Since I'm a behavioral sleep psychologist, some of you have been reaching out to me during these difficult times to ask how you can keep your children's sleep on track. (Note that I also published a post on how to keep *your* sleep on track, too, so give that one a read if your sleep … Continue reading Helping your child sleep well during difficult times

Most of my blog posts are aimed at helping parents improve their children's sleep. These days, however, sleep is not easy to come by for any of us, so this post focuses on how to improve your own sleep. Hope you find a few tips below that help! Simple Ways to Improve Your Sleep Design … Continue reading Simple Ways to Improve Your Sleep

Let’s first talk about the differences between nightmares and sleep terrors. A nightmare is a bad dream that causes a child to wake up with feelings of fear. Nightmares are very common in young children. Most will seek out a parent after a nightmare and most will also recall them in the morning. Nightmares usually … Continue reading How Should I Deal with My Child’s Nightmares or Sleep Terrors?

Six-year-old Emma fell asleep in her own bed each night but, just after midnight when her parents were deeply asleep, Emma slipped undetected into her parents’ bed like a little ninja and stayed until morning. Emma’s parents needed a way to manage these nightly visits. If your child is waking at night and either calling … Continue reading How Should I Deal with My Child’s Night Wakings?

Helping your child become a more independent sleeper at bedtime will result in many benefits to your child, of course, but you will reap the benefits, too. Let’s review just a few of the reasons. You and your spouse are likely to have more quality time together If your child learns to fall asleep quickly … Continue reading Sleep training your child benefits you as a parent, too. Here’s how.

I have received many requests to weigh in on (excuse the pun) weighted blankets over the past few months, so I wanted to write a blog post about these blankets in the style of an interview. Why are weighted blankets so popular these days? How do weighted blankets work? Weighted blankets are popular because lying under … Continue reading Weighted blankets: why are they in the news so often?

Four-year-old Armand loved to play with a smartphone in bed for over an hour each night until he fell asleep. He became so used to this and so upset when his mother tried to take it away that his mother began making sure that the phone would run out of power each night around bedtime … Continue reading Tips and Recommended House Rules for Electronics

The bad news: you may be making two common mistakes during your preschool- or elementary-aged child’s bedtime routine that are keeping your child from sleeping well. The good news: both mistakes are easy to fix! Mistake number one: Staying with your child until he or she is completely asleep.  Parents often ask me, “Why does … Continue reading Why doesn’t your child sleep well? The two mistakes you may be making during your child’s bedtime routine

Do you have some lawnmower parenting tendencies? You’ve heard of  helicopter parenting, but there’s a new phrase making the rounds now: lawnmower parenting. Lawnmower parenting refers to a parenting style that strives to “mow down” all obstacles, challenges or difficulties in a child’s path. Of course, no one really wants to be a lawnmower parent, … Continue reading Kids of “lawnmower parents” may not be great sleepers

Would you like to set up your child’s bedroom to encourage great sleep? (Well, of course you would!) To do this, you'll want to remove some things and add others. Let’s start by talking about what to remove from your child’s bedroom Electronics Ideally, children’s bedrooms should have no electronics at all. To quote from the American … Continue reading How to set up your school-age child’s bedroom so that it promotes great sleep