We all benefit from a relaxing bedroom. It helps us more easily wind down and fall asleep at night. And while good sleep is very important for us all, any parent will agree that it is paramount for children! Kids and babies debut their own biochemistries and other factors that influence how easily they sleep. Much of it is temperament-based, but children respond to environmental factors as well. That is why it is so important to create a calm nursery that soothes your child and facilitates restful sleep.
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There are plenty of prerequisite steps that parents can take to help their children sleep well. These include following a reasonably consistent and developmentally appropriate schedule, providing optimal nutrition, and a calming bedtime routine. Aside from these priorities, creating a relaxing environment that welcomes sleep is great way to passively induce calm and sleep. Here we will discuss a few ideas and products that can help to create just such a space.
1. Be Sure Your Child’s Bed is Safe, Comfortable and Age-Appropriate
Whether you have a newborn in a bassinet, an infant in a crib or a toddler in a toddler bed or twin bed, the most important thing is always to ensure that your child’s sleep space is safe and secure. For babies, this means a firm mattress, a tightly fitted sheet, and no pillows, blankets or stuffed animals. Everyone has a different comfort level as to when they eventually start providing pillows and extra bedding, but be sure to do your research and discuss with your doctor or any other qualified professional if you are uncertain. And once your child’s bed contains extra bedding, you’ll want to keep it from getting too busy. Sleeping with seven stuffed animals might be a little too distracting! The less stuff on the bed, the less there is to draw your child’s attention.
Sleep Spaces Progress with Your Child’s Development
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies sleep in the same room as parent(s) for the first six-to-twelve months. For his first six months or so, our son slept in a basinet in my husband’s and my bedroom. We replaced it with his mini crib where he slept in the same spot until he was at least one. Around fifteen months, he finally transitioned to sleeping on a twin-sized mattress in a Montessori floor bed with rails in his room.
Even though our son didn’t sleep in his own room for over a year, his room was still a calm, pleasant environment where we changed his diaper and clothes, read him stories, and rocked him to sleep before naps and a soothing bedtime routine. I intentionally created that environment from the beginning and he was already accustomed to it once he started sleeping there. When you create a calm nursery before your baby even sleeps in it, he/she will have an easier time sleeping in there when it is time to make that sleep space transition.
Choosing a Quality Mattress
After researching many options, I chose the DaVinci mini-crib mattress to use with the Babyletto Mini Crib. The DaVinci mini-crib mattress is firm, waterproof and Greenguard Gold certified. It feels firm, comfortable, and solid with quality structural integrity. It is lightweight and easy to move and fit snugly in the mini-crib without any gaps between the sides. Most importantly, the Greenguard Gold certification declares that this mattress is non-toxic and has been tested for over 10,000 chemicals. Because babies are at a high risk to adverse health effects from household toxins, especially those found in many mattresses, choosing a safe and non-toxic mattress is the top priority when it comes to providing a healthy sleep environment.
Choosing a Quality Crib
The Babyletto Mini Crib is also Greenguard Gold certified and comes with removable wheels for easy mobility on hard flooring. You can secure the mattress in two positions: high for when baby cannot sit up, and low once they can. The crib is constructed with sustainably-sourced solid New Zealand pine wood and the mattress support is TSCA-compliant engineered wood (TSCA stands for Toxic Substance Control Act). The blue finish is a non-toxic paint and staining that is lead and phthalate safe. It comes with a one-inch mattress that isn’t amazing but could certainly suffice in absence of a more robust mattress. In addition to Lagoon Blue, there are a few other nice colours from which to choose as well.
An Argument for the Mini Crib Over a Standard-sized Crib
While babies cannot sleep in a mini crib once they’re taller than 35 inches, I think it’s ultimately worth purchasing a mini crib over a standard-sized crib because it stores more easily. My son’s mini crib stands against one end of our closet (a standard-sized 1970s closet, not a modern walk-in), and its mattress stands against the other end. I actually forget they’re there because they’re so narrow and disguised by clothing! Naturally, my son transitioned out of his mini-crib sooner than he would have in a standard-sized crib, but rather than incorporating the extra step of using a standard-sized crib mattress for a toddler bed, he went straight onto a twin-sized mattress in a Montessori floor bed with rails.
Ultimately, my son will remain on his twin mattress and bed until/unless he outgrows it for a longer twin. A standard-sized crib mattress in a toddler bed would have to be eventually replaced with a larger bed anyway, and that itself is a larger mattress and bed to store. Even without a Montessori floor bed with rails, a toddler can safely sleep on a twin mattress on the floor, à la Montessori floor mattress. So the only difference is how large a piece of furniture and how large a mattress you want to store if you plan to keep it.
A mini crib is an easy win to me because it is a cozier size for a baby, it conveniently fits through doorframes without dissembling, and it and uses less space. My son’s mini-crib conveniently fit in our closet opening with plenty of space to reach clothes and stationed conveniently beside our bed. Just remember: if you opt for a mini crib, purchase a mini crib-sized sheet. Standard crib sheets are larger.
