Push bedtime back

Having trouble putting your toddler to sleep? Try pushing bedtime back a little later. According to a recent study, toddlers often are unable to sleep because they are put to bed before their biological clocks are ready, making them more likely to throw tantrums and make what the study’s authors called “curtain calls”—constantly getting out of bed and coming into their parents’ bedroom. The researchers found that levels of melatonin—the hormone that regulates the body’s internal clock—rose around 7:40 p.m. From that time, if the parents waited about 30 minutes to put their child to bed, he or she was typically asleep within another half-hour.