So we recently got my 7 year old a night lamp so that he can read in bed after bedtime. He loves reading, and would stay up all night reading if he could. But, he’s still 7, and needs his sleep. The solution here would be really simple, if not for the fact that his 5 year old brother sleeps in the bunk bed below him - otherwise we’d just use the smart sound machine/lamp in the room to change tone/color to notify him when to go to bed. (Because changing the sound/color would immediately wake up his not-so-sound sleeping brother below. He’s also mostly oblivious to his surroundings when he’s immersed in a book, and likely wouldn’t even notice it.)
So we’re looking for some sort of solution that could be attached to the top bunk. The night lamp we got him is battery powered, and clamps onto the headboard. It likely would have been a smart idea to get a corded light that we just attach to a smart switch that automatically turns off. That might be the ultimate solution, but I hope the Teeming Millions might have something else up their collective sleeve.
You’d probably want something that was somewhat passive in case he had already fallen asleep. No sense waking him up with an alarm to tell him it’s time to go to sleep. One thing that might work is to get one of these timers which has a remote button:
It’s basically a timer with a manual switch. The button can turn the light on or off and it can do dimming. You can configure it so that the timer will turn the plug off at a certain time. The cord is a few feet long and can be placed next to his bed. He can press the button to turn the light on when he goes to bed and then the plug will turn the light off at a certain time.
One thing that’s nice about this timer its that it’s not like a traditional timer where the plug is disabled when the timer is off. With a traditional timer, if the timer’s off, you can’t turn the lamp on because the plug is deactivated. But with the tethered button of this timer, you can just tap the button to turn the light on or off at any time.
Get a smart outlet (I like the ones from kasa) and program it to “Turn off at XX:XX am/pm” and plug something into it. Maybe a small clamp lamp on the headboard.
Oooh - that’s a great idea. I don’t think he’s at a Fitbit stage in his life, but I bet he will be soon.
Solution we came up with is we found a book light that clips onto the book that also has a clock/timer on it. The light isn’t necessary since he has the headboard one, but it’ll be really useful on trips/vacations.