Moving to a new home in Alberta can be an exciting yet stressful time for families, especially when kids are involved. Amidst the chaos of packing, unpacking, and adjusting to a new environment, it's crucial not to overlook the significance of maintaining healthy sleep habits during the move. Sleep is pivotal in children's growth, development, and overall well-being. This article will explore practical ways to support your kids in getting the restful sleep they need while navigating the transition.

Establish a Familiar Sleep Environment and a Calming Bedtime Atmosphere
When moving to a new place, children can feel disoriented and uneasy due to the change in surroundings. To mitigate this, create a sleep environment that mirrors their previous setup. Set up their bed, blankets, and favorite stuffed animals in a similar arrangement. Familiarity in their sleeping space can provide a sense of comfort and security, promoting better sleep during the move.

Set the stage for a peaceful sleep environment. Consider using soft lighting, soothing colors, and calming scents in their bedroom. Creating a serene atmosphere can aid relaxation and help them unwind before bedtime.

A Consistent Bedtime Routine as You Adjust to the New Time Zone
Routines offer predictability, which is especially crucial when everything else feels uncertain. Stick to their usual bedtime routine as closely as possible. Whether reading a story, dimming the lights, or practicing relaxation techniques, these activities signal to their bodies that it's time to wind down and prepare for sleep. Consistency in routine can help mitigate the disruptions caused by the move.

If the move involves crossing different time zones, gradual adjustment can help prevent jet lag and ensure smoother sleep transitions. Gradually shift their bedtime and wake-up time in the days leading up to the move so the change isn't abrupt and disruptive.

Prioritize Physical Activity
Engaging in physical activities during the day can help expend excess energy, making it easier for kids to fall asleep at night. Allocate time for outdoor play or indoor games that encourage movement. Physical exertion contributes to a healthier sleep cycle and reduces any stress or anxiety associated with the move.

By incorporating active play into their daily routine, you can promote a more balanced emotional state, allowing them to approach bedtime with a calmer and more relaxed mindset. Additionally, physical exertion can enhance the quality of their sleep by promoting deeper restorative sleep cycles. This means that even amid the changes and uncertainties of moving, their bodies have the opportunity to recover and recharge through the night, supporting their overall health during this transitional period.

Open Communication
Children may have questions or concerns about the move that could affect their sleep. Encourage open communication and create an environment where they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. Addressing their worries and providing reassurance can alleviate any bedtime anxiety they might be experiencing.

Involving them in the moving process, such as allowing them to pack a special box of their belongings or choose the color of their new room, can give them a sense of control and involvement. This empowerment can boost their confidence and reduce feelings of uncertainty, contributing positively to their overall sleep quality. If you have hired movers for your long distance move in Alberta, Canada, long distance movers can make it easy on the kids too. They can suggest safe ways for kids to get involved, which can help calm their anxieties. Remember, their emotional well-being and sleep patterns are closely intertwined, making it crucial to tend to their feelings during this significant life transition. 

Unpack Comfort Items First
During the moving process, certain items may take longer to unpack than others. However, they prioritize unpacking comfort items like their favorite pajamas, blankets, and bedtime books. Having these items readily available can offer a sense of normalcy and help them feel more at ease in their new surroundings.

Remember that small gestures can make a big difference. Before their first night in the new home, consider engaging in a soothing bedtime routine together. Reading a beloved storybook, sharing a quiet conversation, or practicing deep breathing exercises can help them relax and ease into sleep. These moments of connection can be reassuring during a time when everything else seems uncertain.

Limit Screen Time Before Bed
Screens emit blue light that can interfere with the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep. Especially during the move, when sleep might already be disrupted, limiting screen time in the hour leading up to bedtime is essential. Encourage quieter activities like reading or drawing instead.

Be Patient and Understanding
It's normal for sleep disruptions to occur during a move. Children might take some time to acclimate to the new environment and routines. Patience and understanding are key during this period of adjustment. Recognize that occasional sleep challenges are part of the process and focus on consistently reinforcing those healthy sleep habits during the move.

Each child is unique, and their reactions to the move can vary. Some may adapt quickly, while others might require more time to feel comfortable in their new surroundings. As a parent, being attuned to your child's emotions and behaviors can guide you in providing the necessary support. Remember that maintaining healthy sleep habits during the move is not just about the immediate adjustment period but about setting the stage for their ongoing well-being. By approaching sleep disruptions with a proactive and patient attitude, you can help your children build resilience and adaptability, skills that will serve them well beyond the move. So, as you navigate this transition, remember that while challenges may arise, your dedication to their sleep routine is a valuable investment in their overall health and happiness.

