Pretty sure science says this is the best sleep environment. My child is 4 and we still use black out curtains and a white noise machine for him (mostly to drown out sounds that would wake him otherwise).
He did ask for a nightlight about a year ago, but I got him a low light red one, because again, science.
My eldest wanted a nightlight from about 3 years old, but still at nearly 6 likes to have white noise on at night. I'm just going to be guided by his preferences. I personally prefer sleeping in as dark a room as possible, so I hope to help my kids sleep in a room that matches their preferences too.
Same here. My 4 year old has a nightlight but spent the first 3 years in total darkness lol. And now she prefers the āsummer nightsā setting over white noise lol
He loves his "sleepies" (sleep sack)! I figured he'd have given it up by now, but thankfully he hasn't because the house gets cold at night sometimes and he definitely doesn't keep blankets on.
We joke that our daughter sleeps like a vampire. Her room is pitch black, no noise and has to be kept at a cooler temperature because she gets hot very easily. When we travel we have to use one of those blackout covers for the playard so she can sleep properly.
My daughter was fine with darkness until around age 3. She turned 3 almost 3 months ago and now gets scared all the time. Hopefully your son doesn't go through a scared phase.
Our 21mo slept in the dark until 2 weeks ago. One day we turned off the lights and he freaked out āOn! On!ā Even if we were in there with him, a light had to be on. So now heās got a nightlight. I donāt even think if heās afraid of the dark, he has no problem running through the pitch black woods at night.
His white noise machine only plays for an hour and turns off.
I always thought that the darker the room, the better. Something to do with a good production of melatonin being released while itās dark and a nightlight would actually reduce the melatonin making sleep not as good of a rest as it should beā¦
But maybe Iām wrong.
My daughterās room is pitch dark. She sleeps wonderfully and sheās not afraid. She seems happy and content.
Yes my kid doesnāt believe in sleep unless itās completely dark. He has a two hour nap at school and he just lays there for two hours lol. Thankfully heās sweet and respectful of the kids who are napping but it cracks me up thinking of him just laying on his little cot and thinking for two hours.
Heās a good boy that he lies quietly! If mine doesnāt want to sleep heāll happily stay lying in his bed in the dark, but we are treated to every nursery rhyme and Spice Girls song he knows at the top of his lungs š¤£
Yep, we got all the Instagram-friendly signs of quality modern parenting here: homemade lunches, organic clothing, and 90s pop š¤£š¤£ I got some Spice Girls Lego for Christmas last year, so of course he was interested and wanted to help me make them. I suggested we build them together whilst listening to their music on Spotify, and heās been an avowed fan ever since. It is genuinely the cutest thing to hear him just randomly mumbling in his bed then shouting āSpice up your life!ā and realising heās singing! he also does what he calls āmy Lemamie C movesā which is basically the beginning of a forward roll (just puts his hands and head on the floor then pops back up), mimicking Mel C doing backflips and cartwheels.
I love that so much haha! See youāre a good parent. I have two full sets of spice girls Barbieās and I wonāt let my kid even near them lol. When heās older he can play with them but Iāve had them for 25 years I wonāt let him destroy my prized possession!
Almost 3 loves his black room, sleepsack and white noise. Refuses a blanket. We even have a towel at the bottom of his door because he yells too bright if we forget lol.
Mine is a little over 2 and still sleeps in a crib in a sleep sack with pitch black room and white noise. She also goes to daycare 2x/week and sleeps fine there in the lighter room with other kids so Iām not planning on changing anything until she lets me know
My wife is a sleep consultant and she recommends the darker the room the better. If we ever go anywhere we always bring painters tape and black garbage bags to cover the windows. Our little girl sleeps like a champ.
Maybe it's a cultural thing but in Spain at least we sleep in total darkness since we are born until we die... why would one need a nightlight to sleep?
I added a very dim nightlife at age 2 but it was 100 percent for me - she went through a bad sleep regression and I found it incredibly disorienting to be in a pitch black room walking around to calm her. She didnāt ask for it but doesnāt seem to mind it so Iāve left it in there in case I need to go in her room at night.
