Create a Calming Bedtime Environment: Design Secrets for Better Baby Sleep – Part 1

We all know that our environment plays a big role in our quality of sleep. Be it noise, light or clutter, what we see and feel when we head to bed undoubtedly impacts how well we are able to rest and therefore function the following day.

For children, it’s no different. In fact, it’s even more important. Here's our tips for a calming bedtime environment.

Our Tips for a Calming Bedtime Environment

From choosing calming colours to ensuring the layout, location and contents of their room is as thoughtful as possible, the small decisions we make can have a huge impact on how our children are able to sleep. With that in mind, we’ve pulled together our top ten tips to think about when it comes to your child’s sleeping environment. To get us started, here are the first five things to keep in mind:

Choose a Soothing Colour Palette

When you think of rest and a calming bedtime environment, there’s a reason we lean towards soft, muted tones rather than bright colours. To feel lulled into a restful night of sleep, calming hues like pale blue, lavender, sage green, and warm neutrals play into our psychology to feel more prepared to wind down. Overstimulating patterns or high contrast colours can look great and be beneficial for child development outside of their sleep environment, but try to keep things simple when it comes to their sleeping area. And if you want to add some personality, cute artwork can be a great way to maintain a soothing palette without losing interest - something we hope our artwork really delivers on. 

Invest in Blackout Curtains

You can’t underestimate the importance of a dark room for melatonin production and blackout curtains and/or blinds are a great way to ensure your child has the opportunity to have the best rest possible. Year round and providing a darkened environment for daytime naps in the early days, they’re an investment which is absolutely worth making. And if you already have curtains which you love and don’t want to lose, adding blackout lining is a great option to reap the benefits. Just make sure that curtains are safe and installed securely and that blinds have cords meeting child safety regulations. 

Opt for Soft, Adjustable Lighting

There are a whole host of options when it comes to providing calming, wind down lighting for bedtime. Dimmer switches, warm-toned bulbs, and night lights can all play a role in ensuring children are able to wind down effectively. Soft lamps are a great option for reading before bed, offering a stepping stone towards turning out the lights after the ceiling lights have been on all evening. Red and green light bulbs which can be controlled by an app are also a cost effective way to cue sleep and wake up times without having to invest in colour changing clocks. 

Keep Clutter to a Minimum

I certainly find it tricky to sleep in a room full of clutter and I’m certain I’m not alone. In fact, we know that children can find visual clutter overstimulating and make drifting off harder than it needs to be. Smart storage solutions such as baskets, toy trunks or organised shelves can help to tidy up the clutter and provide a more restful environment. Spending time tidying up the room together before bath or bedtime can also be a great activity to do together to build up a child’s responsibility for their own environment and incorporated as a step in the bedtime routine. 

Sound Considerations

There are many contributing factors when it comes to noise which might disturb your child. Whether it’s traffic, neighbours, noisy pipes or a boiler or even simply the sound of other family members getting ready for bed, there are many factors which can prevent children from falling and staying asleep. And if you have a child who needs you to stay with them while they drift off, planning your escape route to avoid creaky floorboards can be a nightly challenge. So what can you do to help? Firstly think about how the room is furnished and how you can use that to your advantage to absorb sound. Carpets, rugs, curtains and other soft furnishings can all help. The location of your nursery or bedroom can also play a role. If you have the option to move the bed away from a particularly noisy wall, then definitely factor this into your planning (I learnt this the hard way with a particularly noisy boiler with my firstborn!). And if you can’t avoid the noise, think about disguising it with white noise. The Zello machine is a fantastic option that’s small enough to take on the move too. 

These are just a few tips to think about when setting up or updating your child’s sleeping environment. Next week we’ll be back with more tips - including sleep cues, room layouts and personal touches - but in the meantime, we’d love to hear about anything that’s made a big difference to your lives when it comes to bedroom set ups.