How to Improve Kids' Sleep: A Parent’s Guide to Healthy Habits

For all kids, especially young ones (ages 4-7), growing into active lives filled with socialization, education, opportunities, and challenges, sleep isn’t just a nightly routine. It's a developmental essential. Healthy sleep is a foundation for growth, regulation, and resilience. But that doesn’t mean it always comes easily (for kids or parents). 

With an informed approach, you can help improve your kids’ sleep quality, habits, and routines to get the healthy rest they need — and avoid making you feel like you’re ready for an early bedtime, too. 

Why Healthy Sleep is So Important for Kids

Restorative sleep supports brain development, memory consolidation, emotional regulation, immune function, and even physical growth.

Yet many families experience bedtime battles, middle-of-the-night wake-ups, or early morning risers. These aren’t signs of parental failure, but they are signals that your child might need more support learning how to settle down, relax their bodies, and get the rest they need.

Helping kids build healthy sleep habits means creating an environment and routine that signals safety, comfort, and consistency. The goal isn’t perfection, but progress, ownership, and emotional security.

"Bedtime isn’t just about getting kids to sleep,” explains Dr. Rachel Kowert, a research children’s psychologist. “It’s about creating a space where they feel safe and settled. When there’s a consistent structure to this routine, it can help their growing brains and bodies know it’s time to relax and rest."

Here are some strategies to try as you find a bedtime routine that works best for your kids. 

Create a Predictable Routine Kids Can Trust

Kids thrive on repetition. A consistent bedtime routine helps cue their brains and bodies that it’s time to wind down.

Beyond just brushing teeth and turning off the lights, this includes guiding your child from the stimulation of the day to the calm of night.

Create Calm and Comforting Sleep Environments

A child’s room can either support or disrupt their ability to fall and stay asleep. Certain environmental cues help the body release melatonin and prepare for rest. Consider these tips:

• Use warm, low lighting in the evening
• Keep the room cool, quiet, and dark (blackout curtains can help)
• Offer breathable bedding and a beloved sleep item (but nothing too distracting)
• Add consistent white noise or soft music to mask disruptive sounds
• Sharing one thing they enjoyed about their day

Avoid overstimulating decorations or clutter near the bed. This might also mean removing screens and other tech devices from the sleep area, to avoid temptation and stimulation. If your child shares a room, create individual sleep spaces with small rituals that feel personal. 

Mind Screens and Stimulation Before Bed

Screens and high-energy activities can disrupt sleep, especially in the hour before bed. Blue light delays melatonin production and fast-paced content keeps brains alert.

Instead of using screens right before bed to help kids fall asleep:

• Try drawing, building quietly, or a slow-paced audio story
• Use visual timers to signal screen turn-off time an hour before bedtime begins
• Create a screen wind-down ritual (like plugging devices into a "sleeping station")

These changes don’t need to feel like punishment. Framing them as part of the family’s routine helps kids accept the shift. Screens aren’t necessarily a threat that needs concrete time limits throughout the day, but at bedtime, it's best to shut them down. 

Help Kids Process Their Day and Regulate Emotions

Sometimes what looks like bedtime resistance is actually emotional overload. Big feelings can bubble up when the world quiets down.

Add a brief connection ritual before bed:

• Ask about one good thing and one hard thing from their day
• Try a grounding technique or calming exercise 
• Offer guided imagery or a short breathing game

These practices help kids feel seen, safe, and more settled. While there are videos and other tech devices to help with this kind of process, bedtime is a good time to think about balancing screen time with more connective off-screen time, instead.

A simple, comforting book about regulating emotions and processing the day’s activities could be a more calming, less stimulating option. 

We know that children emulate behaviors they see modeled by those around them. That’s why at Nurture, we have a character model asking for help in co-regulating and releasing tension in their body before bedtime. Relaxing before bed can be a shared and connective process, and not just a rush to finish the day.

Build Flexibility Into Routines for Real Life

Life happens: travel, illness, visitors, late nights. Rather than starting from scratch, simplify your core routine to two or three essential steps that travel with you. This could mean bringing a familiar bedtime book or stuffed animal to make bedtime feel consistent anywhere. 

