5 Keys To A Successful Sleep Reset

Remember those days when your child was going to bed easily and sleeping through the night without a peep? Or maybe you daydream about the days when your child happily went down for their nap and slept for 2 hours.

One day you were the queen bee of sleep and then that darn flu bug crept into your house and now your little nugget is sleeping in your bed… or, one night you agreed to reading just one more book and keeping the lamp on until your preschooler fell asleep and now your child is begging for more books each night and demanding to keep the lights on all night (after you’ve fully doused their room in “monster spray”).

For some these sleep struggles appear overnight (literally) and for others it’s just a gradual decline. Well, I have good news. Whether you can pinpoint exactly when, where, and how your child’s sleep habits started to crumble or you have absolutely no idea how you became the resident ghostbuster, a good solid sleep reset will help you quickly turn things around!

5 Keys To A Successful Reset

1. Decide On A Goal. This might sound obvious, but decide what you’re trying to accomplish when it comes to your little one’s sleep. Write it down and refer back to it often during the next steps.
2. Decide On An Action Plan. If you previously did some structured sleep training and it went well, go back to that method and start from square one. If you’ve never implemented a sleep intervention, choose a method that most aligns with your parenting style and your child’s personality and write out the action steps.
3. Set Aside Two Weeks. Choose a start date and plan to execute your changes consistently for two weeks. You don’t want to start for four days and then go out of town for the weekend and slip right back into old (or even worse, new) bad habits. If it comes together in less than two weeks, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
4. Set Expectations. If your child is under the age of 2 years old, it’s all about setting the expectations of anyone who cares for your child and, most importantly, you and your spouse’s expectations. You want everyone on the same page. Talk to your spouse and agree on the plan. Agree on who is going to do what. Remember you’re on the same team. If your child is older than 2 years old, their expectations also need to be set. Preschoolers don’t like surprises – letting your child know what you expect from them and what they can expect from you is critical to the reset! The same day you are going to start the changes, have an upbeat family meeting to discuss sleep. In the meeting you want to acknowledge the current sleep struggles and then share the changes you’re going to make to help everyone in the house get more sleep.
5. Be Consistent. In order to improve your child’s sleep, you will need to do some things differently. No matter how hands on you are, both infants and young children typically protest change with crying . I always encourage parents to try to focus less on the protesting and more on the follow through and consistent messaging. Consistency is everything when you’re trying to teach new sleep habits.

All babies and children will have sleep slip-ups from time to time. A good reset plan can turn things around very quickly. You got this!