While it’s important for kids and families to get enough good quality sleep, how they go about it can look completely different depending on a family’s culture, schedule, and values. There’s no one “right” way to do bedtime, and part of our job is helping families create routines that are realistic, sustainable, and actually fit their lifestyle. Here are three areas where we can help families think through what works best for them. Where we sleep For some families, everyone

Now that we’ve talked about some of the reasons children may be taking a long time to fall asleep (if you missed last week’s blog, read it here), let’s look at five practical strategies BCBAs can share with families to help support faster sleep onset and smoother evenings. 1. Temporarily move bedtime to match when the child is actually falling asleep This strategy can feel very counterintuitive to caregivers, but it’s often one of the most effective. If a child’s bedtime is s

Does this sound familiar from the families you support? Parents report starting bedtime at 7:45, only for their child to still be awake at 9:15 after multiple trips out of the room, constant calling out, stalling, or escalating emotions. By the end of the night, everyone is exhausted, frustrated, and dreading bedtime the next day. If you work with children and families, you’ve probably seen how common this is. Parent surveys show that bedtime resistance happens at least occas

It happens all the time with sleep. You get a few days, or even a few weeks, of good sleep under your belt and think, “We’ve made it.” And then suddenly, you’re up all night again. That’s the thing about sleep. We never really “make it.” Sleep is constantly changing, and different stages of life or routine shifts can quickly throw things off track. Today on the blog, we’re talking about five common times when sleep tends to go off the rails a how planning for them ahead of ti

We all have those days where getting enough sleep just isn’t the priority. Maybe it’s a late night concert with friends or getting up early for a flight. That’s completely normal. But when not getting enough sleep starts to become the norm instead of the exception, it can begin to impact our work as BCBAs in a big way. In today’s blog, we’ll walk through 5 ways that a chronic lack of sleep might be holding us back from being the best BCBAs we can be, along with a simple value

There’s a large amount of evidence showing that keeping a consistent sleep schedule is incredibly important for a variety of health outcomes. Regular schedules are associated with improvements in alertness, health and safety behaviors, inflammation, mental health, cognitive performance, academic performance, sleep duration, and sleep quality. On the other hand, irregular sleep schedules have been linked to worse health outcomes across the board. Even so, sticking to a consist