Bedtime routine for 4 and 5 year olds: a calm plan for preschool and kindergarten

Four- and five-year-olds are good at bedtime in a whole new way: they can brush their own teeth, pick their own pajamas and follow a routine without being walked through every step. They’re also brilliant negotiators, they have a lot on their minds at lights-out, and many of them are about to start kindergarten, which means earlier mornings.

Here’s a bedtime routine that fits this age, how much sleep they need, and how to handle the classic four-and-five-year-old bedtime moves.

How much sleep do 4 and 5 year olds need?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, with the backing of the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends 10 to 13 hours of sleep in every 24 hours for children aged 3 to 5, including naps.

Most children give up their nap somewhere in this range: research pooling many studies found that about 94% have stopped napping by age five. Without a nap, that sleep has to come at night, so a bedtime around 7:00 to 8:00 pm is common, depending on when they need to be up.

A sample bedtime routine for a 4 or 5 year old

About thirty to forty minutes. As always, the order matters more than the clock.

1. Screens off, an hour before lights-out (6:45 pm). The American Academy of Pediatrics advises avoiding screens in the hour before bed and keeping devices out of the bedroom.
2. Bath or shower (7:00 pm). Many five-year-olds can do most of it themselves, with you nearby.
3. Pajamas, potty, teeth (7:15 pm). Let them do it, and check the teeth after.
4. Get tomorrow ready (7:20 pm). Lay out clothes, put the backpack by the door. It takes five minutes and removes a lot of morning chaos, and it’s a gentle way to talk about tomorrow.
5. Stories (7:25 pm). Two picture books, or one chapter of a chapter book. Decide the number before you start.
6. A little talk (7:40 pm). “What was the best part of today?” or “What are you looking forward to tomorrow?” Then the same goodnight words as always.
7. Lights out (7:45 pm).

Let them run it

At this age, a picture checklist on the bathroom wall turns the routine into something they’re in charge of: bath, pajamas, teeth, potty, clothes for tomorrow, books, bed. Let them tick each step. Children who feel in charge of the routine argue with it less.

Getting ready for kindergarten bedtimes

Kindergarten often means a much earlier wake-up than preschool or summer. Don’t switch overnight. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests easing into earlier bedtimes a week or two before school starts: move bedtime and wake-up earlier by 10 to 15 minutes every few days until you’re on the school schedule. The first few weeks of school are tiring, so protect bedtime fiercely, even on weekends.

If your child is nervous about starting school, bedtime is often when it comes out. Our guide to the first day of kindergarten has ideas for those conversations.

The classic moves (and what to do)

“Just one more story!”

Agree on the number of stories before you start, and stick to it, warmly. If they’re desperate for more, make tomorrow’s story the reward: “We’ll read two tomorrow, and you can choose both.”

Stories where your child gets to choose what happens help here too, because the choosing is the fun part, and a story with one fork in it feels like more than it is. Try the pick-your-path story in our post on bedtime stories for 5 year olds.

Big questions at lights-out

“What happens when you die?” “Why is the sky dark?” “Is there a monster in the closet?” Four- and five-year-olds save their biggest questions for the moment you reach for the light switch. It’s not (only) stalling: the quiet is when their minds wander.

Give a short, honest answer, and offer to talk more tomorrow. If worries come up night after night, try a few minutes of “worry time” earlier in the evening, so lights-out isn’t the only time they get your full attention. Our post on a calming bedtime routine for anxious kids has more.

Coming out of the room

Calmly walk them back, with as little conversation as possible, every time. A “bedtime pass” can help: one card, good for one trip out (a drink, a hug, a question). Once it’s spent, it’s gone until tomorrow. Many children end up keeping it.

Bad dreams

Nightmares are common from the preschool years on; HealthyChildren.org says they tend to peak between 3 and 12. Comfort them, keep the lights low and the voice calm, and help them back to sleep. Talk about the dream in the daytime, if they want to: drawing it, or making up a better ending, can take the fear out of it.

Night-time accidents

Many children this age still have occasional wet nights. Keep it low-key, and talk to your pediatrician if you’re worried or if it suddenly starts after a long dry spell.

Where stories and screens fit

Bedtime stories at four and five do a lot of work: they wind children down, they’re often the best conversation of the day, and they build the language and listening that school will lean on. A paper book, read together, is the ideal last step.

We make Branchlings, an app where your child dreams up the story and decides what happens at every fork. For fours, there are two choices at each fork; for fives, three, with the words lighting up as the storyteller voice reads. If you use it, the AAP’s advice about screens before bed applies to us too: read it together earlier in the evening, and keep the last story of the night on paper. For more, see our guide to screen time recommendations by age.

Bedtime routine for 4 and 5 year olds: quick answers

What time should a 5 year old go to bed? Usually between 7:00 and 8:00 pm. Count back 10 to 13 hours from when they need to wake up.

Is 8:30 too late for a 4 year old? It depends on when they wake. If they’re up at 6:30 for preschool, 8:30 probably doesn’t leave enough sleep. If they sleep until 7:30 and don’t nap, it might.

How long should the bedtime routine take? Thirty to forty minutes, stories included. Longer than that usually means stalling has crept in.

When should I talk to the pediatrician? If your child snores loudly most nights, seems very tired or irritable during the day, or bedtime battles go on for weeks despite a steady routine.

More bedtime routines by age: toddlers, 3 year olds and 8 year olds.

Sources: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleep duration recommendations (endorsed by the AAP); Staton et al., Many naps, one nap, none (2020); HealthyChildren.org, back-to-school tips and nightmares; Moore, Friman et al., the Bedtime Pass trial (2007); AAP, Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents (2026).