Getting your child to sleep with the FREE huckleberry app

Many parents would love for their kids to get to bed around 7 or 8pm so that they can have much needed alone time. But how do you do it? These are a few tips that I have found to work with my kids:

1. Put your child to bed before they get their second wind – you can do this with the free “Huckleberry” app.
2. Teach your child to self-soothe (calm themselves and help themselves go to sleep).
3. Use melatonin in small doses in order to establish a good schedule and then gradually fade the melatonin out by giving less and less.
4. Have a bedtime routine.

The Free Huckleberry App

I found this amazing free app that tracks your child’s sleep! It also tells you (based on your child’s age and when they last woke up) when you should put your child down for a nap or for bedtime. This app has really been helping me so I wanted to share it here.

Here is what the app looks like:

Sweet Spot

So the Huckleberry app gives you a “sweet spot” for when the child will mostly likely fall asleep next. This time is when they will be asleep, not when you should start putting them to bed. So if it takes you 15 minutes to put a child to bed and 30 minutes for the child to fall asleep after you leave, then you should start 45 minutes before the “sweet spot”.

You can put multiple kids into the app so that you can track multiple sleep schedules. I even put myself in the app so that I can track my own sleep (although it doesn’t allow me to be more than 12 years old so the bedtime suggestion is a bit off for me).

Trouble Shooting Help

So the huckleberry app does offer some paid services. Once you have tracked your child’s sleep for 2 weeks or so, you can submit the information to their professionals and they will give you suggestions on how to fix your sleep troubles!

I haven’t tried it myself, but I think if I get desperate, I will check it out. https://huckleberrycare.com/

Teaching your child to self-soothe

For babies and toddlers, I feel like binkies are an amazing self-soothing device. If your baby doesn’t want to take a binkie, keep trying because it could really help in the long run.

Sometimes getting kids to bed is really hard. A lot of parents end up laying down with their kids until they fall asleep. But here’s the key – if you do this, try to leave the child right when they get really drowsy and are almost asleep. You want to teach the child to self-soothe – to be able to put themselves to sleep if they wake up in the middle of the night. So you can do this by leaving your child when they are drowsy but still awake. If you know they will cry and fuss and wake themselves up if you try to leave, do it very gradually. First do it when they are almost asleep. Then do it a little earlier. Use your best judgement and vary based on your child. For my son, sometimes I leave him when he is awake and other times I have to stay until he is asleep. It depends on him and on how much patience I have that day!

For older children, a recorded bedtime story can often get their minds calmed down. My parents used the Brite stories, but I’m sure there are tons of relaxing audio stories that you can stream.

Using Melatonin

Using melatonin for a little bit can be a good way to help establish a good sleep routine. Melatonin naturally occurs in the body so taking supplements hasn’t shown to be harmful. I use the Vicks Pure Zzzs Kidz Melatonin Lavender & Chamomile Sleep Aid Gummies For Kids, Berry, 0.5 mg, 30 Ct. I like these because it is easy to cut them up. They are only .5 mg, and my autistic child usually only needs .05, so it is easy to cut them in 8 pieces.

Or I’ve also used liquid melatonin – which you can slip into drinks!

No Screen Time before bed

In his classic book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child”, Dr. Weissbluth shows many studies of how bedtimes are getting later and later. This could be in part because of the onset of screens. Don’t let your child watch any screens at least a half hour before bedtime.

Bedtime Routine

This doesn’t need to be fancy and it doesn’t need to be long. A rountine can be as simple as brushing teeth, reading a book, and going to sleep! When I was little, my mom put on audio books when we were going to sleep. Those work nicely because the parent doesn’t have to be there the entire time and the child can have something to think about as they are falling asleep.

Results: Better marriage!

If you do these things, you will have the magic hours after 7 or 8pm where you can spend time with your spouse! Marriages need time. If you spend ALL of your time taking care of your kids and no time taking care of your marriage, your marriage will decay. So make sure to take time for your marriage!