Toddler Sleep: Green Light Training
I’ve had so many people ask how we trained our kids to stay in bed until their light turns green that I decided it needs its own blog post for referral! My fingers are tired of repetition. Now I can just link this post for folks. If that’s you— Hi, there! Welcome!!
So. I am pretty sure there’s nothing worse as a parent than when your kid wakes up way earlier than you’d like, or is really inconsistent with naps. Then you’re tired and you can’t plan your time correctly because who knows what’s going to happen on any given day??
Insert: Hatch Green Light.
The Hatch (not sponsored, FYI) serves as a sound machine, night light, and training tool. If used correctly, it will SAVE YOUR LIFE.
You’ll be AMAZED at how often the kids put themselves back down to sleep while they wait. I really believe this training gives them more comfort. Since they can’t tell time, it’s discombobulating to wake up and have no clue if it’s time to get up. So inevitably, they decide to get your attention because you bring them comfort. But with the green light, they can rely on it eventually coming on, so when they see it’s not, they are confident in their decision to roll over and go back to sleep. They can trust it and feel a sense of control and predictability. My kids get so much more sleep now!
A note on age:
Kids as young as 9 months have been trained on the Hatch, but I feel like that’s pretty wild. I started Anders at 20 months and I started Jo at 15 months. They do not need to know how to identify the color green before starting. Jo still doesn’t know her colors (currently 25 months old).
I think the sweet spot is between 12-24 months. After that, they are usually able to get up and out of their crib, which makes training much harder. That said, now that my oldest is 4 years old and out of his crib, he still sticks to his green light like an invisible fence since he’s had to do it for as long as he can remember.
There are lots of different sounds and colors to choose from. In the spirit of teaching our kids that green means go, most parents opt to use the green color as the signal that your child is allowed to get up. But keep in mind if your kid is a big purple or red freak, this training can be done using any color.
I also use the TV white noise option rather than the nature sounds because it is the least “interesting” to your kids’ ears, so it’ll help them sleep longer rather than perk their ears up. If you’re reading this, you probably have a toddler and have been using a sound machine with a similar noise since they were a baby!
To start, you’ll want to buy your Hatch and download the Hatch app. It’s super self-explanatory and will give you instructions how to sync your Hatch using Wifi (we have 3 synced to our app— one for each kid’s room).
Once it’s synced, you’ll want to set up programs. I’ll insert an example of Jo’s programs below! She’s 25 months and currently naps once a day.
I keep the sound going even during the wake up period in case she wants to take a longer nap— she’s welcome to keep sleeping past the green light! That way the room doesn’t go silent all of a sudden and jolt her awake.
We keep the green light on the lowest setting since their rooms are pitch black when they sleep, that way when it comes on, it’s not very bright and won’t wake them out of their sleep in case they want to take a long nap.
My kids sleep much better in a pitch black room, so they sleep with no light on the Hatch. However, when Anders turned 3, he decided he was scared of the dark so we turned his Hatch purple (on the lowest light setting) for sleeping time. Purple and Green are very distinguishable, so he knew purple=sleeping time and green=wake up time.
In this example, you’ll see I have Jo’s nap come on at 12 just in case she ever is extra tired and I feel like putting her down early. But she goes down at 1pm most days. Same with night sound coming on at 6:30 even though she goes to bed at 7pm. I just like that wiggle room built in since it won't hurt anyone if the sound comes on early!
I also keep the green light/sound going for an hour in case they sleep in (as mentioned above regarding the lowest setting for the green light + the sound continuation).
PART ONE OF TRAINING (usually 1 to 4 days)
Here we go! To start, as the last thing you do before putting them down for nap, show your child what the green light looks like on and off. We stand in front of it together and I manually turn it on using the app on my phone. When I turn it on, I happily exclaim “Green! Yay! Green!” and then when I turn it off I say “No green. Night night.” I do this 5-10 times. Lots of repetition.
Put them down for nap and if they wake up before the light is green, use the intercom on your monitor to calmly say “Wait for green light! No green light. Night night.” I usually say this a few times in the first few minutes they’re awake (if they’re asking to get up/crying).
Day 1, they won’t really get it, so I only do about 5 minutes of intercom “No green light. Night night!” before going in if they’re really upset. (If they’re quiet and just rolling around—by all means, let them be!) When I go in—bring your phone!!—I pick them up while the room is still dark and walk over to the green light. I say “No green light. Still night night” and then we go to the rocking chair and I rock them for about 5-10 minutes before manually turning on the green light using the app on my phone.