You might also have a certain bedtime playlist that’s easy to bring with, or a sound machine that keeps bedtime’s audio experience consistent. Consistency is key, you see — even if the overall setting changes, these key elements of the bedtime environment nurture familiarity and help kids relax. 

Reinforcing the pattern (not the perfection) helps kids stay grounded.

Support Internal Regulation with Food, Movement, and Light

What helps kids sleep goes beyond bedtime. Movement and mealtimes matter. Regular outdoor play and sunlight help regulate your child’s internal clock — their circadian rhythm. Consider getting outside, specifically in the morning light, so this light and movement anchor your kids’ day. Circadian rhythm cues start as early as wake-up, not just at bedtime. 

Predictable meals and snacks, especially those with complex carbs and protein, stabilize blood sugar and reduce nighttime wakeups. Ideas include:

• Oatmeal with banana
• Apples with nut-free seed butter
• Turkey or whole-grain toast with hummus

Also, be sure to avoid sugary snacks in the late afternoon. Caffeine at this age is not recommended in general, but if your kids do encounter it on occasion, make sure it’s nowhere near bedtime. 

Celebrate Progress (Without Pressure)

As kids begin to fall asleep more easily or stay in bed longer, notice and name those wins:

• “You stayed in bed even when you woke up for a minute — that helped your body rest more.”
• “You did your whole bedtime routine without being reminded!”

Gentle encouragement builds confidence. You can even co-create a simple tracker together, using stickers for calm bedtimes or choosing a new (or additional) bedtime story after three nights of solid routine.

However, avoid rewards that make sleep feel transactional. Focus on ownership, rather than outcomes, so kids can feel proud and in control of their own sleep routines. 

When to Ask for More Support

If healthy sleep habits aren’t improving after several weeks, or your child has consistent issues like:

• Frequent night wakings
• Trouble falling asleep despite routines
• Significant anxiety at bedtime
• Attachment to screen time use during bedtime
• Loud snoring or breathing disruptions

…it may be time to consult your pediatrician or a behavioral sleep specialist.

The Long Game: Why Early Sleep Habits Matter

The routines you build now help shape how your child manages stress, transitions, and self-care later. Sleep is a skill that develops over time, with practice, patience, and emotional support.

Rest is more than a break from the day. It’s a tool for growth, a rhythm for resilience, and a daily opportunity for connection.

Frequently Asked Questions: Improving Sleep and Bedtime for Kids

In addition to the guidance above, answers to these common questions help parents approach bedtime routines with confidence, calmness, and comfort. 

How much sleep do kids age 4–7 need?

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, children ages 3–5 need 10–13 hours of sleep (including naps), and children 6–12 need 9–12 hours. Source

How can I tell if my child is getting enough sleep?

Look for signs like waking up on their own, regulating emotions well, handling transitions smoothly, and staying alert during play. Overtired kids often seem hyper or emotional, not necessarily sleepy.

What should I do about bedtime anxiety or fear of the dark?

Normalize their fear and offer practical comfort: a soft light, a special bedtime phrase, a calming routine. If worries are persistent, try introducing coping tools during the day so they’re ready at night.

What if we miss our routine?

Life’s messy. Return to the routine the next night without shame or over-explaining. The goal is long-term consistency, not perfection.

Should I phase out naps?

Some 4- to 5-year-olds still need naps, others may benefit from quiet time instead. Watch how naps affect bedtime. If your child resists bedtime after napping, consider shortening or replacing with quiet play.

About the Author: Musa Roshdy

I’m Musa Roshdy, Head of Learning at Nurture. As a learning designer with experience across nonprofits, universities, and education startups, I’ve dedicated my career to reimagining how we prepare kids for the future.

A Minerva University graduate, I specialize in blending research-driven methods with practical tools to create meaningful learning experiences. At Nurture, I focus on helping children build critical life skills like problem-solving, empathy, and resilience, bridging the gap between learning science and everyday parenting.

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