What to Do When You Dread Your Bed: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Problems with Sleep: 5 (What-to-Do Guides for Kids Series)

I bought this book for my 7 year old daughter who was struggling to get to sleep and feeling anxious, worried and scared about her bedroom- she would go to bed a my a decent time but not fall asleep till quite late. I bought this book to hopefully find a soloution to the bedtime antics! And it did just that! This book is incredible and the structure and routine it details has worked a treat! My daughter is finally going to bed and falling asleep within minutes. My daughter has enjoyed reading the book and although we are still working through it, the bedtime routine is spot on and she loves to tell us what part of the routine is coming up. I think it gives her something to focus on and she has an element of control with it. This book has also opened our eyes as parents to the impact of the tv/ iPad just before bed and how detrimental this can be to a child before bed- my daughter has learned about what her body needs and why and understands why the routine is important. Most of all, it’s fun and you get to spend proper quality time doing it together. I look forward to reading more about bedtime worries and what to do to get over the night time fears in the middle of the night. I would highly recommend this book if you are struggling to settle the kids at bedtime and want a stress free evening! Empower your kids and yourself and get this book!!

This saved us. Bed time no longer a chore made it a treat again helped my daughter settle down and understand why sleep is good and important made it fun Aswell she is 8 and really struggled for 6 months if not more hated her bedroom hated her bed would cry at bed time I was at my wits end as to what to do and to get an evening back for myself sanity. I had tried music and reading and lights you name it but this as it is a work book to go through a chapter a night together brought it back to square one and gave us a bedtime routine nether of us dreaded any more! Best £10 ever spent if you are thinking how can a book help don’t doubt it it really can! We even go back over chapters sometimes when she has a slip. But this book also talks to you the parent to make us see how your child this is feels and how we can do bedtime routine better and calmer for them and us. Highly recommend

I'm trying this book out with my 10 year old daughter who has always had trouble getting to sleep and is currently getting worse! It seemed to work straight away, but about 10 days in (of total success I must say) we had a short holiday which of course spoiled our progress so we've had to go back a couple of steps. I'm really hoping that this will work in the end, I think it does give the child some confidence that they will be able to go to sleep, but you really have to stick at it , which of course you already know if you're thinking of trying it. I would definitely recommend it, I think it will work for a lot of people. Good Luck.

I have tried everything over the years to get my daughter to go to sleep without me. I prefer a gentle approach and this book is perfect. It empathises with both the child and the parent and guides you through a step by step fun process. It also most importantly, has worked! My daughter engaged with the process and although she didn't want to do everything we followed most of the points and she is now going to sleep on her own. I highly recommend this book, although I think it will work best for kids over toddler age who can read it themselves, perhaps with a parent.

Decided to try this book after reading the reviews. We'd hit a sticking point with our 7 yr old who had been a fairly good sleeper but suffered from many nightmares and night terrors. We had reached a point where he was struggling to get to sleep because he was fearful of a nightmare then waking for a couple of hours in the night. We found the book a really useful tool for getting him back on track and helping him to understand about the sleep process. He loved learning the magic tricks and took in all the information about sleep. The book helped to rationalise the nightmares and scary thoughts. The relaxation techniques proved easy to pick up and we now have a seven year old who is back to sleeping through the night. I'm sure there will be more glitches with sleep in the future but we feel the techniques in the book are now embedded in our sleep routine so hopefully anything in the future will be quicker to resolve!!

This book was good in principal - In retrospect I should have read it to myself first but I was eager to get started so read it with him - only to discover (as I read out loud) that I should be putting him up to bed at the time he is currently falling asleep and starting bed time routine then and gradually bringing the time forwards once he settles quicker - He obviously held onto this fact and bed time is now ridiculously late and he goes to sleep even later & even more unsettled!

We purchased this book for our (very mature) 12 year old who has had sleep and anxiety issues for quite some time, we bought it in conjunction with What to do when you worry too much. This book was so helpful, gently guiding our daughter through the issues that bothered her and encouraging her to write down her worries and colour in pictures which really helped. We read it together at night and within a 2 week period she had cracked a sleeping issue which had been going on for 2 years. Each chapter starts with a magic trick and uses this to illustrate the processes you need to go through in order to help you sleep. There are techniques for all sorts of sleep problems, resetting bedtimes and the descriptions that the author uses are so accurate you will find yourelf smiling and saying "yes that's us". I really can't recommend this book enough

I don't write many reviews (too busy), but wanted to spread the good news about this book, and the difference it's made to our family life. My daughter is 12, and has always been 'scared of the dark'. We had to leave lights on, have open bedroom doors, a light on in the hall, barricade the wardrobe, and she'd frequently wake me up in the middle of the night, scared. However, within a few days of following the bedtime routine, things got much better. She fervently believed in the book, and had faith that it would help her. Now she goes to bed earlier and sleeps through, with much less disruption. Dealing with the fear element has been a bit more problematic, I think because the book is aimed at younger children. We find the idea of 'monster time' a bit tricky, it's one thing jumping around with a mask on with your 7-year-old, but quite another trying it with a young lady who's at secondary school and doesn't play anymore. I'd like more guidance on how to deal with fear in pre-teens, but I haven't been able to find anything, so this book will have to do. And it is very useful, I've just had to be a bit creative in 'upscaling' it for older children. I so wish I'd discovered this book 5 years ago, I think we would have solved our sleep problems way back then completely.

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.

Gran libro para poder aprender a educar y gestionar las emociones de los niñ@s, y para adultos, ayuda a entendernos mucho mejor. Sin duda una gran compra. 100% recomendable.

I bought this for my seven year old granddaughter whom, while on a visit, mentioned she was really liking it so far. Hoping it will give her one outlet, to all those thoughts that pervade, when trying to go to sleep! Written with a variety of ways to keep the child’s interest and the book presents some interactive activities too!

Really great! Have been working through it with my 9 yr old son, who was having major bed time fear (thanks to kids at school talking about the Excorcist....I mean really, who lets their 9 yr old watch that??!!) My son loves that each chapter starts with a magic trick and then the chapter does a great job relating the trick to the next step in getting to sleep better. Really recommend it! Maybe not so much for the very young though, your child has to be able to go through the book with you and complete the exercises.

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!