2. Keep Toys Contained to the Living Room Instead of the Bedroom
It may feel natural to have toys in your child’s bedroom, and this is probably inevitable as they get older. While they are still babies and toddlers, though, keep bedroom toys limited to books and stuffed animals. Like all toys, these belongings are fun and interactive, but they aren’t too stimulating. Plush toys are also decorative and sweet to display without being too visually stimulating. Likewise, books can neatly stack on a shelf and are visually ‘quieter’ than toys.
In addition to books and stuffed animals, keep it simple and create a calm nursery by including only needed items such as functional furniture, clothing, bedding, and necessities like lotion and diaper supplies. If you must keep toys in the bedroom due to space challenges in the rest of the home, you could keep toys hidden in a storage bin or visually calm toy chest where they can be packed away and out of sight within an hour of bedtime. Reserve that last hour for books and stuffed animals only, and bedtime routine.
When you keep out toys and unnecessary distractions, you designate the baby/toddler’s room for cosy or relational activities like sleeping, nursing, cuddling, changing clothes and diaper, baby massage, reading, and playing with stuffed animals. This allows a simpler environment that more readily induces sleep.
3. Create a Calm Nursery Surrounded in Soft Colors
Gentle shades of light blues and pastels are great for every bedroom but especially a for a child’s room. As fun as it would be to paint my son’s room like a giant rainbow or circus tent with fully saturated colours, I know that isn’t conducive to one of the primary purposes of his room: sleep (they don’t call it a bedroom for nothing, after all). Grays and neutral colours also create a soothing nursery space when they are complemented with other soft colours and textures. It is much easier to create a calm nursery and limit the bedroom to soft, soothing colours when all those bright, colourful toys are kept out of sight, as advised above!
4. Create a Calm Nursery with a Glowing Evening Ambience
After dusk, there is something so magical about being surrounded by a soft, glowing light. When you want to wind down and help your child to do the same, pretty nightlights help us relax. Instead of turning on a bright overhead light or even a table lamp, create a sleepy atmosphere in your child’s room for a bedtime routine with a salt lamp or two. Cast a dreamy, glowing environment with pleasant string lights or a star globe projector.
I use all of the above in my son’s room during his bedtime routine. The most recent addition is a USB-powered sphere-shaped colour-changing salt lamp.
Combined, these glowing lights cast enough light to read bedtime stories, but are softer and dimmer than a normal lamp. They are fun and playful but calming at the same time.
5. Keep Out Excessive Exterior Light and Noises
Like adults, babies and children sleep better in a dark environment. The darkness signals our bodies to create melatonin, the hormone that helps us sleep. Unless your residence is remote and nowhere near a road, business or neighbour’s house, the night’s darkness may be interrupted by vehicle headlights, streetlights, or lights from nearby places. Consider the intensity of exterior light when securing blinds or curtains. If light shines in pretty brightly, it’s worth it to purchase light-blocking blinds or curtains. And if exterior light is dim-to-mild and doesn’t warrant anything more light-blocking than basic blinds or curtains, just know that your child may still wake a dawn’s first light, like mine does!
Sound is another thing to control for when you create a calm nursery. Unless it is considerably quiet both within your home’s walls and outside of them, a sound machine can prevent unexpected noises from startling your child and waking him/her prematurely. A white noise machine provides a consistent ‘shush’ background sound. We use a pink noise machine in my toddler’s room because pink noise sounds softer and is said to be a less harsh sound for babies. My husband and I bought the exact same pink noise machine for our bedroom, too, because we prefer its sound over the white noise machine we previously used. For warmer nights, we open the airflow to let it also function as a fan.
6. Create a Calm Nursery with Decor That Conveys Joy and Relaxation
While there are so many fun and exciting bedroom themes I would love to try in my son’s room, at the end of the day the priority is calm and comfort. There will be plenty of opportunities when he is older to experiment with bolder, brighter objects and decor. For a toddler, though, his room’s colour scheme incorporates pastels and peaceful decor.
This includes beach pictures on the wall, and plants adorning the dresser, changing table (which serves as shelves/storage) and bookshelf.
Plants serve a dual purpose because they look beautiful and clean the air our kids breathe all night. Just be sure to keep them atop something high enough to be out of reach of curious little hands!
Setting the Stage for Sleep is Giving Your Child the Opportunity to Rest, Refresh and Flourish
When you set up a soothing environment for your child, you are doing them a huge favor. You are prioritizing their sleep, which is very important for all humans but especially for babies and children! You are sure to create a calm nursery when you provide your child with a safe and quality sleep space; eliminate or at least minimize distracting toys; use only soft, calming colours; employ only soft, glowing light during the evening/bedtime routine; effectively mask distracting lights and noises; and decorate the space with calming, peaceful objects and images.
A soothing bedroom isn’t the only thing that’s necessary to help your child sleep. Proper physical and emotional care, nourishing nutrition, a developmentally appropriate and healthy schedule, and consistent relaxing bedtime routine are naturally all important components of helping children thrive and sleep well. But when you couple those factors with a relaxing bedroom environment, your child will most likely have all they need to catch the Snooze Express night train.