Can't sleep, won't sleep? Try the Sleep Fairy

Sleep deprivation. It’s a serious business. Irritation, tiredness, forgetfulness, anger and feeling rubbish are common symptoms. There is no cure except a good nights sleep. Easily done unless your little angel isn’t very willing.

We love this simple solution from Sue Atkins, a parenting expert and author of vital handbook  Raising Happy Children for Dummies. Sue came up with the idea of the Sleep Fairy to help her own children sleep at night.

“I used to love the Tooth Fairy and other magical things when I was a child and after a spell of sleepless nights with my two children I thought of the Sleep Fairy.  The Sleep Fairy pops into a child’s bedroom at night sprinkling her fairy dust and waving her magic wand full of deep sleep and magical dreams” Sue says.

The key is to explain to children that the Sleep Fairy will help children sleep all the way through the night and when they do so without calling out or climbing into mum’s bed, the Sleep Fairy will leave a special treat under their pillow in the morning.

Sue explains further: “Read a calming story, tuck them in, and say: ‘Unless you have hurt yourself then you don’t need me.  It’s time for falling asleep.’ Maybe put on their favourite quiet music or story CD then kiss them good night.”

Small, inexpensive treats such as pocket money toys are ideal for this approach and remember, if the children do not make it through the night, the Sleep Fairy doesn’t come.

Sue shares with us six simple steps to successful sleep.

1. Be reasonable – Make specific, reachable goals that your children can achieve. If you’ve got into a bad habit with your child, give them the goal of only waking up once in a night to earn a visit from the Sleep Fairy.

2. Give clear instructions – Tell your child exactly what they have to do to get a visit. “When I say goodnight, you must stay in your bed and not call out.”

3. Start by rewarding every night – You need your child’s behaviour to change if you’re going to have a good night’s sleep again so reward them every time for up to 30-days to change their pattern. Then, gently move to lots of praise or a sticker chart making it harder to get rewards for sleeping, but by then the new habit will have been established.

4. Move to a more intermittent or random reward system – once you see the behaviour established, tell your children the Sleep Fairy must help other children who have sleep problems. The Sleep Fairy will still visit once in a while (randomly). Or if your child likes patterns and routines then tell them the Sleep Fairy will visit them every Friday night from time to time.

5. Finally, let this system come to an end – once you get your regular hours of sleep help your child to write a letter saying thank you for visiting and helping them, and to say goodbye. Let your child know that the Sleep Fairy must go and help other children who need her now.

6. Children go through stages – don’t they? Some stages and upsets bring back old sleep habits and before you know it you’ve moved backwards again. So, bring the Sleep Fairy back. Then move back to every night for a week, going to intermittent for a week and then say goodbye again.

For more about Sue’s work and to receive her free monthly newsletter, visit: www.positive-parents.com