15 Tools and Tips That Have Helped Our Kids (Finally!) Get to Sleep

For chilly nights, the well-constructed Baby Deedee Sleep Nest surpasses other sleep sacks we’ve tried, many of which exhibited pilling and loose threads after just a few washes. “It’s the warmest and coziest wearable blanket I’ve come across that’s thick but still plenty breathable,” says Wirecutter senior editor Erica Ogg. She also appreciates that the Baby Deedee wearable blanket offered “two ways to get my kid into it come bedtime: unfasten the two shoulder snaps and slide him in, or unzip the front and put it on him like a vest.”

The adjustable Halo SleepSack Swaddle, a pick from our guide to baby swaddles, is handy for babies transitioning between swaddles and sleep sacks. It’s essentially a wearable blanket with exterior swaddling wings, which connect with Velcro to encircle either the baby’s arms and torso or only the torso. (The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends stopping swaddling when a baby shows signs of trying to roll over, which can be as early as 2 months old.) Erica initially used the wing panels to swaddle her son’s arms to his sides, helping him sleep without rousing himself when he startled, and then “wrapped it progressively looser over the following weeks until he was ready for a regular sleepsack.”

Hanna Andersson Long John Pajamas have a devoted following at Wirecutter, where these soft, 100% cotton jammies have won over even the most skeptical parents. As senior editor Kalee Thompson puts it, “Yes, they cost twice as much as the fairly cute and very cheap kid PJs you can buy at Old Navy, Costco, and the like. But they hold up three times as well.” The durable long johns (and shorties, perfect for warmer climates), which are some of our favorite kids pajamas, can see multiple kids through years of vigorous crawling and countless washes with no pilling, sagging knees, or spent elastic to be found. And if you want to kit out the entire family, Hanna Andersson PJs are some of our favorite pajamas for adults, too.

Far from a necessity, a dedicated pillow can help ease the transition from a crib to a toddler bed. Though babies shouldn’t use a pillow at all, toddlers may relish having an adult-like bed setup of their own. We’ve found that the Little Sleepy Head Toddler Pillow is easy for small kids to pick up and move around, and it offers a nice mix of cushiness and support; it’s machine washable and dryable, too. The company also makes an organic-cotton version, along with envelope-closure pillowcases in a variety of child-friendly patterns.

Many Wirecutter kids have marveled at the twinkling stars of Cloud B’s Star Projectors as they emanate somewhat incongruously—but totally adorably—from the back of a turtle, a fawn, or any of several other endearing critters. Senior staff writer Jackie Reeve says her daughter “loved the way it projected stars in different colors, and found it soothing to see the ladybug sitting next to her bed.” Compared with other night-lights, these tabletop projectors strike a nice balance between calming and brightening. They’re also surprisingly durable: When editor Amy Miller Kravetz’s son was a baby, he received a star turtle as a hand-me-down from his then 11-year-old cousin. After replacing the batteries, Amy found that it worked like new.

As many of us at Wirecutter know, a headlamp is a very useful tool to have around the house. Senior editor Marguerite Preston credits hers with helping both her and her baby fall back to sleep faster after middle-of-the-night wake-ups. Instead of stumbling through a dark house or turning on bright lights, Marguerite switched her headlamp (she used an earlier version of the Black Diamond Spot, our favorite headlamp) to its red-light setting. Though bathing a bedroom in a red glow might seem a little intense, red light may be less disruptive to sleep than blue light. This approach kept light to a minimum and let Marguerite “focus the light exactly where it needed to go,” she says.

Senior staff writer Rachel Cericola automated nighttime lighting in her son’s bedroom with smart bulbs, finding a compromise between his desire to sleep with the lights on and hers to follow research that suggests kids get the best rest in a dark room. As Rachel writes, smart bulbs like our top pick, the WiZ 60W A19 Color LED Smart Bulb, can help cue bedtime with calming colors, switch off at a predetermined hour, and initiate a nightly routine with dimming levels that slowly fade out. You can also pair the bulbs with other smart-home devices for more intricate setups (think motion-activated hallway lights). Senior editor Marguerite Preston found that programming her smart bulb to darken at bedtime helped both her and her baby wind down more easily. The bulb provided “just enough light to read as my son fell asleep,” she says.

