Your baby's room plays an important role in sleep. Now, I don't actually think the picture is a good representation of a good sleeping environment, but it looks nicer than a completely black picture!
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Your child's room environment for sleep is a positive sleep prop to help promote sleep.  When your baby wakes up at night, these factors help calm the mind and body to help go back to sleep. These tips not only help babies sleep, but also us as adults too!  To encourage the best sleep for any age, an ideal room should:

• Be dark  - so dark, in fact, that you can barely see your own hand in front of your face!  Use blackout curtains or double up your curtains to block out any light from outside.  If you need to use a light at night, it's best to use a red or yellow tinted light.

• Be cool - 16 to 20 degrees Celsius / 65 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the season.  Our body temperature drops naturally at night, which helps set the stage for our bodies.

• Have white noise - a dull sound that helps drown out any other noises.  Use a sound machine or a fan. Fans can serve two purposes: they produce a dull sound and also keep the room cool.  I really like Relaxing White Noise Sounds for Baby Sleep (click to be taken to the album).

• Have a sleeping buddy - once your baby can hold an object, give them a blanket or stuffed animal (I love the combo blanket with a stuffed animal head).  Make sure to put this next to your baby every time s/he sleeps (naps and nights), but don't use this as a toy.  At first, the sleeping buddy should only be associated with sleep!  Once your child associates this with sleep, then they can use it during the day as well.

If some of this sounds strange, remember that your baby came from inside the womb where it was dark, the perfect temperature, and had a constant whooshing sound.  Re-make your baby's room to be as womb-like as possible and you'll have more success with sleep. This theory even applies to adults! If you have trouble sleeping, try out this room environment too.

​Visit the Parent Resources page for more tips to help your kiddo sleep!  Or get in touch if you have more questions.

This post is taken from my upcoming book, Happy Sleeping Baby ~ Your Guide for Sleep Success, coming out this spring!  Want to know when the book will be out?  Fill out the form below:

​Photo by Bastien Jaillot on Unsplash

 

This post was written by a former client who reached out about creating this white noise album.  I use the playlist often when I'm trying to work or relax! Give it a try via the link below in the post.  ~Courtney


​ Guest post written by: Kaveh Akaber
 
I’m a filmmaker and composer and have professionally experimented with sound all my adult life and nighttime has always been a creative playground for me. But after our first child, I was struggling to fix my random sleep, take care of my child and try to be creative all at the same time. After years of insomnia, I collapsed. My body said stop. Not even music could calm my senses and make me go to sleep. Doctors advised me to take heavy sleeping pills, but after several weeks I stopped. Before I went to bed, I had a feeling of panic and couldn’t calm myself. This reminded me also of my newborn baby that didn’t have the right tools to calm down before sleep. 

I have tried various methods to deal with this issue for many years.  At one point I was reading an article about different sound therapies. How sound and music could redeem Alzheimer’s patients to start remember again and other sounds that can make you sleep easier. It was during this time I started to look for different methods of white noise sound therapy to deal with my burnt-out state of mind. 
 
Sounds are actually ancient life hacks to make you go to sleep. People have used their vacuum cleaner to make noise and get their babies to go to sleep, driving cars for hours, or listening to static on old radios through the whole night. In all of these sounds, you have white noise. Actually, everywhere you go there is noise. Different noise can also be described in various colors depending on which frequency they have. Light waterfalls can be described as pink noise, and heavy waves on sea can be described as brown noise and so on. In my opinion the problem is our surrounding is based on artificial environments with too many sounds that interfere with our senses. We start looking for total silence instead of relaxing or going into deep meditation. But if you think about it, total silence is an even more unnatural state of mind. In our evolution, our minds have developed in light sounds in surroundings. For example, sleeping under the stars, listening to the wind, or sleeping near the sea. White noise can be discovered in all of these natural environments. 

