Getting babies and young children to sleep at night is a key concern of parents with young children.
Reading charity BookTrust and TV parenting guru Jo Frost have launched a new campaign, Bath, Book, Bed: an initiative encouraging parents to make stories part of every child’s bedtime routine.
Research has shown that bedtime routines are associated with improved sleep in young children. Benefits include earlier bedtimes, shorter amount of time in bed before falling asleep, less night-wakings and longer sleep duration. And regular language-based bedtime routines such as singing, reading, or storytelling are associated with children’s increased sleep duration and improved cognitive skills.
All parents worry about getting young children to sleep at night – and of course getting enough sleep themselves. It doesn’t require complicated regimes, toys and gizmos. Reading a book before bed as part of a regular routine is the perfect way to get your little one ready to visit the land of nod. Bath, Book, Bed is all you need to remember.
But it doesn’t stop there. The same routine every night involving a story and shared reading won’t just help them fall asleep – it will also feed their imagination, creativity and confidence. Children who are read to every night start school ahead of those who aren’t - and the gap only widens as they get older.
Check out our brilliant books on our website that can form part of your Bath, Book, Bed routine.
The BookTrust website also has lots of ideas, guidance and practical tips on ensuring stories are part of every child’s bedtime to help the parents who would like to establish the habit but could do with a helping hand.
Visit www.bathbookbed.org.uk to find out more. Parents signing up to Bath, Book, Bed: 14 days to better sleep, will receive further exclusive content and tips from BookTrust and Jo Frost on establishing a baby bedtime routine for better sleep.