The Happy Sleeper
The Science-Backed Guide to Helping Your Baby Get a Good Night's Sleep-Newborn to School Age
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4.4 • 21 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
UPDATED IN 2024. An urgent message for sleep-deprived parents: You don't have to suffer through "cry-it-out" OR attachment parenting's "co-sleeping." There's another way!
Parents spend a great deal of time and energy coaxing, negotiating, singing, and swinging their children to sleep. Yet studies show that sleep deprivation among young kids is rampant. Babies and young children get an average of 9.5 hours of rest per night when experts agree that they need 11-12 hours. A mountain of research links drowsiness to academic, health, and psychological problems. It turns out that over time, all that cajoling and soothing can actually have the opposite of its desired effect. The harder we try (with the best of intentions and boatloads of love), the more we get in the way of our kids' natural sleep development.
The Happy Sleeper shows parents how to avoid and undo cumbersome sleep habits, putting their babies and little kids on track to a full night's sleep. Heather Turgeon, a columnist for Babble.com and writer for the National Sleep Foundation, and Julie Wright, a psychotherapist and highly popular parenting expert, teach parents that babies have an innate capacity to self-soothe, as well as the brain machinery to sleep well. So why do many families struggle at night? Most do what works today, but don't notice when it's no longer needed tomorrow, and then push harder when it becomes a hindrance the day after that. Parents get stuck working overtime with fanfare and tricks to put their babies and children to bed--lying down with their kids, re-tucking and refilling water glasses endlessly. Mindfulness--the practice of using focused attention, being present and open--has proven effective in many realms of health and serves as the foundation for the techniques in this book. Using these methods in a thoughtful, attuned, and loving way, parents transfer the role of soothing from themselves to the children.
The Happy Sleeper features a foreword by neuropsychiatrist and popular parenting expert Dr. Daniel Siegel, author of Parenting from the Inside Out and the New York Times bestseller Brainstorm.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this guide to encouraging healthy sleep patterns in children, psychotherapist Turgeon and parenting group leader Wright write for those parents who would rather be told that their kids should "get smart" than "get tough." Solid information on children's brain development and physiology supports a clear and systematic "attunement" philosophy that strikes a happy balance between "cry it out" and "overhelping." Maintaining that kids are built to sleep, Turgeon and Wright claim that parental attempts to rock, bounce, and breast-feed babies to slumber can inhibit this essential skill development. Their methods focus on letting the child see the parent as a reliable presence, while still putting baby in charge of actually going to sleep. These include the "Soothing Ladder," which encourages using minimal intervention techniques to help babies re-establish sleep after normal nighttime wake-ups, and the "Sleep Wave," a simple but meticulous check-in routine. Different approaches are given for kids up to age six, making this a manual that will grow with the child. Turgeon and Wright's compassionate but firm system reminds parents that even the smallest infants are already learners, and to be more cognizant of what they want to teach.
Customer Reviews
Oh my goodness it WORKED
About a week ago during the 4 month sleep regression, i was the Mom who said NOPE, not my baby, to every single method i was night and day stressing HARDCORE over. And yes, i was trying them and ended the beginning of a long night in TEARS feeling awful. Then the regression ended and things got perfect again... NOT. My almost 5 month old was refusing to sleep and to accomplish any at all it took 3 hours worth of rocking, nursing, put down, cries again, repeat. It was awful...
The sleep wave worked wonders for us in just two nights. I felt confident checking on my LO every 5 minutes, reassuring her I was there but without picking her up... because guess what? Picking her up was NOT working! I was anti sleep train and this book taught me it’s not even “training” but is simply helping my baby do what she can already do. I feel like a better parent in 48 hours and HOPE this continues as bedtime has been amazing and it really only took one night to see the difference!
I will add I haven’t worked for naps yet but that’s my next step! Thank you thank you!
A disguise for a different sleep training method
I felt excited to find something that offered a holistic, attachment, and as they say “attuned” parenting approach to sleep. Reading the book and finding that it is none of those things, just another get scheme for sleep training. Going in and saying a scripted phrase while your child cry’s and leaving the room immediately, is not responsive or healthy for their cognitive development. If you are looking for a more intuitive approach to baby and toddler sleep, please look for something besides this book.