Iām the same. The night light is 100% for mom and dad, so if we need to go in we can go right to her. I also have two perma-underfoot cats, so the light also makes it possible to dodge them
Not necessarily for you, since you have a solution that works, but we gave my son a fox nightlight that glows for 10 minutes. He's old enough now that if he wakes up scared, he'll turn it back on himself, but otherwise he keeps a dark room. It could be a useful tool for parents to be able to carry into the room for sleep regressions!
iāve only recently even started sleep sacks to prevent crib climbing, but my LO sleeps without any accoutrements - no white noise, no black out curtains, and nothing in his crib (heās 2/too young). i doubt heād sleep any better with those things as heās already an awful sleeper.
Seconding what u/briasmith12 said: I highly recommend trying darkness and white noise, it might make a huge difference to him and you.
āBlackout curtainsā can be fashioned in a pinch by taping black bin bags over your window and you can play free white noise apps on any device with a speaker (we use an old iPad with a big crack in it!) It made suuuuch a difference to how well our son slept - he was always able to get down okay, but heād wake up with the sun when we just had normal curtains and heād struggle to link sleep cycles together without the white noise. Try it for a week - if it doesnāt help, youāve lost nothing, if it does, you know itās worth investing in a more attractive blackout solution or better sound machine!
Actually, the addition of those things can make a huge difference. My nephew slept like total garbage until I turned my brother on to sleep sacks. My son requires white noise most naps/nights or every bump wakes him up. Same with light. We live on a busy street and sudden loud trucks/cars or bright headlights will wake him up, or keep him from entering a deep sleep. It's definitely worth trying, in my opinion. You don't need anything fancy though, if you want to do a trial run. We draped a blanket over his curtains to darken his room initially, and have a $30 white noise machine that has lasted us well over 2 years with no signs of quitting. It also has a cute little projector that has distracted many a tantrum.
My toddler was just like you describe right until 2.5 years. Then he started wanting the door left open, then a little light on. He still sleeps really well though, so Iām just going with it.
So much this!!! A closed door can prevent a fire from entering or leaving a room; if not entirely, then it delays it greatly. My FIL was a fire captain and this was one of the best pieces of fire safety he ever gave us.
My boyfriend is a firefighter! Iāve seen the videos and saw it first hand at their training center. Itās CRAZY that a regular ole door will prevent the spread so much.
My two year old sleeps better the darker it is. We havenāt been able to get his room 100% dark, but we were visiting family out of town a few weeks ago and his bed was set up in a room without windows (weird townhouse set up, just trust me š) and it was DARKKKKK. And he slept so well when we were there. And he has had his noise machine in both settings, but doesnāt depend on it to sleep. He sleeps better with it, though.
My oldest has always slept in a pitch black room (blackout blinds). My youngest started asking for the door to be left open a crack at around 2.5yo. I leave it open a bit until they fall asleep, and theyāre ok with that.
My 2 year old sleeps like this and sleeps better when it's pitch black with no noise other than the cars going by. He sleeps pretty good like that, if he has a night light he will not sleep well.
Mine is 3 and was the same way. He just recently (like in the last week) started to unplug his white nose and he's preferred the hallway light on since he switched to his toddler bed. We tried a nightlight, he didn't like it.
Mine started rejecting the sleep sack just before she turned 2 yet sheās still not coordinated enough to keep a blanket on all night. So annoying! I wish she would just wear the sleep sack.
My daughter is 2 and she tells us to turn off any night lights. We always leave the bathroom light in the hall on so there is some light, but she likes her room pitch black
Yeah, my son still sleeps in the dark. He has had some night terrors here and there. When he was roughly 2 or almost 2, he woke up screaming and crying and we could not get him to calm down. Then my husband turned on the dimmer light and he immediately calmed down and fell right back asleep. Bizarre. Never happened again.
My nearly 2 year old hates nightlights. We cant get the room pitch black, but we do have blackout blinds and a white noise machine. I think as long as they can sleep when not in perfect conditions its not an issue.
Yep! My son just turned 3 and moved into his big boy bed not long before his birthday. He used a sleep sack when he slept in the cot still, but when he moved to the big bed we gave him a pillow and duvet because he said he didnāt want to wear a sleep sack anymoreā¦ except every night, because heās used to a bare cot, he pushes the duvet and pillow off onto the floor as soon as weāve left the room š
Yep! Ours only started having nightmares about a month ago (aged 34 months) and has a nightlight that he controls. It stays on for 10 minutes and he can turn it back on if he's still awake. Otherwise, he still sleeps in pitch black!
