in other words, sleeping at night and being awake during the day.

Having routines in place that help us to sleep well contributes to the smooth functioning of our circadian rhythms, which in turn keep our biological systems running smoothly to maintain health.

Sleep Hygiene Tips – Easy Ways to Improve Sleep Quality

Let’s take a look at some simple ways you can improve your family’s sleep hygiene throughout the day, from waking in the morning to hitting the pillow at night.

IMPORTANT: These are just tips – no one would expect all of these to be part of their daily routine. Give yourself grace and remember not to compare yourself to others. Read through and find what’s useful to you.

Throughout The Day:

• Get your exercise in during the day rather than leaving it until the evening. It is recommended that exercise should be done at least 3 hours before bedtime.
• A balanced diet including plenty of fruits and vegetables throughout the day contributes to good sleep hygiene.
• Eating spicy, fatty and fried foods can cause uncomfortable bloating and indigestion. It’s best to avoid eating them as bedtime approaches.
• Be aware of stimulants hiding in food and drink, they should be avoided for 6 hours prior to bedtime. Caffeine and chocolate are well-known stimulants, but it’s not just obvious things like energy drinks and tea that contain them. Stimulants can make it difficult to get to sleep and are often ‘hidden’ in high sugar foods and highly saturated food like burgers and fast food.

Bedtime Routine:

• Warm baths and showers relax our muscles and our minds helping us feel sleepy.
• Keep the lights dim! Don’t undo all your good work if you started dimming lights after dinner. You don’t want to disturb melatonin production before bed.
• Stick to a schedule – just like getting up in the morning, going to bed at the same time every night, give or take 20 minutes, is one of the most effective ways to improve sleep quality.
• Go to the toilet just before bed.
• Breathing exercises can be very helpful. Try this short 1-minute breathing exercise from headspace:

• Make storytime a nightly habit – a time-honoured highlight of the bedroom routine. Reading quietly or being read to is very calming and relaxing, as long as the story isn’t too exciting or scary!
• Alternatively, try recorded ‘sleep stories’, listening to soothing music or nature soundscapes.

Create a Bedroom Environment that Encourages Sleep

We can’t always create the perfect environment for sleep, but there may be little changes that you could make that make a huge difference to the quality of sleep that your child gets. The following list of ideal bedroom conditions for sleep is a great starting point:

• Try and keep bedrooms screen-free. There’s so much temptation to quickly check something on a phone or tablet and before you know it, you’re drawn into some distraction or other and the blue light disturbs your melatonin production. Charge them in another room overnight if you can.
• Make the room as dark as you can. Blackout curtains and eyemasks are great for this.
• Minimise noise. Double glazing is ideal, but not always possible. Earplugs and sound-cancelling headphones are options.
• Cool and airy. Bedrooms should have good ventilation and be between 16-20 degrees c ideally.
• Safe, secure and cosy. Little things like comfy and clean bedding, cuddly toys, nightlights and sleep monitors can really help children feel safe, calm, peaceful and ready to drift off.

Enjoying this topic? Here are some related posts:

• How Getting Quality Sleep Benefits Children’s Health and Development
• 6 Essential Ingredients for Successful Learning in Primary School

Final Reminders about these Sleep Hygiene Tips

I hope that you have enjoyed reading these ideas and are inspired to try some of them out.

Remember – these are tips and suggestions. You are not super-human. Do not try and do too many of them at once and make too many changes. It’s best to try one new thing for a while, see how it goes and then decide if it’s working for you or not. Pick one that you think will have the most positive impact and give it a go.

Tell me your thoughts…

Recommended Reading On This Topic:

• Nutrition and Sleep: Diet’s Effect on Sleep – Sleep Foundation
• Stimulants & Sleep: Foods, Drinks & Medicines to Avoid – Goodpath