Seek Routine Amidst Change
Change can be unsettling for children, but establishing a routine can provide a sense of stability. Even amidst the move, incorporating elements of their regular routine can help anchor them and promote better sleep. These familiar practices can make a significant difference, whether it's a special pre-sleep ritual or a favorite lullaby.

Help Kids Maintain Healthy Sleep Habits During the Move
​Moving to a new home with kids requires careful consideration of their sleep needs. While the transition can be demanding, prioritizing healthy sleep habits during the move is essential for their well-being. By creating a consistent sleep environment, maintaining routines, and fostering open communication, you can help your children navigate the move while ensuring they continue to get the restful sleep they need. Remember, patience and understanding go a long way in making this transitional period smoother for the entire family.

Photo via Pexels

​Quick, without looking it up, what’s the opposite of “nocturnal?”

We all know what nocturnal means, right? Animals that sleep in the day and do most of their activities at night, bats, owls, and raccoons being some familiar examples. 

It always surprises me that we’re not nearly as familiar with the term diurnal (that’s the answer, in case you didn’t know.) since, as humans, that’s what we are. 

​Our eyes don’t adapt to the dark all that well, we don’t have the echolocation skills of the bat, and we rely on the sun for our vitamin D. Since evolution is a painfully slow process, that’s the way it’s going to be for another couple million years, at least. 
But there are some really sweet benefits that come with being daytime creatures, and one of my favourites is a little thing called the circadian rhythm. 

The circadian rhythm, as you may already know, is the internal clock in the human body that prompts us to wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night, and much like a clock, it has a LOT of moving parts, only instead of gears and springs, it’s made up of stimuli and hormones.

Two of these hormones are going to play the starring roles in our story, and those are melatonin and cortisol. If you’ve got a baby having a hard time sleeping, you have undoubtedly heard a lot about both of these guys.

Melatonin is produced in the pineal gland of the brain, and its role is to help the body relax, both mentally and physically, and help us get to sleep and stay asleep. So when your baby gets an 11-12 hour stretch of glorious sleep, you can thank their pineal gland for firing up those melatonin pumps. 

But you can also thank the daylight because exposure to the sun stimulates melatonin production. Production, mind you. Not secretion. We’ll talk about that in a second, but the buildup of the hormone itself is stimulated by exposure to sunlight. So it’s not just an old wives tale. Getting your baby outside during the day really does help them sleep better at night!

This whole intricate dance between light and dark, cortisol and melatonin, awake and asleep, evolved over an incredibly long time, and it worked like magic up until, relatively speaking, very recently, when we discovered that we could pass an electric current along a filament and “artificially” illuminate our surroundings. Before that, we relied exclusively on fire, which emits very little blue light.


Depending on their hue, light bulbs emit quite a bit of it. And TVs, LEDs, computer monitors, iPads, smartphones, and all of those other screens that surround us today, absolutely flood our eyes with it. Unfortunately, all of that blue light coming at us in hours when we would normally be enveloped in darkness signals the brain that it’s still daytime and inhibits the release of melatonin, making it harder to get to sleep.


Since we can’t reasonably get rid of all of the sources of blue light around us, the best thing to do for our little ones’ sleep is to turn off those really intense sources, like TVs and smartphones, a couple of hours before they go to bed, and make sure their sleeping area is as dark as we can get it. I’m talking real dark. Like, can’t see your hand in front of your face, kind of dark. Some blackout blinds can be a game changer, especially if you live somewhere where the days get exceptionally long in the summer. 


So that’s the story of the circadian rhythm and its daily heroic effort to keep us running at peak performance. It really is a fascinating little piece of our physiology, and with just a little support from our side, it can work wonders in getting us out of bed with energy and enthusiasm and helping us feel relaxed and peaceful when it’s time to sleep. Work with it instead of resisting it, and I guarantee you’ll start seeing and feeling the results immediately. ​

So, you want to know how to help your little one get better naps.

We will start with the sleep environment and ensure it's set up for optimal sleep.
​
Darkness plays a vital role in the quality and quantity of our sleep. So, I always start with the room's darkness and ensure it's blacked out! And I mean blacked out, like CAVE DARK, can't see anything black. If you want to see what I mean when I say cave dark, email me, and I'll send you my Black Out Chart to give you a really good visual of what's dark in my world.
 
