Here’s a sleep diary (pdf) to help little ones (and adults) get a good night’s sleep.

There are several advantages to using a sleep diary, especially for those seeking to better understand and manage their child’s sleep habits.

It’s a tool that can also help parents become more aware of their own vital needs of sleep and take steps to manage their fatigue. It can help determine who needs to sleep, your child or you … maybe both! 

Identify sleep habits and help change them

Identification is the starting point for effective life change. “Taking the pulse” of the situation helps to clarify things, and to decide where to start modifying certain habits.

For example, regular bedtime and wake-up times are essential to help babies, children and their parents fall asleep and improve sleep quality. A sleep diary enables us to check whether, for example, our child regularly goes to bed around 20h, or between 7h30 and 8h30, over a period of one, two or even three weeks.

After a certain period of time, this tool makes it possible to objectively assess the regularity of schedules, and to make decisions as a family if irregularities are observed.

The sleep diary can then help maintain new habits that have been put in place, and to observe whether the child’s condition is improving.

Communicating with healthcare and early childhood professionals

The concrete data collected can be shared with a doctor or sleep specialist to diagnose and treat sleep disorders.

The diary can also be a valuable tool to be shared, or even completed in collaboration with the people who look after the child during the day, to provide a concrete basis for dialogue about naps and its transition, for example. 

In short, a sleep diary is a valuable tool for monitoring, understanding and improving sleep habits … for the whole family! It can have a positive impact on children’s development, overall health and well-being.