Lights-out is game time. Let’s win it.
Listen up. Bedtime isn’t the end of the day — it’s the most important game of it. Every champion has a recovery routine; tonight your kid gets one too. Here’s my playbook: no fluff, just the plays that work — straight from the pros in my corner.
Coach’s #1 rule: run the same plays every night
Great teams don’t reinvent the game plan every week — they run their plays till they’re automatic. Bedtime’s the same: same steps, same order, almost every night. Pick 3–4 calming plays, run them in order, and your kid starts subbing themselves out before you even call it.
Taking Cara Babies (Cara Dumaplin, RN) coaches millions of parents on one idea: a consistent, predictable routine so the body knows what’s coming. takingcarababies.com
The fourth quarter: the hour before lights-out
Games are won in the fourth quarter. Yours is the hour before bed — and the other team is light.
Dr. Andrew Huberman (Huberman Lab) — dim the lights and cut bright, blue-heavy light in the 2–3 hours before bed; he notes blue-blocking glasses can take the edge off evening light when screens can’t be avoided. hubermanlab.com
Dr. Matthew Walker (Why We Sleep) — screen blue light is near the top of what wrecks modern sleep. His plan: regular schedule, dim the lights ~an hour before, cool dark room, screens out of the bed. sleepdiplomat.com
▸ Dim the house. Kill the bright overheads.
▸ Screens down — or if they’re on, cut the glow. (This is where the amber lenses go on: the gear cue that the fourth quarter just started.)
▸ Run your plays: bath → brush → book → bed.
Know your minutes
You can’t win on an empty tank. The pros target, per night:
Coach’s math: work backward from wake-up to set a bedtime that banks the full total.
The starting lineup, by age
Keep the playbook short
Three or four calming plays, ~30 minutes, same order every night: bath → brush → book → bed. A comfort toy is a legal substitution. Let ’em make small calls (which pajamas, which book) so it feels like their game. Tuck in drowsy-but-awake so they learn to close it out solo.
Hand ’em the clipboard
Veterans run their own plays: brush, tidy the room, lay out tomorrow’s gear, then read. Hold a steady bedtime and wake time — weekends included (Coach Walker’s rule). Lots of daytime action and daylight makes the night game easier.
Coach’s rules & penalties
Run these plays
- Same routine, every night
- Keep it to ~30 minutes
- Same wake-up time, weekends too
- Get outside and burn energy by day
- Dim the lights as the clock winds down
Flagged on the play
- Starting once they’re overtired
- Bright screens in the last hour or in bed
- Winding them up right before bed
- Caffeine or sugar in the evening
- Scary stories at lights-out
Coach Z’s bench (where this comes from)
Coach calls the plays, but these are the pros he scouts. Go straight to them:
- Dr. Andrew Huberman — Huberman Lab Sleep Toolkit
- Dr. Matthew Walker — Why We Sleep / sleepdiplomat.com
- Taking Cara Babies (Cara Dumaplin, RN) — takingcarababies.com
- The Sleep Lady (Kim West) — sleeplady.com
- Little Z’s Sleep (Becca Campbell) — littlezsleep.com
Coach Z is a Night Game character. Night Game glasses are eyewear, not a medical device, and we make no health claims. This playbook is general info for parents, not medical advice — your pediatrician is the team doctor.