As parents & guardians of young children, we hear time and time again about the importance of reading bedtime stories to our kids. Most of you will have heard this sort of advice from your 'experienced' parent friends, and many of you will have read it in parenting books & online blogs.

Wherever we hear it from, the message remains clear - that we should read to our children because it's a great activity to add to their bedtime routine and because it's a positive way to close off the day. But, why is it important for children to be read to right before they go to bed?

Well, while you may have heard that reading to kids before bed is recommended by most experts, you may not know all of the reasons for this, or any of the evidence behind this. As it happens, there are several great reasons as to why parents should be reading to their children before bed. Check out our quick rundown of the top seven benefits of reading bedtime stories to your kids...

1. Stories at bedtime can help kids drift off to sleep!


The first, and perhaps most obvious reason that reading to your kids at bedtime is a good thing, is that, put simply - it helps them actually get to sleep!

Reading bedtime stories for children can really help them to relax their minds. Being in a calm & relaxed state of mind is one of the most essential ingredients for allowing them to actually manage to fully drift off.

As you may well know from experience, the last thing that any parent or guardian wants is their kids' mind racing just before bed! It is essential that children get the best possible quality of sleep each night, as it is very important for their overall health, wellbeing, and performance during the day.

2. Bedtime stories will help encourage your kid's imagination!


The second top benefit of bedtime stories for kids is perhaps also quite an obvious one for many parents. Bedtime stories will do wonders for stimulating your children's creativity & imagination!

It's really important for kids' imaginations to be enhanced & encouraged while their brains are developing as it brings out their creativity, as well as their curiosity about the world around them, which can be really helpful to them in the long run.

In case you're hesitant, studies have shown that it is perfectly fine for kid's imaginations to be stimulated before bed, as this helps open up their imaginations, allowing them to slip more easily into dream mode!

3. It helps creativity and problem-solving skills!


The next top benefit of reading bedtime stories to your kids is actually a continuation of the point above! As well as encouraging their creative sides, bedtime stories can also have a positive effect on your child's problem-solving abilities.

Our sense of creativity is developed through our imaginations, and how much support and encouragement they are given, especially while at an early age. In turn, our sense of creativity helps improve our core problem-solving skills in the long run. When you look at the requirements for a NASA astronaut, you'll notice that among the list of key characteristics they are looking for are creativity & problem-solving skills.

Top tip: When it comes to reading bedtime stories for children each night, one great activity to try out is for the parent to read one line of the book, and ask the kid to talk about what that line was about. Ask them what they think of it, and tell them to imagine what happens after the line is read. This then gives children the opportunity to say something creative and fun, even if the next line that the parents read to the kids is not what they had imagined...

For instance, in a book, if the line is "The man was riding the horse that took off to another place". The parent or guardian would read this aloud and ask the child where he or she thought that the horse had run to. The child can use their imagination and say what they think. They can reply by saying "The horse ran over to chocolate land", or "the horse ran over to grandma's house", or even "the horse ran away to the moon!", or whatever the child imagines. Even if the next line in the book stated that the horse ran over a road, everyone has still had some fun using their imaginations!

4. Reading bedtime stories for children enhances their communication skills!


Reason number 4 on our list of bedtime story benefits, it that they can also help to enhance your kid's overall communication skills!

One of the best things we can do as parents to help develop our child's communication skills is to just simply talk to them. This sounds very basic, however, it's unfortunate how many busy parent's just don't take (or make) the time to converse & communicate with their kids in a meaningful way. Meaningful communication means spending quality, stress-free, & mindful time together with your children, rather than shouting to them from another room that their dinner is ready.

It is easy to see how a child's communication skills can be greatly enhanced during an interactive experience such as storytime. E.g. while the parents and children are talking about the book that is being read at bedtime, it can lead to the most wonderfully creative & silly conversations you'll have had all day. Additionally, when the child just hears the story being read to them, this is also enough to help promote and enhance the language area of their brain as it continues to develop.

5. Reading bedtime stories for kids can help improve their attention span!


As well as being a major help to developing your kid's sense of creativity, imagination, and problem solving, bedtime stories can also be of great help to increase your child's sense of focus & attention span!

Kids that are read to each night are learning to stay focused on the activity at hand for longer periods of time. In this way, it is arguably more important to read to kids that have ADHD for this very reason. They may struggle to pay attention, but the more it is done, the more they will develop their own skills to help hold their attention spans for longer.

6. Reading bedtime stories for kids is a great way to spend quality time with the family!


In at number seven on our list of the benefits of bedtime stories for kids is perhaps one of the best of all. Reading bedtime stories for children is a great way to spend quality family time together. This is an especially positive experience for the child if both parents (or step-parents) are present while the child is being read to.

Top Tip: Remember to get their siblings involved as well if there are any!

7. Reading for bedtime creates a unique bonding moment between you & your child


And last up on our list is bedtime story benefit number seven - reading to your kids creates a unique bonding opportunity for you & your children. This is perhaps the most simple reason of all to read to your kids at bedtime.

As most parents know all too well, time really does fly by, and we only get a few good years without kids where they would even want us to read them a bedtime story, and to generally spend intimate time with their parents in that way.

Our advice? Don't waste it. If you're lucky enough to have kids at the age where they're desperate for a bedtime story, then make sure you put aside the time from your evening routine to have this bonding moment with them regularly.

This unique bonding time is something that your kids will remember long into adulthood. As we've covered in this article, reading bedtime stories to your kids will also help them develop their sense of creativity, imagination, problem-solving skills, attention span, and most importantly, create happy memories with their parents.

What other proof would you ever need to convince you that as a parent, one of the most powerful things you can do for your child, is to simply be there and read to them each night!