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A bedtime story is a traditional form of storytelling, where a story is told to a child at bedtime to prepare the child for sleep. The bedtime story has long been considered "a definite institution in many families".[1]
The term "bedtime story" was coined by Louise Chandler Moulton in her 1873 book, Bed-time Stories. [2] The scholar Robin Bernstein traces how the "ritual of an adult reading out loud to a child at bedtime formed mainly in the second half of the nineteenth century and achieved prominence in the early twentieth century in tandem with the rising belief that soothing rituals were necessary for children at the end of the day. The ritual resulted from and negotiated diverse phenomena: not only the growth of the picture book industry but also the spread of isolated sleeping in which children occupied individual bedrooms, the expansion of electricity and heating systems that shifted evening reading beyond the hearth to other domestic spaces, and a bevy of newly crowned psychological experts who persuaded parents that children needed bedtime rituals. "By the middle of the twentieth century", Bernstein writes, "the ritual had acquired acute symbolic meaning. Parents’ reading to children at bedtime became a metonym for proper parenting and an idealized middle class childhood."[3]
Reading bedtime stories yields multiple benefits for parents and children alike. The fixed routine of a bedtime story before sleeping can improve the child's brain development, language acquisition, and problem solving skills.[4] The storyteller-listener relationship creates an emotional bond between the parent and the child.[4] Due to "the strength of the imitative instinct" of a child, the parent and the stories that they tell act as a model for the child to follow.[1]
Bedtime stories are also useful for teaching the child abstract virtues such as sympathy, altruism, and self-control, as most children are said to be "naturally sympathetic when they have experienced or can imagine the feelings of others".[1] Thus, bedtime stories can be used to discuss darker subjects such as death and racism.[4] As the bedtime stories broaden in theme, the child "will broaden in their conception of the lives and feelings of others".[1]
Adult versions in the form of audio books help adults fall asleep without finishing the story.[5]
- ^ a b c d Dickson, Marguerite Stockman (1919). Vocational Guidance for Girls. p. 90–93.
- ^ Bernstein, Robin (2020). ""'You Do It!': Going-to-Bed Books and the Scripts of Children's Literature"". PMLA. 135 (5): 880.
- ^ Bernstein, Robin (2020). ""'You Do It!': Going-to-Bed Books and the Scripts of Children's Literature"". PMLA. 135 (5): 878.
- ^ a b c Jones, Patti (2011). "The Brainy Benefits of Bedtime Stories". Parents Magazine.
- ^ Purdon, Nick; Palleja, Leonardo (27 January 2019). "Canada's top 'sleep writer' reveals how he puts you under (can you stay awake?)". CBC News. Retrieved 1 February 2019.