Why darkness and sleep aren’t like cheese and biscuits…

Now that it’s fully dark by five o’clock my nearly three year old keeps telling me that it’s almost bedtime before he’s even sat down for dinner. While this may be fine in the winter months when it’s dark long before bed time, in the summer if children associate darkness with sleep and bedtime it is (in my opinion!) an absolute disaster. Unless of course you’re fortunate enough to live in hot Mediterranean climes where an afternoon nap is essential for the whole family and the kids often keep totally different waking hours to us in Northern Europe.

Ever since my eldest was old enough to understand the concept of bedtime, I’ve made it a point to never, however tempting it might sometimes be, say to him “look it’s dark outside so it’s time to go to bed”. I just have to find another reason that sounds just as plausible to him. And I’m relieved to say that he gets it. In the summer months he has never (I’m probably tempting fate now…) resisted bedtime on the basis that it is still light outside. That’s not to say he hasn’t found other reasons to delay the inevitable mind!

So from one parent to another, darkness and sleep aren’t like cheese and biscuits or gin and tonic. I firmly believe that children shouldn’t be encouraged to associate the two. I know it’s tempting to explain that its bedtime because it is dark outside, but it will help make bedtime smoother (and your life easier) when the longer days finally arrive in the Spring if you can avoid linking the two and using this as your reason for bedtime. Unfortunately, I’ve got no answers to the claims of being hungry, demands to watch the end of their television programme or the myriad other excuses they dredge up as bedtime arrives…