Night lights/ night lighting

[bethie_73]

Ds has never been a good sleeper. (He takes after DH) I would prefer more consistency with his bedtime. Currently we have a routine, but one of us stays with him til he falls asleep. I want to change that. I have some ideas, but I wanted to ask others a couple of questions.

1. Do you let your child play etc past bedtime? We do the routine, and then say night, and if he still wants to look at books/drive cars alone, is that ok with you?

2. If you do let them "play" do you have any kind of light for them to use to see or do you just use a night light? (Leave on a hall light, a brighter night light etc)

TIA

[ellies mom]

I would love if I could get my oldest to read or play quietly in bed before she fell asleep but she wants no part of it. She wants me there until she is sleeping. Which I don't mind enough to make a big stink of yet.

As for lighting, she has a small lamp with a fairly low wattage bulb (25 maybe?) that she keeps on all night.

[Rainbows&Roses]

In regards to night lights, we don't use them in the bedrooms. There is some evidence that they cause abnormal melatonin levels which **may** in turn be responsible for cancer. I don't think there have been any huge studies done on this, but the implication is enough for me. We keep the hallway light on till she falls asleep.

[lilycat88]

We let DD (4 yrs) "read" books for as long as she wants to after she gets in bed. We leave a bedside light on for her. Fortunately, DD is fairly good at self regulating how long she reads. She usually only requests 1-2 books to take to bed and after looking at those, she'll roll over and go to sleep. It's usually 20 minutes or so after we say goodnight and leave. If she seems to be getting too involved in her reading or gets out of bed for more books, we say something to her but otherwise, we let her go to sleep on her own. I go in later and turn off her light and put her Tyke Buddy at the end of her bed on the footboard.

[carolinamama]

Books in bed are fine, no toys. He doesn't really have any toys in his room though. We turn on his closet light and crack the door. Before dh and I go to bed, we usually turn it off. The length of reading depends on how tired ds is but it is usually not a problem.

[wolverine2]

My DS goes to bed with an assortment of cars and stuffed animals. He usually plays for a bit after we say good-night, and usually he's so tired that he falls asleep quickly. Sometimes he wakes up with the imprint of a wheel on his face. :) He plays in his bed- never on the floor. No way would I want to stay with him until he fell asleep- whenever we do that, I think he's asleep and move, and he wakes back up. He does have a small night light.

[lmwbasye]

We do not allow toys in the bedroom. Bedrooms are for sleeping in our house. We have a really strict bedtime routine that includes me reading to him for 20 minutes each night. Then it's lights out, music on, and door open with hall light on. He used to be fine in the dark, but as he's gotten scared, we found that the hall light helps with door open. Once he's asleep (which doesn't take too long), I close the door.

HTH!

[Ceepa]

A few times after the goodnight routine I have set a timer and told DC that when the timer goes off in 15-20 minutes, lights go off. During that time DC can read a book or choose another quiet activity. There are nightlights in the bedrooms.