Even though they don’t make it all the way to the programmed green light, they’ve learned that they have to WAIT until the light turns green before they get up. The main lights don’t come on, the sleep sack doesn’t come off— the room stays in nap time zone until the light turns green.
Once you turn the green light on, make a big show of it! Say “Look! Green light! Wake up!” I repeat “Green light! Wake up!” over and over. Then I turn on the lights and let them get up.
Repeat steps 1-4 for bedtime/morning wake up.
I’m willing to push it a lot longer in the mornings. For instance, if they wake up at 5:30am and you don’t want them to get up until 7am, I’ll start that first morning of training with about 10-15 minutes of “No green light. Still night night” on the intercom. Then they’re likely mad, so I’ll go in and rock them until 6:30am in the dark. They have to learn that getting up isn’t going to happen. Even if they’re up while you’re rocking them, I don’t let them start conversations or walk around. We’ll just be there quietly rocking and shhing them, saying “No green light. Still night night” when I need to.
I manually turn the green light on at 6:30am. Similar to the nap thing—even if it’s earlier than your final goal, it’s teaching them they have to wait until the light turns green.
I continue with this kind of training for a few days. Usually between 2-5 days, they’ll lay back down during the intercom portion of training. If you say “Lay down. No green light. Still night night”, they really understand what that means pretty quickly since you’ve been saying those words nonstop for days on end! I started Part 2 of training with Anders after only 2 days because it was clear that he understood the meaning of the green light, but was just not happy about it. For Jo, I started Part 2 closer to 7 days because she was younger and needed more time to grasp the concept.
PART TWO OF TRAINING:
After a few days of doing Part 1 of training, it’s time to step up how serious you are about them waiting. Instead of repeating “No green light! Still night night” repeatedly for 5-15 minutes straight if they woke up early, I’d say it just one time. Then I’d let them cry for 10 minutes.
Time it, because 10 minutes will feel like 10 hours if you don’t use a clock.
After 10 minutes, I’d tell them I love them and say “No green light! Still night night” one more time. Then let them cry another 5-10 minutes.
If they lay back down quietly (many do during this period), I have them lay there as long as they’re willing to be quiet. When they start making noises again to get up, I immediately turn on the green light from my phone and go in. They did their best to wait on their own, and I want to reward that.
If they don’t regulate themselves to lay back down quietly in this period, I let them cry the full 10 minutes, then I manually turn on the green light after the 10 mins and go in to get them up. Again, always acknowledging the green light by saying “Green light! Yay! Wake up!”
I continue this 10-10 training for a day or a week, depending on the kid (again, Anders caught on way faster).
PART THREE OF TRAINING:
This part comes in once they quietly wait for the green light, but are too antsy to wait until your goal time. Let’s say they’ve been waking up at 6:00am, and they’ll wait quietly for the green light until 6:30am but then they lose their patience. Or they wake up from nap at 2:00pm but you want them to wake up at 3:00pm.
Start your wake up program 30 minutes earlier than your goal time. If your kid waits quietly for the green light at that time for a few days, slowly move it later by 5-10 minute increments every day until you reach your goal time.
You’ll often have to remind them to wait for their green light like in Part 2, but by this point, they should quiet down when you say the words “No green light! Still night night.” I often add in “Lay back down.”
Now, as far as how long it takes for them to stop needing your help altogether, it depends on the kid. For Anders, it only took about 3 days for Parts 1-3 in their entirety. For Jo, it was a solid 3 weeks of Part 2 and another week of Part 3. It made me feel like a crazy person, but the consistency paid off even when I was like “She’s never going to get ittttttt!” She was much younger and has a more stubborn personality, so it makes sense that I had to be consistent for 30 straight days before she waited quietly for the green light to come on.
Every once in a while, my kids will start complaining even to this day, but they’re pros at this point so I just remind them that they’re green light isn’t on yet and they deal with it. Sometimes Jo will play with her dolls while she waits. Sometimes Anders will sing songs. But 8/10 times, they put themselves back to sleep while they wait.
FINAL NOTES:
Consistency is THE MOST important thing. This will not work if you go into it just “hoping it will work.” It won’t. You have to decide that once you decide to train, your’e going to follow through…even if it’s a full month of feeling crazy like I did with Jo. Nonetheless, they never ever get to get up from nap or morning before their light turns green. It is SO worth it for their sleep needs and your sanity.
Know your kid. If you know they get it but are just being stubborn, let them cry more. If they’re confused, maybe do the rocking part of the training a little longer.
I hope this was helpful! Feel free to reach out with additional questions if you have them!