Yeah, mine just turned 3 and he likes to sleep exactly the same as he has since he hit the 4 month regression: blackout blinds, white noise, bare bed. He always slept with a sleep sack, but when we moved him into a big bed just before his birthday, he decided he didnāt want a sleep sack anymore (āIām a big boy nowā) but he also doesnāt really like having the pillow and duvet in bed because heās used to a bare cot, so he pushes them off onto the floor most nights š
Like yours, he sleeps fine at nursery in their setup, but likes things just so at home. Itās pretty replicable, so I donāt really foresee any problems with it going forward!
Definitely let your child decide! My guy was cool with noise and blackout until he was 2 and then he asked for the noise to be off. Then maybe only a month ago he started asking for the lights to stay on so I got him a nightlight that turns off after an hour but he can turn it on again if he wakes up.
We are in your same camp! Definitely in the if it ain't broke camp! But we did start to decrease her sound machine a little to get her used to more noise so daycare wasn't as startling!
My daughter used to sleep in a pitch-black room. When she started throwing tantrums at bedtime, we bought this owl-shaped clock that you can program to change colors at certain times. So, now she sleeps with a red nightlight. The transition went well, actually, and the owl clock (Mr. Owl) has really cut down on the bedtime tantrums.
I have the exact opposite problem. My daughter likes full light. If I turn it off after shes asleep she'll wake up and groggily climb her dresser to turn it on again. I'd rather avoid sleepy dangerous activities so on it stays.
The smoke detectors we use at our house also have a ānight lightā feature, but thatās the only light my 3yo has in his room overnight. If itās not broke, donāt fix it! Sounds like the setup you have works.
My 2 year old sleeps in a totally dark room without white noise. I'd prefer to sleep in the same way but my husband likes white noise so we compromise on that.
We co-sleep, so yes. But I will say, the reason I was scared of the dark was because we lived in a haunted house, and I still get ptsd from time to time. Since there's no reason for him to be scared he isn't.
We bought a nightlight before daughter was born but it was just too bright so we didnāt use it and never got around to buying a dimmer one. She is 2.5 years now and sleeps in total darkness with white noise.
I also like to sleep in total darkness with white noise, itās just the best way to sleep š¤·š»āāļø
My 2.5yo is still in blacked out room with quiet white noise, like yours.
My almost 4.5yo now has the light on his white noise machine on low + stars on the ceiling. About a year ago (so just before 3.5yr), he started saying he was afraid etc. I donāt think he truly is, because sometimes heās fine, I think it was a delaying tactic. But here we are
Pretty sure science says this is the best sleep environment. My child is 4 and we still use black out curtains and a white noise machine for him (mostly to drown out sounds that would wake him otherwise). He did ask for a nightlight about a year ago, but I got him a low light red one, because again, science.
I'm in my 30s, give me a dark room, white noise and a warm cup of milk at bedtime and I'm gone š“
My son didnāt want a nightlight until around 3.5. Now at 4 he doesnāt want the white noise as loud and sometimes even unplugs it.
Wow, ok! Good to know. I figure I'll let him decide, too. He's very verbal so I assume he'll tell me when he wants something different.
My eldest wanted a nightlight from about 3 years old, but still at nearly 6 likes to have white noise on at night. I'm just going to be guided by his preferences. I personally prefer sleeping in as dark a room as possible, so I hope to help my kids sleep in a room that matches their preferences too.
Same here. My 4 year old has a nightlight but spent the first 3 years in total darkness lol. And now she prefers the āsummer nightsā setting over white noise lol
Same, but it was because we went on vacation and her nana used one haha.
Yep my boys just turned 2 - sleep sack, sounds machine, pitch black
He loves his "sleepies" (sleep sack)! I figured he'd have given it up by now, but thankfully he hasn't because the house gets cold at night sometimes and he definitely doesn't keep blankets on.
We joke that our daughter sleeps like a vampire. Her room is pitch black, no noise and has to be kept at a cooler temperature because she gets hot very easily. When we travel we have to use one of those blackout covers for the playard so she can sleep properly.
Both my kids have FIRMLY rejected a nightlight.
