Military life often brings changes to daily routines. Deployments, frequent moves, training schedules, changing caregivers, and late-night video calls with a deployed parent can all affect a young child’s sleep. While disruptions are sometimes unavoidable, consistent routines help babies and toddlers feel safe and secure during times of change. Learn how to support healthy sleep while staying connected as a family.
Why Sleep and Routines For Young Children Matter
Young children thrive on predictable routines. Knowing what comes next helps babies and toddlers feel safe, especially during times of change. For military families, familiar routines can provide comfort and stability during deployments, relocations, or changing family schedules.
Sleep plays an important role in early childhood. It supports healthy brain development, learning, emotional regulation, memory, and physical growth. A consistent bedtime routine, such as bath time, brushing teeth, reading a story, and saying goodnight, helps children recognize that it’s time to rest and can make bedtime easier over time.
The good news is that routines don’t have to be perfect to be effective. Some evenings may look different than others because of military responsibilities or family commitments. What matters most is returning to familiar routines whenever possible. Consistency over time, not perfection, helps children build healthy sleep habits and a sense of security.
Military Life Can Disrupt Sleep
Military families regularly adapt to change, and it’s normal for those changes to temporarily affect a child’s sleep. Returning to familiar routines after disruptions helps children adjust and feel secure.
Deployment: When a parent deploys, maintaining familiar bedtime rituals can provide comfort. Reading the same bedtime story, singing a favorite song, or looking at family photos can help children stay connected to deployed family members.
PCS moves and new homes: New surroundings, unfamiliar bedrooms, and different time zones can make it harder for children to settle in at bedtime. Bringing their favorite books, blankets, or stuffed animals and returning to regular bedtime routines as soon as possible can help ease the transition.
Returning home after deployment: Reunions are exciting, but children may need time to adjust to changes in family routines. Including the returning parent in bedtime activities offers opportunities for family reconnection while maintaining routines that help children feel secure.
Caregiver changes: Whether a friend, family member, or another caregiver is helping while a parent is away for shift work, overnight duty, or extended training, keeping your child’s usual bedtime routine as consistent as possible can provide comfort and stability. Sharing familiar sleep habits, rituals, and expectations helps children feel secure, even when the person putting them to bed changes.
Video chats with a deployed parent: Staying connected is important for both children and parents. Whenever possible, schedule video calls with children before bedtime. When late-night calls are the only option because of time zone differences, it’s okay to make an occasional exception and return to the usual bedtime routine the next day.
Travel and changing schedules: Military travel and family visits may temporarily interrupt sleep routines. Packing familiar comfort items and returning to regular sleep schedules after travel can help children adjust more easily.
Progress, Not Perfection
It’s okay if bedtime isn’t perfect every night. Military family life often requires flexibility, and occasional disruptions are expected. What makes the biggest difference is returning to familiar routines that help children feel safe, connected, and ready for restful sleep.
Video: Tips for Helping Baby Sleep
This short video shares practical, developmentally appropriate strategies for helping babies settle to sleep, including creating calming bedtime routines and responding to your baby’s cues. Parents and caregivers will learn simple ways to support healthy sleep habits while building a strong sense of comfort and security.
Safe Sleep for Babies
Learn the basics of safe infant sleep, including how to create a safe sleep environment and follow recommended practices to help reduce the risk of sleep-related infant deaths while supporting healthy sleep habits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Deployments can disrupt a young child’s sense of routine, even if they don’t fully understand why a parent is away. Keeping bedtime and wake-up times as consistent as possible, following a familiar bedtime routine, and providing extra comfort and reassurance can help children feel safe and secure. If your child has a chance to video chat with a deployed parent and it means staying up a little later than usual, that’s okay from time to time. The goal isn’t a perfect schedule, but a predictable routine that your child can count on most days.
Frequent moves (PCS), new caregivers, changing time zones, and adjusting to a new home can temporarily affect how babies and toddlers sleep. Young children thrive on familiar routines, and major changes can make it harder for them to settle at bedtime or stay asleep. Returning to regular routines as soon as possible, bringing familiar comfort items, and giving children time to adjust can help them feel more secure. Most sleep disruptions improve as children become comfortable in their new environment.
Military life isn’t always predictable, and there will be times when schedules change because of deployments, training, travel, or family responsibilities. Rather than striving for a perfect routine, focus on creating consistent patterns whenever possible. Simple rituals like reading the same bedtime story, singing a favorite lullaby, or offering extra cuddles before bed help children know what to expect, even when other parts of life feel uncertain. Over time, these everyday moments of connection support healthy sleep, emotional well-being, and resilience for both children and parents.
This work is part of ZERO TO THREE’s Military Family Projects, which supports military and veteran families with trusted guidance grounded in the science of early childhood development.
