Po Bronson has published another great piece called "Snooze or Lose" in New York Magazine. Wow - fascinating. It's a longer story but well worth the read. Here is the gist of it:
Overstimulated, over-scheduled kids are getting at least an hour’s less sleep than they need, a deficiency that, new research reveals, has the power to set their cognitive abilities back years.
Also check out the great sidebar article by Ashely Merryman called "How to Get Your Kids to Sleep More" which has some unconventional answers to this common question.
Alyson, you're the best! I have a 13 month old daughter who I breastfed until she was 1, getting her to sleep has not been easy....I finally decided to research bedtime routines and so forth and I have watched your show before and thought I would go on your site to see what you had to say, I saw the dialogue between you and a reader about getting her 7 month old to sleep and it was very helpful. My daughter is a very determined smart little girl and i didnt think that I could win EVER lol but I am so happy I took your advice and proceeded to try the cry it out method since I tried everything else- IT WORKS!!! The first night she cried or rather whined and called mommy for an hour and 15 minutes, I knew that nothing was wrong she was just protesting sleep and knew that if she cried long enough Mommy would come get her but I didnt ( it helps if you keep reassuring yourself that they are safe, nothing is wrong and busy yourself with some sort of distraction) and after that amount of time she finally drifted off to sleep and didnt get up until 8:30 the next morning, well the second night it was only 35 minutes and by the third night 0 minutes, not even a peep ( I thought this was just a fluke) but she proved me wrong, night four and she walked into her bedroom and waved bye and pointed to her bed, so I tried to read with her like I do every night and she just sat and cuddled on my lap and pushed the book away, so I sang to her and put her in her crib, said goodnight and even though she was completely awake I walked out of the room and after moving around and playing with her stuffed bunny she fell asleep - I was amazed! She has never fallen asleep awake before I have always put her down asleep, so needless to say at 8 o clock every night my daughter is sleeping soundly and doesnt awake until 8 the next morning :) I am one happy rested mom! Thanks, I hope other moms find this encouraging we moms need to stick together lol
Posted by: Vicky | July 23, 2009 at 08:55 PM