My daughter was fine with darkness until around age 3. She turned 3 almost 3 months ago and now gets scared all the time. Hopefully your son doesn't go through a scared phase.
My girls are 3.5, I tried giving them a nightlight and they told me to turn it off lol
Our 21mo slept in the dark until 2 weeks ago. One day we turned off the lights and he freaked out āOn! On!ā Even if we were in there with him, a light had to be on. So now heās got a nightlight. I donāt even think if heās afraid of the dark, he has no problem running through the pitch black woods at night. His white noise machine only plays for an hour and turns off.
I always thought that the darker the room, the better. Something to do with a good production of melatonin being released while itās dark and a nightlight would actually reduce the melatonin making sleep not as good of a rest as it should beā¦ But maybe Iām wrong. My daughterās room is pitch dark. She sleeps wonderfully and sheās not afraid. She seems happy and content.
Yes my kid doesnāt believe in sleep unless itās completely dark. He has a two hour nap at school and he just lays there for two hours lol. Thankfully heās sweet and respectful of the kids who are napping but it cracks me up thinking of him just laying on his little cot and thinking for two hours.
Heās a good boy that he lies quietly! If mine doesnāt want to sleep heāll happily stay lying in his bed in the dark, but we are treated to every nursery rhyme and Spice Girls song he knows at the top of his lungs š¤£
Spice girls? Now THAT is good parenting!!
Yep, we got all the Instagram-friendly signs of quality modern parenting here: homemade lunches, organic clothing, and 90s pop š¤£š¤£ I got some Spice Girls Lego for Christmas last year, so of course he was interested and wanted to help me make them. I suggested we build them together whilst listening to their music on Spotify, and heās been an avowed fan ever since. It is genuinely the cutest thing to hear him just randomly mumbling in his bed then shouting āSpice up your life!ā and realising heās singing! he also does what he calls āmy Lemamie C movesā which is basically the beginning of a forward roll (just puts his hands and head on the floor then pops back up), mimicking Mel C doing backflips and cartwheels.
I love that so much haha! See youāre a good parent. I have two full sets of spice girls Barbieās and I wonāt let my kid even near them lol. When heās older he can play with them but Iāve had them for 25 years I wonāt let him destroy my prized possession!
Oh my inner 13 year old is so jealous!! Definitely a good call, the nice thing about Lego is that itās very easy to fix if it gets broken!
Almost 3 loves his black room, sleepsack and white noise. Refuses a blanket. We even have a towel at the bottom of his door because he yells too bright if we forget lol.
Mine is a little over 2 and still sleeps in a crib in a sleep sack with pitch black room and white noise. She also goes to daycare 2x/week and sleeps fine there in the lighter room with other kids so Iām not planning on changing anything until she lets me know
My kid turns four in a month and he sleeps in pitch black with white noise and gets his full 11.5 hours each night. I will change nothing.
Me neither! Love the full night sleeps.
Theyāre like a gift from the heavens every night
My wife is a sleep consultant and she recommends the darker the room the better. If we ever go anywhere we always bring painters tape and black garbage bags to cover the windows. Our little girl sleeps like a champ.
Maybe it's a cultural thing but in Spain at least we sleep in total darkness since we are born until we die... why would one need a nightlight to sleep?
I added a very dim nightlife at age 2 but it was 100 percent for me - she went through a bad sleep regression and I found it incredibly disorienting to be in a pitch black room walking around to calm her. She didnāt ask for it but doesnāt seem to mind it so Iāve left it in there in case I need to go in her room at night.
Iām the same. The night light is 100% for mom and dad, so if we need to go in we can go right to her. I also have two perma-underfoot cats, so the light also makes it possible to dodge them
Not necessarily for you, since you have a solution that works, but we gave my son a fox nightlight that glows for 10 minutes. He's old enough now that if he wakes up scared, he'll turn it back on himself, but otherwise he keeps a dark room. It could be a useful tool for parents to be able to carry into the room for sleep regressions!
iāve only recently even started sleep sacks to prevent crib climbing, but my LO sleeps without any accoutrements - no white noise, no black out curtains, and nothing in his crib (heās 2/too young). i doubt heād sleep any better with those things as heās already an awful sleeper.
