Not everyone has the luxury of having a room for each of their children. If you do and you still choose to room share I would just make sure you ask yourself the following question. Are both children sleeping well? If room sharing is costing either child to lose sleep I would question if it is worth them continuing to room share at this time.
If however you don’t have a choice then below are my tops tips to ensure everybody gets the best sleep.
- Establish good discipline around lights out. When the lights get turned off it is night time and so talking should be minimal and even then it should be a whisper and not your full voice.
- If either child is over 20 months set up a sleep/wake clock to help them understand when they should be asleep and when it is morning.
- Have a consistent night time routine so both children know that bedtime is approaching and that they need to go to bed and go to sleep.
- Have a consistent response to both children if they need you in the night. Once they settle into their room sharing they won’t disturb each other as much as you might think but if they are both disturbed at any time they need to see a consistent approach to night wakings. It is only fair after all.
- If one of the children is struggling with their sleep separate them temporarily and work on the sleep of the child who is struggling. Reunite them once they are both sleeping better. This allows you to be more consistent with your response during sleep training.
- Make sure bedtime is age appropriate. Don’t keep younger children up late. Stagger bedtimes if necessary.
- Get older siblings on board to teach the younger sibling how to sleep well. Rewarding them for teaching their sibling to sleep well too. Older children often enjoy helping to teach their younger sibling something.
Discipline around bedtime and sleep environment is key here. Consistency in your approach will soon get both children sleeping well in their room.