Toddler, 2 to 3 years

This is the age of the curtain call, the fear of the dark, and the long goodbye at bedtime.

You may be weighing the move from crib to a big kid bed, navigating the slow end of the nap, and meeting some frightening night wakings for the first time. All of this is common ground for two and three year olds.

A growing imagination is a gift during the day and a complication at night, because the same mind that invents wonderful stories can also invent monsters. Autonomy is in full bloom, so your toddler wants a say in everything, including whether bedtime happens at all.

It also helps to know the difference between two kinds of night waking. A nightmare happens later in the night, wakes your child fully, and is remembered, so it calls for comfort and reassurance.

A night terror happens earlier, in deep sleep, and your child is not truly awake, will not remember it, and is best kept safe and calm rather than woken.

Keep the bedtime routine steady and your boundaries both calm and firm, since consistency is what makes a two year old feel secure enough to let go into sleep.

Take fears seriously and answer them with reassurance rather than dismissal, because feeling heard is what settles them. A comfort object can carry your steadiness into the dark.

Move to a big kid bed when safety calls for it rather than by a certain birthday, and let the nap go only when your child truly no longer needs it, since dropping it too soon usually backfires into overtired evenings.

When you feel your own patience thinning at the end of a long day, this is exactly where staying regulated yourself becomes the most powerful tool in the room.