Smart bulbs are equally handy for little ones prone to waking resting parents at the crack of dawn or even well before. Much as with a light-up toddler alarm clock, you can program smart bulbs to change colors at a certain hour, cueing to the child as to when it’s okay to get out of bed. Slow-risers or groggy caregivers can also rig smart bulbs to mimic a sunrise alarm clock, slowly brightening the room before the alarm rings.

Sometimes, shifting the ambience can help kids wind down. The soothing flicker of flameless candles encouraged editorial director Christine Cyr Clisset’s restless daughter to settle into sleepiness and stay in bed. “I used to think this type of fake candle was cheesy,” Christine notes, “but as a parent I now appreciate the genius of creating a flickering glow with no worries of lighting anything on fire.” The 6-inch pillar candles from both Everlasting Glow and Gerson are identical to the top pick (currently out of stock) in our guide to the best outdoor lighting, and they look like the real deal.

Each night, many Wirecutter kids (and adults) drift off to one of the 10 fan sounds, 10 ambient-noise sounds, or two ocean soundscapes of the LectroFan EVO, our pick for the best white noise machine. Though you can find baby-specific white noise machines with additional features such as night-lights or heartbeat sounds, our picks work great for babies and kids of any age to block out intrusive noise, provided that you set them to kid-safe volume levels. (The Hatch Rest, a favorite okay-to-rise kids alarm clock among Wirecutter staffers, can also play white noise, rain or wind sounds, lullabies, and more.) We particularly like that the LectroFan EVO doesn’t require an app to work (no need for you to keep your phone in your bedroom) and doesn’t light up. And although we wish it came with a built-in battery, it’s small enough to throw in your bag for travel.

If you want a portable sound machine especially for travel or naps on the go, Wirecutter contributor Kerry Davis McGuinness recommends the YogaSleep Hushh. The puck-sized, rechargeable device can play three different sounds. Kerry’s Hushh held its charge for about eight hours when she tested it with her family. The myNoise app (available on iOS and Android, as well as the myNoise site) is another easy travel option, but if you go that route, be sure to keep your phone locked or out of reach, as editor Amy Miller Kravetz learned when she woke to find her 2½-year-old DJing Sesame Street tunes in the middle of the night on a family trip.

Hatch Rest machines have saved Wirecutter parents countless hours of sleep. Editor Rachel Hurn finds the Hatch Rest useful as a night-light and sound machine for her daughter, but she and her family “really can’t live without the okay-to-wake feature,” she says. Instead of barreling into the bedroom, jumping on the bed, and climbing under the covers at the crack of dawn, Rachel’s daughter now waits until the Hatch Rest glows green before waking her parents. “Whatever the clock says goes in our house,” concurs commerce operations manager Jennifer Smith, whose family recites “Stay in bed until the clock turns…green” at bedtime each night.

Hatch sells two versions of its Wi-Fi–enabled Rest machine, both of which offer the same sleep features, including a dimmable clock and the ability to play additional lullabies and sleep stories from the accompanying Hatch+ app ($5 per month). The Rest+ 2nd Gen costs $30 more than the base model and comes with a backup battery, a feature that some people may appreciate in case of power outages. The company also makes cute and remarkably elegant decorative coverlets for its devices.

Of course, pretty much any basic alarm clock can also let a kid who’s old enough to read numbers know when it’s time to wake up (or stay quietly in their room). Wirecutter senior editor Erica Ogg gave her kids the DreamSky Compact Digital Alarm Clock, our favorite budget alarm clock. She reports that they “love having an alarm and knowing the exact moment they’re allowed to come downstairs in the morning.” Erica’s kids also like that the large, digital display is so bright that it acts like a night-light. The DreamSky clock comes in seven color variations, with different finishes and display hues to choose from.

