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Kristen Bell
Photo: Bruce Glikas/WireImage/Getty Images
Few issues concern parents as much as their children's sleep - and quite a few might wish that putting them to bed in the evening was quicker and easier.
Apparently so does Kristen Bell and her husband Dax Shepard: In an interview with »E!
News«, the 42-year-old spoke about her family's evening rituals, in which gummy bears with melatonin content seem to play a not unimportant role.
She gives the candy to her daughters Lincoln, 9, and Delta, 7, so she and her husband can have some time to themselves in the evening.
"It just blows them away faster and they're doing great," Bell said of using the melatonin bears.
"We don't want to go to sleep if they want to go to sleep"
So far, the family has slept together in one room, the children on a mattress next to the parents' bed.
But this sleeping situation was no longer suitable: "We don't want to go to sleep when they want to go to sleep, so far we have connected our headphones to the television and put on another series, and they tried to fall asleep on the floor next to it."
Now the two girls would have their own room in which their beds would be right next to each other.
"This way they can cuddle with each other instead of with us," says Bell.
The use of melatonin as a sleep aid in children is controversial.
In Germany, the drug has been approved for children from the age of two for several years.
However, it should only be used when serious neurological disorders are causing the sleep problems.
Kristen Bell has spoken frequently in the past about her own mental health issues, she suffers from depression.
The actress is best known for playing Veronica Mars in the television series of the same name.
lmd