Bedtime sticker chart and sleep chart

The bedtime routine chart

This printable has five steps in the same order every night: bath, pajamas, teeth, story, lights out. Each step gets a sticker as it happens. There is a reward line at the bottom for a small treat after a full night.

The chart comes in letter and A4, in color and an ink saving black outline version. There is a blank line for your child's name. Print at 100 percent, not fit to page, so the boxes match your stickers.

The reward boxes fit a 1.5 inch round sticker or a 1/2 inch star sticker. Hang it at the child's eye level on the bedroom door. That way the last thing they see is the chart, not you.

For more on this, read Reward chart ideas: 30 goals and rewards by age.

The morning sticker

The stay-in-bed sticker goes on at breakfast, not at bedtime. The thing you are rewarding, staying in bed, happens after your child is asleep. A morning sticker makes the conection clear and fresh.

Your child sticks it on themselves. That small act of putting the sticker on the chart is the first win of the day. It earns one sticker for in bed with the light off, and one call out is allowed for a drink or a hug.

For older kids, use the sleep chart version on the same page. It has fewer steps and a bigger reward line. The sleep reward chart printable free pdf is the same download, just a different page.

A bedtime routine that fits on a chart

Keep the same order every single night. The chart makes the order visible, so you do not have to repeat yourself. Here are the five steps with times relative to lights out.

1. Bath: 40 minutes before lights out
2. Pajamas: 30 minutes before lights out
3. Teeth: 20 minutes before lights out
4. Story: 10 minutes before lights out
5. Lights out: the same time every night

Post the chart on the bedroom door. Your child sees the steps before they start. You point to the chart instead of nagging. The routine becomes the boss, not you.

Rewards for a bedtime chart

Small morning rewards work best. A sticker on the routine chart plus a special breakfast, like a blueberry muffin, is enough. Save a bigger reward for a full week of staying in bed.

Do not use a later bedtime as a reward. That punishes you and rewards the wrong behavior. Instead, let the weekend reward be a trip to the park or picking the family movie.

For more ideas, see our reward ideas page. Keep the reward small, immediate, and tied to the morning. The chart itself is the main tool, not the prize.

Dry nights and the sleep chart together

If you are also working on dry nights, keep those on a separate chart. The nighttime potty chart is on the potty training pages and fits the same age range. Do not mix the two goals on one page.

A dry night is a physical milestone. Staying in bed is a behavior. Mixing them makes both harder to see clearly. Use the bedtime chart for staying in bed, and the dry nights chart for waking up dry.

Two charts on two doors works well. The morning routine stays the same: breakfast, then the bedtime sticker, then the dry night sticker if it applies. For the sticker paper and boards, check our stickers page.