#59 - How Do I Get My Preschooler to Sleep?
This is a question asked by many successful parents.
Parents who have managed to overcome their child’s sleep problem when they were a baby.
But kids grow up fast!
And they’re fast learners.
When the bars from their cribs are removed as they move into their own little bed, they learn:
they can get out of bed whenever they want.
that phrases like “One more story”, “I’m thirsty”, and “I need to go to the toilet” work better than phrases like “I’m bored” and “What are you doing?”.
they can turn on the light and play with their toys.
they can stand tall and open doors.
They’re like a little teenager finding their freedom.
So as a parent - what do you do now to fix their sleep?
You tried a lot of things as a parent. And finally found 1 or 2 things that worked!
But you can’t try those techniques on your preschooler (eg, lock their door and do sleep training).
You’ll likely search the internet; get advice from family and friends - and if you get desperate, you might go see the pharmacist so you can get one decent night of sleep.
It’s much harder to find a health professional who can teach you the science-based program that works.
Lights Out!
All children are different.
And there are multiple causes for sleep problems in pre-schoolers.
So it makes sense to use a program that has multiple sleep techniques.
Because surely 1 or 2 of them will work!
Well, for the past couple of years we’ve been working with colleagues from Australia and the USA on a sleep program for pre-schoolers.
Led by our friends at Griffiths University, who have been hard at work teaching the sleep program - called Lights Out - we’ve learned that the Lights Out program works!
The video below details these benefits - not just for sleep, but also anxiety and behaviour.
So have a listen to Associate Professor Caroline Donovan as she explains the sleep problems of preschoolers, and the benefits of the Lights Out sleep program.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter by this Sunday (Feb 24) and you’ll receive an extended version of this blog in your Inbox - where we dot point a bunch of the techniques used in the Lights Out program.
Those 1 or 2 Things That Work!
And if you’re a health professional, check out our Members page.
There’s a range of extra benefits for becoming a member - and relevant to this blog, I’ll be detailing the step-by-step instructions of one of the techniques in the Lights Out program that we’ve evaluated in our own research.
To learn more, book yourself into our new Live Q&A that we’ve added for the month of March.
Prof Michael Gradisar