Good quality blackout curtains will help darken the room, obviously, but they also help regulate the temperature in the room and block out environmental noises from waking Baby. SleepOut Portable Blackout Curtains are the ones I recommend to families (Discount Code: TOTHEMOONSLEEP10).
 
Make sure Baby is not too hot and not too cold. Use sleep sacs once Baby is out of the swaddle. Baby's room should be between 19-21 Degrees Celsius.
 
Next, I would ensure that all safe sleep guidelines are followed and that there is nothing in the crib but Baby and their sleep sack (under 12 months of age). There should be nothing hanging from the crib either, no mobiles.
 
I have already touched on safe baby sleep guidelines on the blog, but they must be mentioned here again. If you need clarification on the most up-to-date guidelines, email me, and I'll send you the guide my one-on-one parents receive from me.
 
Next, I suggest parents use a white noise machine for all sleep situations, not just naps. White noise can help babies connect sleep cycles and drown out environmental noises from waking baby. You want to make sure that you are using white, pink or brown noise. Not music or whale calls or lake scenes with wild birds chirping. These things will be to stimulating and wake up Baby's brain.
 
Another suggestion along those lines is using an Ok-to-Wake device like the Hatch Rested+. These will give you light when you must attend to Baby at night. You want to have it set on a dim red for sleep time as this helps the brain during the night to produce melatonin.
 
The other thing these Ok-to-Wake Devices or Toddler Clocks do is to give Baby something tangible to look for to know when it's time to wake up in the morning or from a nap. When it hasn't changed to green to signal that it's morning or the end of nap time, they can roll over and go back to sleep between sleep cycles.
 
Ok-to-Wake Devices can also cut down on early morning wakings and crying in the morning. They learn that someone will come and get them up when the clock changes to yellow or green. They don't have to cry to signal that they are awake.
 
In my experience, it's never too early to start teaching babies how to recognize the Ok-to-Wake Device changes. Babies are way smarter and more capable than we realize. The earlier, the better.
 
All naps should take place in the crib or bassinet. This is the safest place for Baby. Plus, since you have blacked out Baby's room and followed all of the other suggestions above, it's probably the only appropriate sleep place for her to nap.
 
Now, let's move on to following an Eat, Play, Sleep Routine. This means what it sounds like. When baby wakes in the morning from a full night's rest, we want to feed baby. Now because baby just had a 12-hour sleep, she should not be sleepy during this feed.
 
Then it's time for learning, connection and playtime. Now depending on Baby's age and wake windows, they should not need another feed before going back down to sleep. And if they do, chances are they are old enough for a solid's snack to top them off before nap time. Ensure you are not feeding Baby breast or bottle at least 1 hour before going down for a sleep.
 
Yes, this means Baby will go down in the crib awake; wide awake is best. Following this schedule, babies are not fed to sleep; they use independent sleep skills. They are in control of their sleep and nap like champs.
 
Next, let's talk about wake windows. You want to make sure that you are following age-appropriate wake windows. These are going to vary and increase as Baby gets older. There are ranges in these wake windows, so it's up to parents to help Baby find that sweet spot.
 
Check out this blog post here to learn more about age-appropriate wake windows. To help find that sweet spot and make sure baby isn't overtired. Put baby down awake 10-mins before the end of the awake window.
 
This gives Baby time to roll around, get comfortable and calm into sleep. If you are seeing a lot of sleepy cues from your baby, then you are likely missing their window.
 
Baby is going into the crib overtired, and you are likely hearing about it. Try this 10 minutes before the end of the awake window trick, and you may have found your baby's sweet spot.
 
Now that you have found your Baby's sweet spot for sleep, it's time to let him get to sleep. Baby drifts off happily into sleep and doesn't make a peep.
 
My final tip is going to be for those catnappers out there. Do not assume that Baby is done sleeping after only 20-30-mins of sleep. This is generally not enough sleep, and they require more. But it can be hard to connect sleep cycles during the day. Babies need the time and the space to learn this skill.
 
After Baby wakes up, give them some time and space to get back to sleep. Institute crib hour and keep baby in their dark sleep space for up to 1 hr "of sleep."
 
Now I know that this sounds easier than it is to implement, and several other factors come into play when helping Baby learn to sleep well independently and get back to sleep from a short nap. So, if you are struggling with your baby's sleep or lack of sleep skills, please book a Free 20-minute Sleep Evaluation. We can discuss how I can help your baby learn to nap like a champ and sleep through the night (11-12 hrs).

 Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar…

Your baby wakes up in the morning after a solid night’s sleep. You feed her, change her, play with her for a little bit, take her for a little walk outside, then rock her to sleep and put her gently into her crib for her morning nap.

And then, 30 minutes later, she wakes up fussy and irritable and, despite your pleading, bargaining, and offers of riches, refuses to go back to sleep.

So, after half an hour of trying to put her back down, you finally give in, hoping she’ll be that much more tired when her afternoon nap rolls around, only to have the exact same scenario play out again, and baby is a cranky ball of unhappiness for the rest of the day.

Sleep, like food, is one of those elements where baby has the final say on whether or not they’re going to cooperate, so there’s no sense trying to force the issue. If they’re not sleeping, just leaving them in their room usually won’t fix things.

So, here’s what’s going on, and how to fix it.

Don’t we all just adore the beautiful faces of our babies when we first wake up in the morning? Nothing starts the day off on such a high note as the look in the eyes of your little one when they’re first getting up for the day.


But when that moment hits at 5:00 in the morning, it can undoubtedly take the blissful nature out of the situation. 


An early morning wake-up is rough on everyone. Your little one is likely not adequately rested and may have a rough day, and you, as the parent, could certainly use an extra hour or two of sleep! 


Suppose you find yourself struggling to cope with those early wake-ups. In that case, I’m happy to tell you that there’s almost always an explanation for why it’s happening, as well as a solution close at hand. 


Check out the following tips and see if anything applies to your baby’s situation, then make the appropriate changes. Then, you should start seeing a turn toward those blissful mornings you’ve been striving for.

• Assess their Sleep Environment:

It’s super beneficial to your baby’s sleep that their sleep environment is conducive to a good night’s rest. Consider factors like room temperature, noise levels, and lighting. 


Babies are more likely to wake up early if they’re too hot or cold, so ensure they’re dressed comfortably. (Typically, one layer more than an adult would wear while sleeping in the same environment.) 


Use white noise machines to drown out any disruptive sounds. Dim the lights in the room during nighttime and invest in blackout curtains to block out early morning sunlight.

• Establish a Consistent Bedtime Routine:

Babies thrive on repetition and predictability; a structured bedtime routine can work wonders for their sleep schedule. Create a soothing routine that signals to your baby that it’s time to wind down. 


It could include activities like a warm bath (which is my personal preference as the “first step.”), gentle massage, lullabies, or reading a bedtime story. Consistency is critical here, as it helps your baby anticipate sleep and prepares their body for a nice, long snooze.

• Monitor Daytime Naps:

Surprisingly, too much daytime sleep can contribute to early morning wake-ups. So ensure your baby isn’t getting excessive sleep during the day, which may make them less tired at night. 


Strike a balance between appropriate nap durations and an age-appropriate schedule. Observe your baby’s sleep patterns and gradually adjust nap times and lengths as needed to find the sweet spot.

• Adjust Bedtime:

I know it seems counterintuitive, but an earlier bedtime can often help combat early morning wake-ups. Overtiredness can lead to restless sleep and more frequent awakenings. 


Try a slightly earlier bedtime to ensure your little one is well-rested but not overtired. A well-rested baby is more likely to sleep longer and wake up at a reasonable hour.

• Encourage Self-Soothing Skills:

Babies who have learned to self-soothe are more likely to go back to sleep independently if they wake up too early. Help your baby develop these skills by putting them down, drowsy but awake (depending on the baby’s age - putting down awake after 3 months old). 


Give them a chance to settle themselves back to sleep before intervening. Then, if they cry, wait a few minutes to see if they can self-soothe. Over time, they’ll become more skilled at drifting off to dreamland independently.

• Stick to your minimum:

If your baby has slept from 7:30 PM to 6:00 AM in the past, then they’re capable of doing so regularly. 


When baby wakes up at 5:00 as opposed to 3:00 AM, we’re more likely to give in and assume that they’re just not tired anymore, but if you’re shooting for a 7:00 wake up as “the norm,” then you should treat anything earlier than that as a nighttime wake-up and respond the same way you usually do if baby wakes up in the middle of the night.


Early morning wake-ups in babies can be challenging, but you can improve their sleep patterns with patience and a few tweaks to their sleep routine. 


Remember, each baby is unique, and what works for one may not work for another. So be consistent, observe your baby’s cues, and be flexible in your approach. 


Before you know it, those early wake-up calls will become a thing of the past, and you’ll all be enjoying a few more blissful hours of sleep in the morning!