The same speaker that amps your kid up with “Baby Shark” for the millionth time (or not, thanks to some basic smart-speaker sorcery) can also ease them into nighttime calm. You can play music through any speaker, but smart speakers—such as those from Google or Amazon, which also makes the Echo Dot in kid-friendly owl- or dragon-printed designs—offer the added benefits of preset Routines, timers, and alarms. Staff writer Thom Dunn uses a custom Alexa Routine connected to his speaker to shift his kid into bedtime mode. In senior editor Catherine Kast’s home, a Google Home smart speaker “instantly activated toddler chill vibes” by playing the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Countdown to Calm Down album at bedtime. “And on the occasions when my daughter didn’t willingly go to dreamland,” Catherine recalls, “I’d use Google to set a three-minute timer. When the alarm went off, the device played ‘Rockabye Baby’—the cue for us to waltz into the bedroom together.”

Having a water bottle within arm’s reach gives kids one less reason to get out of bed after lights out. The insulated Thermos Funtainer Stainless Steel Water Bottle With Straw, our favorite water bottle for younger kids, keeps water cool for hours, is less likely to spill if knocked over in the night, and was the easiest for 2- and 3- year-olds to open during our testing. Wirecutter contributor Ellen Lee’s son enjoyed sipping water through the soft silicone straw. Older kids may prefer the faster-flowing spout and more grown-up aesthetic of the Takeya Actives Kids Insulated Water Bottle, another of our favorite kids water bottles. Whatever bottle you choose, Ellen cautions, it’s a fine balance: “You don’t necessarily want to fill up the bottle all the way, since the next excuse to get out of bed will likely be to go to the bathroom.”

Having a training potty in a child’s room can prevent frequent requests to go to the bathroom at bedtime, and it can help kids get back to sleep faster if they have to pee in the middle of the night. No long trips down the hall, no bright lights, one fewer excuse to wake caregivers. Even after senior editor Harry Sawyers’s kids were old enough to get up and go on their own, this setup “reassured them that things are all set for the night” and reduced the risk of nocturnal shenanigans on the way to the bathroom. The BabyBjörn Potty Chair, Harry says, is “easy to clean and comfortable for short legs,” and unlike a toilet, it carries “no risk of ‘falling in.’”

Nothing beats the ritual of reading a bedtime story (or two or five) with your kid: You get the end-of-day bonding, the literacy and emotional-development benefits, and—fingers crossed—the magic of “calmly engaging and sedating them with the same droning adult voice they’re already accustomed to tuning out in the daytime,” as senior editor Harry Sawyers puts it.

While repeating a favorite story can be soothing, The New York Times’s annual Best Children’s Books list provides fresh ideas for kids—and caregivers—when it’s time to switch things up. And we’ve found that some stories work extra-special sleepy wonders with their rhythmic patterns, calming themes, and relaxing plots.

Senior editor Courtney Schley, a mom of four, recommends Owl Moon, which follows a child and father on a nighttime walk through snowy New England woods, for its rhythmic verse and wintry illustrations. Across the globe, a little boy searches for silence amid Tokyo’s bustle in The Sound of Silence, an evocatively written and richly illustrated favorite in supervising editor Ingrid Skjong’s house. Senior editor Kalee Thompson’s “moon-obsessed” sons loved poring over the distinctive paper-cut illustrations and drifting off to the whimsical story of The Moon Is Going to Addy’s House, in which the moon follows siblings from a playdate in the city home to their beds in the country.

If you’re looking for books directly about sleep and bedtime, Kalee recommends Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, with its “long cascade of rolling, rhyming language and curious creatures.” Todd Parr’s The I’m Not Scared Book, which addresses various daytime and nighttime anxieties, helped senior staff writer Rachel Cericola “make the dark less intimidating”—and even fun—for her son.

There are as many different sleep routines as there are children. From sprawling bedtime stories that kids turn to for years to nightly math problems to beloved stuffies to family prayers, we’ve heard of, and tried, countless traditions.

And sometimes, your kid will lead the way, as senior editor Harry Sawyers learned when his toddler-age son asked his dad to roll a toy car up and down his back. “Odd request,” Harry remembers, “but a polite one.” And a new routine was born. “I picked it up, he turned over, I rolled it up and down and sang a song. Worked like a charm. The car-massage serenade was so popular that it ended up becoming a part of the routine we stuck to every night.”

It was a good reminder that “kids are particular,” Harry says. “And if you discover that running a toy car on your kid’s back is the final piece that helps them stay in bed, here’s hoping it keeps on working for a good long while.”

This article was edited by Amy Miller Kravetz and Kalee Thompson.