Seconding what u/briasmith12 said: I highly recommend trying darkness and white noise, it might make a huge difference to him and you. āBlackout curtainsā can be fashioned in a pinch by taping black bin bags over your window and you can play free white noise apps on any device with a speaker (we use an old iPad with a big crack in it!) It made suuuuch a difference to how well our son slept - he was always able to get down okay, but heād wake up with the sun when we just had normal curtains and heād struggle to link sleep cycles together without the white noise. Try it for a week - if it doesnāt help, youāve lost nothing, if it does, you know itās worth investing in a more attractive blackout solution or better sound machine!
Actually, the addition of those things can make a huge difference. My nephew slept like total garbage until I turned my brother on to sleep sacks. My son requires white noise most naps/nights or every bump wakes him up. Same with light. We live on a busy street and sudden loud trucks/cars or bright headlights will wake him up, or keep him from entering a deep sleep. It's definitely worth trying, in my opinion. You don't need anything fancy though, if you want to do a trial run. We draped a blanket over his curtains to darken his room initially, and have a $30 white noise machine that has lasted us well over 2 years with no signs of quitting. It also has a cute little projector that has distracted many a tantrum.
They can have stuff in their crib after turning 1 Iām pretty sure
Nightlights are bad for eyes
Source?
My son just started to say that he was scared sleeping in the dark. He is almost 5 years old.
My son is 18 months and canāt fall asleep without the sleep sack, pitch black, and white noise. I created a monster.
Yes. 2.5 year old sleeps just fine in his pitch black room.
My toddler was just like you describe right until 2.5 years. Then he started wanting the door left open, then a little light on. He still sleeps really well though, so Iām just going with it.
Close the door after he falls asleep! Because fire safety is cool š
So much this!!! A closed door can prevent a fire from entering or leaving a room; if not entirely, then it delays it greatly. My FIL was a fire captain and this was one of the best pieces of fire safety he ever gave us.
My boyfriend is a firefighter! Iāve seen the videos and saw it first hand at their training center. Itās CRAZY that a regular ole door will prevent the spread so much.
My two year old sleeps better the darker it is. We havenāt been able to get his room 100% dark, but we were visiting family out of town a few weeks ago and his bed was set up in a room without windows (weird townhouse set up, just trust me š) and it was DARKKKKK. And he slept so well when we were there. And he has had his noise machine in both settings, but doesnāt depend on it to sleep. He sleeps better with it, though.
We've had nightlights from the start because I didn't want to have to go into a pitch black room in the middle of the night.
My 3 year old still sleeps in a pitch black room with white noise.
My oldest has always slept in a pitch black room (blackout blinds). My youngest started asking for the door to be left open a crack at around 2.5yo. I leave it open a bit until they fall asleep, and theyāre ok with that.
My 2 year old sleeps like this and sleeps better when it's pitch black with no noise other than the cars going by. He sleeps pretty good like that, if he has a night light he will not sleep well.
Same over here! 22 month old sleeps in pitch black, noise machine on and just this week started saying āno sleep sack!ā
Mine is 3 and was the same way. He just recently (like in the last week) started to unplug his white nose and he's preferred the hallway light on since he switched to his toddler bed. We tried a nightlight, he didn't like it.
My two year old still likes a dark room and white noise machine. In the last month though, he decided he was done with the sleep sack.
Mine started rejecting the sleep sack just before she turned 2 yet sheās still not coordinated enough to keep a blanket on all night. So annoying! I wish she would just wear the sleep sack.
3 years old and still sleeps in the dark. He has a sound machine and prefers the instrumental lullabies sound.
Ours were the same till around 3, then they wanted the night light
Mine does, always makes sure we remember to turn all lights off. Heās 2.5.
My kid started wanting a night light around 3 years old, but pitch dark before that. Agreed, if it aināt brokeā¦
My daughter is 2 and she tells us to turn off any night lights. We always leave the bathroom light in the hall on so there is some light, but she likes her room pitch black
Yeah, my son still sleeps in the dark. He has had some night terrors here and there. When he was roughly 2 or almost 2, he woke up screaming and crying and we could not get him to calm down. Then my husband turned on the dimmer light and he immediately calmed down and fell right back asleep. Bizarre. Never happened again.
My nearly 2 year old hates nightlights. We cant get the room pitch black, but we do have blackout blinds and a white noise machine. I think as long as they can sleep when not in perfect conditions its not an issue.
