transitioning from total darkness to nightlight

Our pedi recommended taking the nightlight out of the girls' room very early on to help them sleep. Her reasoning was if they have nothing to see when they wake up, they might fall back to sleep faster. I believe this might be one reason they have always been such good sleepers at night.

Now I'm thinking ahead to toddler beds. I need to get a nightlight into their room so when it's time to put them in big girl beds they are used to it. I don't want to hit them with two changes at once.

But I am SO afraid that this will start disturbing their sleep now. I've tried a couple of different nightlights so far and they just seemed so bright to me. The girls woke up a lot when they were in.

Has anyone gone from total darkness to using a nightlight for toddlers? Are there any very low wattage nightlights that might be better? Any suggestions for making this easier?

 

Can you try like a taplight in the closet and close the door, then progressively open it up a little more?

I wouldn't go over 4 watts in a nightlight bulb. Also, if you put it behind something, it'll be a bit darker (like behind the laundry hamper, toy bin etc.)

 

Those are some great suggestions, thank you so much!!

 

Why do they need a night light to move to beds? We've never done that. If there was light in the room, they were more likely to get out of bed. If they couldn't see, they stayed in bed! I wouldn't introduce one unless you really need it for a specific reason so you don't risk messing with their sleep patterns. JMO

 

You've got a very good point. I just figured, what if they need to get up to pee? Should I just train them to call for me? I guess I was worried about if they got out of bed. But you are right, if there's no light, maybe they will stay put. :good:

 

LOL!! Mine stay in pullups/diapers until they can go the night consistently dry before I let them sleep in underwear. That way they don't need to go at night! Aaron is such a heavy wetter that he'll be diapers forever! Erick on the other hand has been dry at night since just a few weeks after he day trained. He'll go potty before bed and then not again until like 10 the next morning! Whatever you make the expectation is what they'll do so if you tell them to call for you to go potty, that's what they'll do, they won't know there's any other way to do it.

 

Chelley, I agree that you might want to give it a try without the nightlight first. I haven't ever used them with the older kids when they were little & didn't have any problems. I kept them in diapers until they were consistently dry at night. My kids rarely even now get up to go pee in the night. I find with L&L now that they are both able to climb out of the crib that they never climb out at night when it's dark in the room, only when it's light. I think it will be similar when we put them into their big beds. If it's dark, they are more likely to stay in!

 

Thank you so much for giving me a whole new perspective on this. I was thinking of putting it off longer just because of the nightlight issue. Ha!

 

I was going to say the same thing as some of the other posters. My girls have a completely black room (or as dark as I can get it). I had them call me if they have to go to the bathroom and still do even thought hey are 6 now, they very rarely ever get up now (they have also gotten up and gone without calling me but the bathroom is next to their room, we have a very small house). I did try the night light for a little while but when it was on it took them longer to fall asleep so I took it out and their sleep went back to normal (where they would go to sleep quicker and stay asleep).

 

No nightlight here either. I wouldn't stress it unless they show a need for it when the time comes and then I might put it in the hall outside their door or something but again, only if necessary.

 

We just started using a nightlight for our 2 year olds - they had been having difficulty falling asleep due to fact that they had just given up their pacis cold turkey. They had been sleeping in a room that was pitch dark...and they sleep quite well with the nightlight. It's one of those colored ones (it glows blue or green) and I have it plugged into an outlet strip under a piece of furniture - so it glows on the ground rather that on their face. Mine are still in a crib - so not sure if the nightlight would encourage them to get out of bed or not. I have a feeling that they would get out of bed if they could - nightlight or not!

 

Patrick became afraid the dark all of a sudden. So we got a nightlight and just put it in one night. They all slept great, no one has woken up from it, even John. Good luck with toddler beds. :good: I have an extra one if you want it.