Bedtime Champion: How to (Almost) Magically Get Your Kids to Sleep
Turning Bedtime Battles into Bliss with Smart Home Automation
Imagine this: The lights in your home dim softly. Calming music begins to play, and a gentle voice tells your children it’s time for bed. They quietly head to their rooms, crawl into bed, and listen to a story projected onto the ceiling, read by speakers on their nightstands. Meanwhile, you settle onto the couch, and the TV automatically switches to the perfect show to help you unwind after a long evening.
While I can’t promise a fully automated bedtime routine just yet, I can help you get part of the way there.
Using an Amazon Echo Dot and the smart lights from my Monday newsletter, here are some automations to help nudge your kids toward bedtime. Note: These tips are especially useful for parents of children under 6. Convincing teenagers to go to bed might require more drastic measures, but I do have a separate post about pausing your internet that might help!
Dim Lights During Bath Time
In our house, all the lights automatically dim to around 30% at sunset or bath time (whichever comes first). We use HomeKit to schedule this, but if you want to get fancy, you could use a motion sensor next to the bath.
Use Alexa Routines
Our most reliable tactic for signaling bedtime is an Alexa Routine that we (or our kids) can trigger by simply talking to the Echo in their room. We say, “Alexa, start bedtime,” and the light in our son’s room turns off, his Hatch begins playing white noise and turns dark orange, and Green Day’s “Last Night on Earth” plays softly from the Echo.
You could achieve the same effect with a Siri Shortcut and a HomePod Mini, but to save money, we use Echos.
Note: You can use either a standard Echo or a Kids Edition Echo. However, there are some restrictions on what an Echo in kids mode can do, so it may take some troubleshooting to make sure the routine works. You can switch the Kids Edition Echo out of kids mode or put a standard Echo into kids mode as needed.
Schedule a WiFi Pause or Screen Downtime
Use the techniques from from my post on managing screen time to schedule an internet pause or screen downtime before bed. This helps keep everyone on a blue light-free path to a good night’s sleep.
Lower Your Smart Thermostat
Set your smart thermostat to lower the temperature around bedtime. A cooler room can help induce sleep, and automating this step gives you one less thing to worry about while trying to wrangle your little ones into their pajamas.
You can sync this with an Alexa Routine or trigger it when the lights dim, coordinating your devices to work together.
Today’s News
Google Gemini’s "Live" Mode Beats ChatGPT to Market
While Google and OpenAI both announced conversational voice chat bots back in May, OpenAI has been very slow to roll theirs out. The primary improvement these make over the existing products is the bot’s ability to read what’s on your screen while you are chatting with it over voice or text. Google launched theirs on Tuesday during the Google Pixel event. Check out the video below to see what it can do.
Hyundai Ioniq 9: New 3-Row Electric Vehicle Inbound
Hyundai is in the final testing phase before starting the production of its Ioniq 9 SUV. I’m not a huge fan of the design, but it should come in at the same or an even lower price than its sister Kia EV9. So if you’re in the market for a three-row electric SUV, you now have a new option!