The Sleep Guide:

The Ideal Sleep Environment for Babies and Kids

The space where your baby and young children sleep, can have a great impact on their sleep quality.

While it used to be advice that babies should sleep in noise, bright rooms to make them be flexible to sleep anywhere and know that it was day time, science sleep data tells us different. Creating a  sleep friendly environment is one of the first steps to create healthy sleep habits and support better sleep.

A sleep environment that is very dark, quiet, cool, and comfortable can improve your children’s sleep (and yours).

Sleep Friendly Environment
Select a topic.

  • Keep a quiet bedroom to allow restful sleep.
  • Many sleep professionals will recommend using white noise to block sounds from waking a child unnecessarily.
  • The current recommendation is for noise machines not to exceed 50dB, or about the noise level of a bathroom shower.
  • White noise machines should not be place next to your child's year, or in the crib.

  •  Artificial light at night has a negative effect on sleep.

  • Light increases alertness and delays when the body begins to produce the hormone melatonin that signals when to sleep.

  • Keep your children's bedroom dark at night.

  • If they need a night light on to feel safe, make sure you choose lights in the red/orange spectrum that are less disrupting to melatonin production.

  • Anything interesting in your child’s sleep environment can cause them to fight sleep.

  • Keep electronics outside the bedroom where they sleep.
  • Not only electronics represent a distraction for sleep but also the blue lights from screens tell the body is daytime instead of night time.
  • Electronic devices in the bedroom are associated with less sleep at night and poorer quality sleep.

  • Check out our Safe Sleep Guide to follow the AAP recommendation on safe sleep for babies from 0 - 12 months.

  • For older children, it is also important to make sure the sleep environment is child safe proof with electrical outlet covered and furniture attached to the walls.
  • If your toddler is already in a toddler's bed or climbing out of the crib, make sure they don't have access to other rooms in the house that might be dangerous for them to explore during the night if they wake up.

  • Franco, P., Scaillet, S., Valente, F., Chabanski, S., Groswasser, J., Kahn, A. (2001). Ambient temperature is associated with changes in infants’ arousability from sleep. Sleep (3), 325–329. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/24.3.325

 

  • American Academy of Pediatrics. (2016). AAP POLICY STATEMENT: SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Updated 2016 Recommedations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment TASK FORCE ON SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME. In Pediatrics (Vol. 138). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2938

 

  • AAP's Infant Safe Sleep Recommendations - First Candle

 

  • Naitoh, P., Antony-Baas, V., Muzet, A., & Ehrhart, J. (1982). Dynamic Relation of Sleep Spindles and K-Complexes to Spontaneous Phasic Arousal in Sleeping Human Subjects. Sleep, 5 (1), 58–72. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/5.1.58

 

  • Portas, C. M., Krakow, K., Allen, P., Josephs, O., Armony, J. L., & Frith, C. D. (2000). Auditory Processing across the Sleep-Wake Cycle: Simultaneous EEG and fMRI Monitoring in Humans. Neuron, 28 (3), 991–999. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0896-6273(00)00169-0

Follow the SAFE SLEEP recommendations of the the
American Academy of Pediatrics to reduce the risk of SIDS.

Related post

Struggling With A Bedtime Routine? Here’s How Audiobooks Can Help

Getting an energetic child to wind down for sleep is a familiar struggle for many parents. That is why our previous article on Solving Toddler Bedtime Battles stresses the need for a consistent bedtime routine. Imagine a nightly ritual where, instead of resistance,...

8 Tips to Help Transition Your Baby from 2 Naps to 1

Just when you thought you had your baby’s sleep schedule figured out, life throws you another curveball. It’s time to start the transition to one nap a day. Don’t panic! This guide will help you understand your baby’s sleep needs as they grow and create a plan to help...

Best Sleep Positions and Sleep Tips for Expecting Mothers

Sleep Issues During Pregnancy   Not surprisingly, fatigue and pregnancy pretty much go hand in hand. Growing a baby is hard work! As much as you need sleep during pregnancy, the irony is it can be hard to get a good night’s sleep right when you might need it...

Meet Rockin’Blinks Founder. Healthy Sleep Advocate, Lola Sánchez Liste.

Since our beginnings in 2016, founder Lola Sanchez-Liste has helped hundreds of families get the sleep they need and deserve, through one-on-one consults and through education. When Rockin’Blinks launched in 2020 – the number of families helped leaped to the thousands...

New Apps To Help Parents With Babies Sleep

I'm sure you'll agree that there’s not a mom or dad who hasn’t struggled with a colicky newborn in the middle of the night or a child fighting sleep when it’s way past their bedtime. While this is typical behavior that children go through as they develop and grow, it...

Kid’s Bedtime Stories by Age

Shake Up your Bedtime Book Routine   If you’re a Rockin’Blinks subscriber, you know how important a good bedtime routine is for a healthy relationship with sleep. And often one of the fundamentals of a good bedtime routine is the bedtime story. But, for most of...

5 Ways Dad Can Join in the Bedtime Routine

And Tips for Helping you Let Go   Who does bedtime in your home: mom or dad?   Mom putting the baby to bed is the cultural norm, and often one that even feels good to both parents. But we’re learning more and more that when both caregivers share the...

Father’s Day Sleep Gifts Guide

This Father’s Day weekend we’re celebrating the father figures who play big, important roles in our children’s lives. Whether it’s dad, an uncle, a grandpa, or a friend, we’re thankful for their support and presence – especially at bedtime *wink wink*.   From...

Sleep Training Plan For Your Baby

Whether you’ve tried a thousand things and just can’t get your baby to go to sleep at night or the idea of your baby putting himself to sleep without an hour of rocking just sounds tempting, you might find yourself considering sleep training.   From the most...

The importance of following baby’s sleep signs

We know the old joke that parenting doesn’t come with a manual, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret about sleep. Each baby – yes, even yours! – comes equipped with their very own sleep signals that tell you exactly when they’re ready for a nap or bed....

10 Habits That Can Guarantee Better Sleep For Your Children

If you have a young child, you probably already know mastering the art of sleep can be extremely challenging as a parent. It can feel frustrating when you know your baby needs to rest—but you just can't get them to go down for a nap or stay asleep for the night....

Sleep Training from day one. How to establish healthy sleep habits with young babies

“Is he sleeping through the night yet?” If you have a baby, you’re probably getting that question from everyone you know. Friends, your pediatrician, even your mother-in-law are all probably asking, “are you going to sleep train?” But what even is sleep training?...

Measure your body as follows to choose the size that suits you best:
Chest :
Measure around the fullest part, place the tape close under the arms and make sure the tape is flat across the back.
SIZE INCHES CM
XXXS 30-32 76-81
XXS 32-34 81-86
XS 34-36 86-91
S 36-38 91-96
M 38-40 96-101
L 40-42 101-106
XL 42-44 106-111
XXL 44-46 111-116
XXXL 46-48 116-121

Filter