Why The Dark Affects Your Child’s Sleep

This will probably be one of my shortest blogs because it will be so simple and to the point! When it comes to ensuring your little one is being set up for good sleep there are a few different things you can do. One of the easiest and most important methods to improve your child’s sleep is a dark room and in this blog, I’m going to explain why. There will also be some links at the end to some great products that I used for my kids and they worked wonders!

Sleep Environment

This may not be known to everyone, but a well set-up sleep space can totally transform the way your little one sleeps. To create the best sleep space you can simply recreate a womb-like experience - which a baby will find very comforting. So how do you do that? Well think about it… what was it like in the womb? It was warm, loud and dark. In order to achieve this, you need to have three things: a sleep sack (or swaddle for babies who aren’t yet rolling over on their own), white noise and a pitch-black room. Having white noise going during their entire sleep and having a dark room can really help an overtired and/or overstimulated baby settle. The environment your little one is sleeping in can make a very big difference in their sleep and is such an easy way to improve it.

How The Dark Affects Your Little One’s Sleep

Darkness is such an important factor for sleep because it helps the body to release the hormone melatonin, which is what your body produces for sleep. When it is dark in your little one’s room their body will produce melatonin by working with their circadian rhythm. If there is even the tiniest amount of light coming through the edges of their curtains, this can hinder the production of melatonin and cause them to wake. If you have a little one that is waking early in the morning or early from their naps, this could be due to there being too much light in their room. When you can ensure their room is dark, even during naps, this can help them get better sleep.

Pro tip: My son has always needed his sleeping space to be pitch black dark, so to ensure this I use these blackout curtain rods which actually wrap around the window blocking out light from the edges. Unfortunately, the light at the top of the curtains was still waking my son up, so I decided to go a step further and use this blackout window film, in addition to the rods, which were easy to install and completely blacks out the room. I use the white version because the black ones tend to get too hot during the summer months.

But Won’t My Baby Be Afraid Of The Dark?

The short answer to this is no. The reason why your baby won’t be afraid of the dark is that their brains have not developed enough to be able to be fearful in that kind of way. Therefore, it’s not necessary to use a nightlight with them because this can actually hinder their sleep and cause them to wake or not settle well. Around the age of 2-3 is when a child’s brain is developed enough to understand the fear of the dark and if this happens to your little one then you can start to use a nightlight with them. It is important to make sure it is a dim light and preferably red as this doesn’t hinder the production of melatonin as much as a blue or white light does.


Was this blog helpful? If so, share it with other parents in need! If you liked this blog, then you would love my group Sleep Little One where I give tired parents tips and tricks on how to easily improve their child’s sleep! Come join us!

Happy days friends,