Kissing Your Child Goodnight Can Help Aid Their Sleep, Study Finds

Ending the day with a peck is a nightly ritual performed by 70% of parents. What most don’t know is that if your child's nightly routine includes a bedtime kiss, you’re likely getting a better sleep than those who don’t.

Martin Seeley, CEO and Sleep Expert at MattressNextDay has dug into the science behind a goodnight kiss to reveal that children actually get a sounder snooze tend to get a sounder snooze after getting a goodnight kiss from their parents.

The science behind a goodnight kiss

Kissing creates a chemical cocktail in our brain, featuring dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin, which all make us feel amazing and crave more of whatever has given it to us. However, as we’re settling down for the night, these chemicals also help us to reduce the levels of cortisol - the stress hormone - in our body. By increasing dopamine and decreasing cortisol, a goodnight kiss changes the chemical balance in our child's brains and physically makes them less stressed.

Less stress equates to more sleep. And decreasing cortisol is one of the main processes our child's bodies go through to prepare for sleep. If your little one's stress levels are too high or they're full of adrenaline after trying to fight bedtime, they'll find it hard to drift off, but luckily a bedtime kiss will boost them full of the good chemicals and reduce the bad ones.

A goodnight kiss releases chemical oxytocin - the hormone that makes children feel safe and reassures hunter-gatherer instincts

Other than keeping children in a routine and helping their brain get ready for sleep, one of the main benefits of a kiss goodnight is a sense of security. Not just security in your relationship but safety in your surroundings too, which in turn helps your mind and body relax.

Kissing releases - amongst others - the chemical oxytocin. This increases feelings of closeness, and importantly, security. It lowers anxiety and makes children feel safe. Feeling safe and secure is essential for getting to sleep faster, and sleeping more deeply. When children feel insecure, our anxiety and adrenaline levels rise, which prevents the production of melatonin.

A goodnight kiss can be essential for your child's nightly routine

In fact, some people say they can’t sleep well at all if they haven’t had a peck from their partner - putting them out of routine and throwing off their bedtime habits. If your partner kisses you every night, your brain will associate it with getting ready for sleep, and if you don’t get your smooch, your brain will be prevented from engaging in its daily wind down process.

If you do something every single night before bed, your brain will begin to associate it with the production of melatonin - the sleep hormone. For example, if you like to read before bed, picking up your book will trigger a response in your brain as it anticipates sleep. The same goes with a goodnight kiss - if your partner rolls over for a peck at around the same time every night, your brain will come to expect it. And if you don’t get one? Your brain has to figure out on its own when to start settling down for sleep, which might take longer.