Teach Your Child to Stay in Bed All Night

Co-sleeping may be a common and accepted occurrence in some households, but if you're sharing sleeping space with your child on a regular basis without wanting or intending to, you may need to teach techniques for relaxation and self-calming that will keep your little one safely tucked in to his or her own bed. The Floppy Sleep Game Book has lots of good advice for examining your child's routine, diet, habits, and special needs for ways to better ease the way to sleep, but the part you'll want to turn to for teaching purposes is the four-week Floppy Sleep Game program that starts in Chapter Seven. All your child will need to do to make this work is follow your instructions. Your part is harder. You will need to:

• Design a bedtime routine for your child that the family can really commit to.
• Have a CD player available for your child to listen to in bed.
• Do the Floppy Sleep Game program as outlined, every single night, until the four weeks are done, no exceptions.
• Make your bed off-limits to your sleep-struggling child.

Like a lot of instructional programs, this one is more labor-intensive on the teacher in the early stages, requiring more energy and imagination, but as your young pupil's abilities increase, he or she will be able to take more control of and responsibility for the process. You, as teacher, will just have to ensure that class meets every single night, no matter what, no matter your mood or your schedule or the kind of day you had. The extra sleep you'll get thanks to no more small-fry interruptions may help a lot.