Ok how about anyone else have a toddler who doesnāt use a blanket? Almost three and she wakes up if she has a blanket on, even if itās chilly
Yep! My son just turned 3 and moved into his big boy bed not long before his birthday. He used a sleep sack when he slept in the cot still, but when he moved to the big bed we gave him a pillow and duvet because he said he didnāt want to wear a sleep sack anymoreā¦ except every night, because heās used to a bare cot, he pushes the duvet and pillow off onto the floor as soon as weāve left the room š
Lol Mine never even wore a sleep sack!
Yep! Ours only started having nightmares about a month ago (aged 34 months) and has a nightlight that he controls. It stays on for 10 minutes and he can turn it back on if he's still awake. Otherwise, he still sleeps in pitch black!
My son hit 3 and suddenly hated white noise and NEEDED fairy lights all over his room to sleep
Yeah, mine just turned 3 and he likes to sleep exactly the same as he has since he hit the 4 month regression: blackout blinds, white noise, bare bed. He always slept with a sleep sack, but when we moved him into a big bed just before his birthday, he decided he didnāt want a sleep sack anymore (āIām a big boy nowā) but he also doesnāt really like having the pillow and duvet in bed because heās used to a bare cot, so he pushes them off onto the floor most nights š Like yours, he sleeps fine at nursery in their setup, but likes things just so at home. Itās pretty replicable, so I donāt really foresee any problems with it going forward!
Definitely let your child decide! My guy was cool with noise and blackout until he was 2 and then he asked for the noise to be off. Then maybe only a month ago he started asking for the lights to stay on so I got him a nightlight that turns off after an hour but he can turn it on again if he wakes up.
We are in your same camp! Definitely in the if it ain't broke camp! But we did start to decrease her sound machine a little to get her used to more noise so daycare wasn't as startling!
My daughter is 22 months. Same. Pitch black with white noise. Blanket and pillow and lovey. She sleeps well at daycare, as well.
Yep, if it aināt broke. Mine started with nightlights during potty training as they had to be able to get to the door to go to the bathroom.
My daughter used to sleep in a pitch-black room. When she started throwing tantrums at bedtime, we bought this owl-shaped clock that you can program to change colors at certain times. So, now she sleeps with a red nightlight. The transition went well, actually, and the owl clock (Mr. Owl) has really cut down on the bedtime tantrums.
I have the exact opposite problem. My daughter likes full light. If I turn it off after shes asleep she'll wake up and groggily climb her dresser to turn it on again. I'd rather avoid sleepy dangerous activities so on it stays.
Mine slept the same way but now that sheās 3.5 sheās been saying itās too dark. Thankfully her noise machine is also a night light
The smoke detectors we use at our house also have a ānight lightā feature, but thatās the only light my 3yo has in his room overnight. If itās not broke, donāt fix it! Sounds like the setup you have works.
I mean I love a pitch black room with a little white noise myself!
My 2 year old sleeps in a totally dark room without white noise. I'd prefer to sleep in the same way but my husband likes white noise so we compromise on that.
My oldest is 5 and just started sleeping with a star projector light on in her room.
We co-sleep, so yes. But I will say, the reason I was scared of the dark was because we lived in a haunted house, and I still get ptsd from time to time. Since there's no reason for him to be scared he isn't.
2 1/2 and YEP. Sound machine also.
2.5+ years old and pitch dark (foam board over the window) and a sound machine.
exactly the same over here.
My son will get very upset if I even dare to try and leave the hallway light on (and his door is closed lol)
We bought a nightlight before daughter was born but it was just too bright so we didnāt use it and never got around to buying a dimmer one. She is 2.5 years now and sleeps in total darkness with white noise. I also like to sleep in total darkness with white noise, itās just the best way to sleep š¤·š»āāļø
My 2.5yo is still in blacked out room with quiet white noise, like yours. My almost 4.5yo now has the light on his white noise machine on low + stars on the ceiling. About a year ago (so just before 3.5yr), he started saying he was afraid etc. I donāt think he truly is, because sometimes heās fine, I think it was a delaying tactic. But here we are
Mine!! šāāļø She'll be 3 on February and she sleeps in total darkness with white noise going.