What to Do When You Dread Your Bed: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Problems With Sleep (What to Do Guides for Kids)

Before buying this book, we checked it out through our interlibrary loan to see if this was something worth getting. My oldest has a variety of anxieties and fears that have made sleeping on her own and through the night a challenge. Our temporary solution was to sleep with her or nearby but we and she knew this wasn't a good solution. She wants so badly to be able to fall asleep on her own and stay asleep. This book has some fantastic tools and strategies. Additionally, it starts each chapter with an easy to understand concept and teaches a fun and easy magic trick. It was helpful for her to read how much sleep she should have and use the worksheet provided to determine when she should be in bed in order to be rested for the next day. The section on how to turn your fears into something funny has been helpful. She was very reluctant to try that as she didn't want to talk about those fears outloud, but now that she has, it has taken some of the power away. We are still working on it, but she is making progress and feels that it is possible. She will request this book and ask to try strategies without our prompting. I would highly recommend this book. I also work with students during the school year and I will recommend this book to parents who may be struggling with the same things.

I got this for my 10 yr old daughter who does not often go to sleep easily for fear of having a bad dream. We started reading it in bed with the intent of just reading a section or two. But every time I said that's enough for tonight, she asked if we could please keep reading. This book hooked her (and me) immediately with both the content (including a magic trick which I let her do; and activities & games, which we read thru but will do during the day tomorrow. And a the way it is written - appropriate for younger children but not babyish or cutesy, so - good for tweens also. It not only helps to record and track new/ improving sleep patterns, but also what to do about the fears, thoughts, & dreams that keep her from sleeping and/or sleeping well. She fell asleep just before the end, knowing we'll read it again & do the activities tomorrow. Seems like working thru this book could greatly improve her sleep and diminish the fear of her dreams. Will send an update in a few weeks - but so far we're off to a good start!

We were at our wits end with our 9-year old son's bedtime fears and the affect it was having on his sleep (and ours). Our counselor suggested this book. Not only does help a child define why they are having trouble sleeping, but it also begins with some fun, easy magic tricks to help the child (and parent) understand the need to follow all the steps in the book. The "Patterns" chapter allows you and your child to construct a series of activites prior to bedtime to get your child accustomed to a routine (& let the body wind down for sleep). The hard part for us was sticking the routine every night because other commitments but we did it & it was worth it. There's even a chapter that helps the child deal with their fear of the dark & of being alone. I was concerned this program would not work because my son is so cynical but the exercises are fun & allowing him to be part of some of the decision making process was perfect. It gave us family time, and our son has been going to bed without drama, falling asleep quickly and staying asleep for a month now. Mom & dad are happy!

I read through the book in its entirety before going through it with our child and was so hopeful! I think the content, concept, layout, and activities are just phenomenal! I truly felt convinced that this was going to fix our sleep issues. However, I quickly realized that I needed buy-in from my child. If the child isn't willing to try the excellent ideas that are suggested in this book, it won't work. (Obvious statement, but something I hadn't really considered.) So if you have a strong-willed or stubborn child, be prepared that they may not want to try the ideas in the book. But otherwise, I would highly recommend this, as it is an excellent resource! I have actually implemented some of the steps myself (circle breathing being one of them!) and have thoroughly enjoyed the sleep that follows :)

Up to the nighttime routine chapter, been paying my 8.5 year old a small allowance to do a chapter a night, (with some breaks to work on some chapters), and it's doing wonders... been dealing with bedtime and nighttime issues for way too long.. large and looming nighttime fears, and plain old not wanting to go to sleep. The whole family is benefiting from his night time routine. My son refuses to do homework so I was nervous he wouldn't want to do it, but the book is done brilliantly, teaching magic tricks to children in basically every chapter...wow. I can't wait to finish this book so he can do some of this author's other workbooks. I think it's giving my son a sense of "owning" his evening in a very healthy and age appropriate way. He's also actually falling asleep without melatonin which he's been on for half a year now. Seriously magic.

Excellent book for any child having difficulty falling asleep at night. This past summer, my 8 year old developed anxiety about falling asleep. It came out of left field to say the least. Nothing had changed in her life, other than we weren't sticking to our normal bed time and routine (because of it being summer vacation). So, I ordered this book on a whim due to being desperate to try anything and get not only my daughter's sleep back, but mine as well. I am SO GLAD I purchased this book. The author does a great job explaining why children may dread going to bed or having trouble falling asleep. She explains everything on their level, in their terms. The exercises she has you and your child do and things to focus on at night worked wonders for us. It definitely put my daughter's mind at ease that this phase she was in, was not the end of the world. I had her back on track in a couple of weeks. My appreciation and thanks to the author for writing this book. You're a lifesaver.

I love this book!! And own most of the books by Dawn Huebner, Ph.D. !! They are all sooo good! My only problem with this book is I really wish they didn't start each chapter with a magic trick! Like I just want to be able to read it through with my daughter and not have to do a magic trick at the beginning of each chapter. kind of annoying but other than that the content is right on and it's perfect!

I bought this book for my two children 3 years ago. Both were having very different sleep issues. My son (8 at the time, and diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder) was stuck on bad guys, wanting to talk about his day, worries, and physical issues like being too hot or restless legs. My daughter (6 at the time, and recently diagnosed with OCD) had a big need to be with us after bedtime, just didn't want to be alone... lots of bathroom use, needing drinks, being hungry, and then she'd wake in the night and come get in our bed. This book helped with every single issue I've listed. I think between my two children, they had every problem listed in the book! And the book was so easy to read, and easy to use, that we were able to see relief from bedtime struggles right away. Its been 3 years since we worked through the book. We have a very strong bedtime routine, with electronics being turned off an hour before bed except on the weekends. My son (11) still has issues with being too hot. He sleeps with a fan and sometimes with a cold pack when he gets too hot, and a water bottle every night. But we have this as our routine (filling the bottle, turning on the fan) and it doesn't take anytime from sleeping. Sometimes he tries to talk about his day, and I say in a whisper "its too late for talking". He sleeps in the dark, with generally no problems. My daughter (9) sleeps with a night light, through the night. She no longer gets out of her bed, and she doesn't get any water at all, because she then needs to use the bathroom. We settled that years ago, and it's not an issue anymore. We used the technique in the book for getting her to stay in her bed, that involved having tickets, or "call-backs", and getting rewarded if you didn't use them. It really, really worked well for us, and it wasn't long before we could say "good-night!" and that was that. I highly recommend this book. It is easy to read, and easy to use, and covers just about any night time problem you have. Worth every penny!!!