Calming Rituals for Bedtime
Bedtime rituals can help bring calm to what can be a challenging part of the day for kids. It can be really difficult to transition from a busy day into bedtime. Included in this post are some ideas around bedtime rituals from what works well in my home. These rituals help my child get better sleep and they help me relax for bedtime as well!
What is a ritual?
Rhythms, routines, and rituals are a foundation of the Waldorf approach. I consider my home Waldorf inspired because we embrace principles of Waldorf and apply them in our home. Rhythms, routines, and rituals are very much the cornerstone of our family. Here is how I define rhythms, routines, and rituals:
Routine: Tasks or activities that happen repeatedly around the same time on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, or annual interval.
Rhythm: The flow and pattern of routines throughout the day, week, month, or year.
Ritual: A meaningful routine performed with intention and awareness.
Rituals are grounding and turn routines into something a little more special and meaningful. They add to the rhythm of the day, providing an anchor to everyday routines, while also adding a little warmth and magic to everyday life. Since adding more rituals to our days, I am more consistent with routines and I also move a little slower and more intentionally through life.
Rituals can be something like a gratitude practice in the morning, lighting a candle at the dinner table, or reciting a bedtime verse.
Why add rituals to your bedtime routine?
I find that rituals help children with transitions, moving a child more smoothly from one activity to the next. They signal to a child that the last activity has ended, and now it’s time for the next activity. Transitioning to bedtime from play time can be a real challenge, but rituals can help move things along and get everyone to shift into bedtime mode.
If you took psychology 101, you might remember learning about the priming effect: how sensory input can unconsciously prime our brain for what’s coming next. When it comes to bedtime rituals, anything that appeals to the senses can prime our brains for that restful nights sleep! Many of the bedtime rituals in our home appeal to the senses and they prepare us for bedtime, promoting a better nights sleep.
Bedtime Rituals
Here are five grounding rituals that my family uses to create a warm, soothing, and calm transition into bedtime:
Lavender aromatherapy
Lavender has been shown to have a relaxing and sleep inducing effect. The gentle scent of lavender from a diffuser, room spray, lavender lotion, or lavender epsom salts in a bath can help increase sleepiness and may even promote better quality sleep.
Play soothing bedtime music
We play the nighttime radio music on our Yoto player every night (soothing instrumental music). A gentle melody helps lull everyone to sleep.
Read a bedtime verse
A simple verse or rhyme at bedtime makes bedtime helps transition my child out of play time and signals that bedtime has arrived. We read a bedtime verse from Seven Times The Sun (a book which is a treasure trove of ideas for adding rhythm to your days and includes many songs, verses, and stories)! It’s out of print, but you can probably find it used on Amazon, eBay, or Thriftbooks.
Light a candle
Candles add warm, soothing light to a room. I like to light a beeswax candle in a small lantern or jar to bring in some warmth during our bedtime story. Of course never leave a child unattended with a candle (take the candle with you when you leave your child’s room).
Read a bedtime story
We like to read one or two books before bedtime, depending on the length of the books. I try to read more calming bedtime stories with sweet and light story lines.
I hope you found these ideas for calming bedtime rituals helpful! If you’d like to share about your bedtime routine or any tips you might have please leave a comment below!