4 Tips for Preserving Your Child’s Sleep During the Fireworks

Holidays in general can affect our children’s sleep, but the Fourth of July and the fireworks throw in extra challenges to maintaining healthy sleep habits!  Summer and holidays are meant to be carefree, right?  As a parent, all that goes out the window!  We want to preserve our child’s sleep during the fireworks and with good reason – let’s make July 5th fun too!  Overtired children are not fun and certainly put a damper on any celebrating!

Whether you are camping out at home or attending the fireworks, here are some tips to help you to preserve your child’s sleep during the celebration:

• If you are staying home, ensure that you put your baby or toddler down at their normal bedtime.  This means they are in deep sleep during the main fireworks celebration.
• Ensure that the white noise is pumping! You may even layer multiple white noise sources –  white noise machines, fans and air conditioners. Increase the volume to a little louder than usual to block out the sounds of the blasts.  Ensure you run them all night long so help block out your neighbor’s late night / early morning antics.
• If your baby or toddler wakes due to the booms, PAUSE for a minute or two.  Give them the opportunity to resettle on their own before going in. If they need extra comfort and snuggles to help them go back to sleep, that is ok too!  One thing to note is your reaction when you go in to comfort them.  A calm and reassuring reaction can help our children to move past a nighttime scary incident quickly.  If we go in flustered, it can prolong our children’s reaction and may even encourage it to continue in the coming nights.
• Maintain your existing nap and bedtime schedule as much as possible during the holiday weekend. If your child is out late at fireworks OR if your child is woken up, let them sleep in a little in the morning. (if they will!)  Then get right back on schedule the next day so they don’t get too overtired.

p.s. Try this parenting hack: dress your children in their jammies for the fireworks!  If they fall asleep in the car on the      way home, you can transfer them right into their crib / bed and hopefully they won’t awaken.

I hope these tips help you to enjoy the Fourth of July and keep your children well rested!