According to professor Göran Söderlund at Lund´s University, if your body is too tired before sleep you can have a sense of panic stress instead and to fall asleep can take a longer time. Especially babies who don’t have the tool to deal with this issue. White Noise can instead increase the state of alertness and make you more awake and then make you tired quicker and put you to sleep.

So, what noise works for you? There are loads of poor recordings and sounds out there, so therefore I started to make my own noises. I created this Relaxing White Noise Sounds for Baby Sleep album inspired by these events and my friend encouraged me to produce one album especially for his baby. I calibrated the white noise with sound recording pulses from other space, the seaside from south Sweden, winds from the mountains in north Scandinavia, and a hairdryer at home. In my studio I almost fell asleep during experimenting with these sounds! So, I thought this might work! This will definitely not solve all your issues with sleeping and a troubled mind, but maybe a good way to make it easier. A strange mind is a strange mind. The only thing you can do is deal with it.
 
 
/Kaveh Akaber
 

Link to the album Relaxing White Noise Sounds for Baby Sleep: 
https://open.spotify.com/album/4zdA0jutWM8NmHmOhLFcSE?si=7m3tRtUlT5GSVzNcGIZOvg

White noise can be a great part to a perfect bedroom environment.  Read more about a great room environment for sleep here.

Starting preschool or daycare (if you are in Sweden it’s förskola) is a big leap for both you and your child. It will come with big emotions for both of you, but helping them to prepare for the transition with ease the changes ahead. It’s never too early to help your child make an adjustment! Providing them with an easier transition helps strengthen the bond and trust between you both.

When working with clients I will often relate starting preschool with making changes with sleep because the concept is the same – make changes according to your child by giving them guidance and support through the difficult period. Change can be hard no matter what age and giving guidance and support helps build trust and reduce their stress. But keep in mind that even when making changes built around trust and guidance there will still be an adaption period that may come out as crankiness, sleeping worse, or sadness. Change can be challenging, but we never want it to be overwhelming for a child. Using the following tips and help ease the transition of starting preschool.

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Make the transition easier

Three to four weeks before:

1) Talk, talk, talk to you child about the change coming up and what they will be doing at pre-school. Make it exciting and fun to hear about!

2) Visit the location. I would suggest walking by several times and talking to your child about them going there soon. Try and visit while the kids are outside playing to get them used to what they will do there. If you feel comfortable, stop in and say hi or ask if you can stop by with your child to say hi for a few minutes.

3) Visit other play places to get your child to being around other children. If possible, let your child explore on their own while you are sitting a little further away and encourage them to explore. This is also great to start at home as well as this builds their skill in a comfortable environment.

4) Choose a comfort item (blanket or stuffed animal) for them to have with them at preschool and keep at preschool.

5) Be confident, happy, and excited when talking about preschool. Your child will mirror your emotions about the changes.

One to two weeks before:

1) Begin on the same schedule as your child will have at preschool in regards to eating and sleeping times.

2) Develop a goodbye routine. Wave from the same location to give them consistency. Provide your child with ideas on what they can do if they are sad when you are leaving. For example, let them know they can ask for a hug from a teacher or have a comfort item with them to hold on to.

3) Continue talking, making a stop or two by the preschool, continue giving your child space to play either on their own or with other children, and continue talking about pre-school in a positive way, even if you are feeling unsure or nervous yourself!

Our preschool sent a photo of the class and welcomed Taylor with a note. We put the picture up on our fridge and started talking about going to preschool often. It really helped the transition for her to begin on the first day.

Starting daycare is a gradual process and I often explain to parents that it’s similar to sleep changes using a Happy Sleep Plan or sleep support. Both are parent assisted processes that allow your child to adapt to the changes. You can’t make the change for them but you are there to help when needed, give guidance, and offer support.

To continuing helping your child adapt and develop a positive attitude after they have begun preschool, ask them about their favorite part of their day when you pick them up.

Click to read Part 2, where I’ll talk more about what to expect as your child adapts.

Have questions or comments, let me know below or at Happy Sleeping Baby on Instagram or Facebook