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The “Year of Sleep” – Our 2025 Family Goal

Most years, our family chooses something to focus on for the year.

In 2024, we decided it was our “Year of Veggies” and we made a big effort to have more vegetables at lunch and dinner, order them at restaurants, and have them readily available for snacking (this $10 snack container was a game changer for us!) .

As 2024 wound down, I started getting messages from people asking what our 2025 year was going to be and frankly, I had no idea.

We try not to force it and we want it to be something we really want to focus on that makes sense for our family, not something arbitrary.

And then, over winter break, just a day or two before the beginning of the new year, as I was making myself breakfast in the kitchen, I suddenly knew what 2025 should be.

Bart was doing the dishes so I floated the idea to him of 2025 being our “Year of Sleep.”

Bart and I are actually QUITE excellent about our own sleep. Probably five or six years ago, I determined that I did NOT want to spend my life feeling tired (because it makes me grumpy, less productive, more prone to skipping the things that make my life better like exercise, and is terrible for my health).

Since then, Bart and I get a solid 8 hours virtually every night (and a little more on weekends) and it’s something that is now so much part of our routine that I hardly think about it.

(I wrote a whole post about improving my sleep here).

sleep goals

(Pajama set linked here)

But our girls’ sleep?

Well, that was more of a struggle.

They virtually never want to go to bed and for the last few years it’d been a struggle to make sure they actually got in bed and went to sleep on time.

We’d talked about it on and off but never gotten everyone on board and identified where the real issues were and how to solve them.

Over the next few days, we talked about it as a family and everyone was on board with focusing on getting more sleep in 2025.

Here are the main points we landed on to help our kids get more sleep this year:

  • Get very clear on what time bedtime is for everyone. This seems so obvious, but it was definitely an issue for us. When our girls were little, bedtime was a very clear 7 p.m. but with teenagers and tweens, this was no longer very reasonable and we’d never really reset family expectations. Together, we decided that bedtime was now 9 p.m. for BEING in bed and 9:30 p.m. for books away, audiobooks off, and lights out. (Ella’s is 30 minutes later than the other girls). Having that clear time that EVERYONE knows about and has agreed upon has already made a huge difference.
  • Identify the biggest hurdles. One of the biggest issues, frankly, was me. I love reading aloud to my girls but I’d get sucked into “just one more” work thing after dinner and then I’d start reading too late and that pushed everything back. Setting 8 p.m. as our clear reading start time meant that everyone was clear on what time they needed to have their pjs on, their teeth brushed, and their rooms tidied up. If they do those things quickly after dinner, they have plenty of time to play together before I read to them, and now I have a strong mental deadline about when I need to be ready to read. An 8 p.m. start time means I have plenty of time to read to them and finish around 8:45 so we can pray and tuck everyone in bed with plenty of time to spare for a 9 p.m. deadline.
  • Plan for exceptions. One night a week, my big girls have a church activity and they don’t get home until around 8:30. In the past, I’d always been trying to squeeze in reading that night even though it was usually at least 8:45 p.m. before they were ready for bed which pushed everything back. Once we started talking through our bedtime routines, it became clear that this night was not a night for me to read aloud – so nice to know and plan accordingly (and not feel guilty about it!). Similarly, we talked through weekend nights and what is reasonable to keep from throwing off their whole sleep schedule every weekend.
  • Set up technology to help. I adjusted the sleep timers on Alexa so that audiobooks automatically turn off at 9:30 p.m. so they don’t end up listening way too late.

Obviously we’re only a few weeks in, but it’s been fun for all of us to have a focus that gives such clear results! Being tired is a lousy way to live and everyone is so much more pleasant, clear-minded, and focused when they get enough sleep!

I’d love to hear if you have a focus this year!

If you liked this post about our our sleep goals for this year, you might also like these other posts:

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3 Comments

  1. This sounds like a great goal for your family! About what time do the girls wake up? Do they all wake up on their own or do you need to set alarms/wake them up?

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