Do your children have a bedtime routine? Today’s post is about teaching children to sleep according to the Sunnah. I found a wonderful book this year, Bedtime Sunnah -Emulating the Prophet One Night at a Time by Alia G. Dada Published by Prolance Publications.
We studied S is for Sleep as part of the Islamic Manners Series. You can teach S is for Sunnah too if you like using this same post. Our purpose is to teach children that we Muslims should strive to include as many Sunnah in our life as possible. One of the easiest Sunnah is the bedtime Sunnah.
Sleeping According to the Sunnah- Bedtime Sunnahs to follow
Here is what Sunnah to follow and some more good manners at bedtime:
- Do Wudhu before bedtime.
- Say your prayers (Ishaa)
- Say your Adhkaar, 3 Quls and Duas
- Blow on to your hands and spread on your face.
- Sleep on your right
- We sleep facing the qibla.
- Don’t cover your face.
- Kids above the age of 7 sleep in their own beds.
- Boys and girls don’t sleep together.
Parenting Tip
If your children don’t already have a bedtime routine, I highly recommend that you start one right away. Just spend a few minutes with them every night helping them form this habit.
I always lay with my children till they fall asleep. For my first child, I did it till he was 7yrs old. When I had my girls, their father would lay with him saying all the bedtime sunnahs and revising Surahs and duas- new and old. Now with my girls, we alternate. Sometimes I sleep with the girls till they sleep, sometimes their dad.
There is another reason why we spend time with our children at bedtime. Children need Atleast 3 touches through the day. (In positive parenting terms it is called Mind, Body and Soul Time) I have, through trial and error, found that for us those 3 times are:
- When they wake up
- When they come home from school
- At bedtime before they fall asleep.
Atleast 10-15 minutes is enough to make sure they are functioning at their best behavior.
Related: Struggling to get your Baby to sleep? Here are some Sensory Reasons and their Solutions.
Book recommendation:
I have a book recommendation for this letter. The last time we did this series we had written our bedtime routine on a chart. A simpler version of our bedtime routine is in my FREE resource library.
This time we found a recently launched book for children. Bedtime Sunnah- Emulating the Prophet One Night at a Time by Alia G. Dada from Prolance Publications is a very good book for little children. My 5 and 4yr old love it.
The illustrations and the story is very relatable for the children helping them learn about the bedtime Sunnah making it a routine. It is a fantastic bedtime book to read.
Please note: The links below are Affiliate Links. I make a small commission if you buy through my link. You will not be charged extra. Please read my full Disclosure here.
You can find the book on Amazon US, Amazon UK , Barnes and Noble as well as Book Depository. You can order from the Prolance publishers website too.
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