Kids aren’t the only ones who thrive on routine. Loftie’s Chief Marketing officer, Liz Rooney, sat down with Perelel’s Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Alex Taylor (both parents of two), to discuss parenting and sleep hacks for the whole family.

Alex, you have two young kids and you run a company that’s growing rapidly. When do you find time to sleep?

  

Candidly there isn’t a lot of sleep in this season of my life. I would like more but haven’t figured out how to create more hours in the day (yet).

All kidding aside, I do try my best to optimize for better quality sleep with the little sleep I do get. I avoid blue light for at least 2 hours before bed, I sleep in a pitch black room, and play brown noise on my Loftie.

  

Describe your morning routine. How has it changed since having kids?

  

I meditate upon waking, have a cup of coffee and then exercise. Then I wake my children and we have breakfast together. This is my favorite part of the entire day. It’s slow, relaxed and I am hyper present.

If we have time, we also read books or simply play for a few minutes. Then, it’s off to the races: We all get ready and I walk the kids to school before driving into the office.

  

I too feel my best in the morning. It wasn't always true during pregnancy, however. During your pregnancy, what factors were critical in supporting your sleep?

  

I had a tough time with sleep during both of my pregnancies. I'm a back sleeper so sleeping on my side was a big adjustment.

Unfortunately there weren't great natural OTC pregnancy-safe sleep options when I was pregnant, which inspired us to create Perelel's Sleep Support Powder.

  

What do you do to help instill great sleep habits in your kids, especially post-travel?

  

I am a big believer in the power of routine when we're home. The kids take a relaxing bath, we read books, dim the lights, and they fall asleep (only after rattling off about 1,000 random questions). After a vacation, it takes time to readjust but we do our best to stick to our regular "bedtime."

One thing I try to do when changing time zones with the kids is to see the ocean (if possible). Watching the waves helps reset my system to better sync up with wherever I am.

  

I love that advice. What else do you do to create healthy evening routines for yourself?

I change my phone to red screen mode after 8pm, dim the lights in the house, try to read and quiet my mind… but candidly it can be tough as I always have a lot on my mind.

When I find my mind running, I’ll have a cup of Sleep Support before retiring to bed and that always helps me fall asleep faster.