Stamford, CT USA — Dec 20, 2012 / (http://www.myprgenie.com) — Sleep is a very important basic need we all have and getting healthy sleep can help parents create balance in their home. To date there are 20 certified sleep consultant graduates of the new Family Sleep Institute, the first comprehensive and affordable child sleep consultant certification program that helps others start their own inde pendent sleep consulting company. Here is a compilation of nine expert sleep tips to help parents and children have healthy sleep in 2013:
1. Sleep is a learned skill. As parents, it is our job to teach our kids this skill by providing a foundation for a lifetime of good sleep. It sounds like a daunting task, but there are just five simple rules to follow: 1. Provide a consistent place to sleep 2. Follow your child’s biological sleep rhythms 3. Encourage an early bedtime 4. Implement a consistent soothing routine and 5. Teach your child self soothing skills. -Amy Lange, Well Rested Baby (Beverly Farms, MA)
2. Decide what you’re going to do in regards to sleep training and have the confidence to see it through and be consistent. If you respond to your child differently each time, he will eventually cry and fight the program no matter what you do! Consistency communicates security to children – when they know what to expect, they are comforted and their sleep habits are positively impacted. -Laura Swartz, Healthy Happy Sleep (Tucker, Georgia)
3. It’s our job as parents to teach our children the importance of following through and staying consistent. Pick the right sleep training method for your family and follow through with your words and put them into action. This sets a precedent for your own personal parenting growth as well as your child’s. -Dana Parsons, Sheep At Night(Norwalk, CT)
4. Give any new sleep strategy enough time to work. Many parents get discouraged and give up if they don’t view results right away, but just as sleep problems take more than a few days to develop, they usually take more than a few days to fix. A good rule of thumb is to give any plan two weeks with consistent follow-through before deciding one way or another. Until then, hang tight! -Sasha Carr, Ph.D, Off To Dreamland (New York, NY)
5. The most powerful tool of all is PARENTAL CONFIDENCE. Without it, nothing else you do will work. There is no consistency without confidence. If you are to get your child to believe in themselves and find out just how capable they are, they must sense that YOU believe in them and are not worried that they can’t learn positive new habits. Even babies are tuned into whether mom and dad live by ‘conviction’ or ‘convenience’. -Jennifer Metter, Jenni June (Los Angeles, CA)
6. If I had a quarter for every time someone told me to put my daughter to bed later or to skip a nap in order to get her to sleep more, Id be a wealthy woman. Id also have an overtired, cranky child! I know its hard to believe because its counter intuitive, especially to new parents, but the golden rule of sleep is this: Sleep begets sleep! The more a baby sleeps, the better rested he’ll be and therefore, will be able to sleep longer and have higher quality sleep. Babies who are well-rested are happier and healthier. High quality sleep is like nutritious food if we feed junk to our babies, they wont grow up to be healthy and strong and sleep is no different!
In order for babies to get enough sleep, we as parents need to make sure they are napping and sleeping at the biologically correct times in the right environment. When we do that, they sleep for longer periods of time and their developing brains and bodies have the no urishment needed to help our babies grow. -Debbie Sasson, Sleep Sisters(Philadelphia, PA)
7. A super early bedtime is your secret weapon in the fight for healthy sleep. Many people believe that a later bedtime will make a child sleep longer in the morning, but the opposite is true. If you have a child who is waking multiple times at night, is taking short naps, or is rising before the sun comes up, chances are, he is overtired. An early bedtime, often as early as 5:00 p.m., can help prevent children from becoming overtired and having difficulty falling asleep. It also aids in making your child’s sleep more restorative. Restorative sleep is important to babies and toddlers who are still napping because consolidated nighttime sleep improves daytime sleep, which allows them to nap at the correct biological times. Early bedtimes also give older children the opportunity to have quality, uninterrupted sleep at night and be well-rested during the day. Remember, it’s never too late to improve your child’s sleep habits, and using a super early bedtime is one of the most effective ways to make that happen. -Lori Strong, Strong Little Sleepers (Austin, TX)
8. Don’t be afraid to use an early bedtime! Our society has led us to believe that if we keep our kids up later they will sleep in later. This couldn’t be further from the truth! If we allow our children to stay up too late they will get a second wind. During this process they release a hormone called Cortisol which is similar to adrenaline. Once this has happened it is almost impossible to get them to sleep for many hours and cause many bedtime battles. So putting your children down before they get too tired will avoid this. Also, never fear that an early bedtime will cause an early wake up. The opposite usually happens, as the well rested brain can accept sleep more easily than one that is overtired. And always remember sleep begets sleep! -Kerrin Edmonds, Meet You In Dreamland (Atascadero, CA)
9. Protect your child’s sleep! While it sounds illogical, getting your kids to bed early will promote longer healthier sleep not to mention happier, healthier kiddos. Often the solution to a child waking up in the night or too early is to give them an earlier bed time. It is vital not to let activities such as sports and even visiting family interfere with an early bed time. You will see a happy well rested child in no time! -Tiffany Larson, Families Dreaming (Parker, CO)
The above expert sleep consultants are available for interviews. Please contact pr@
ABOUT THE FAMILY SLEEP INSTITUTE
The Family Sleep Institute is the very first comprehensive yet affordable child sleep consultant certification program based on 15 years of experience by the leading Child Sleep Expert, Deborah Pedrick. The Family Sleep Institute lives up to its name as it is truly a “family” to all graduates who go through the program.
Deborah Pedrick, founder of familysleep.com has been educating families for over 15 years on the importance of establishing and maintaining a healthy foundation for sleep in their children. She is co-founder of the International Association of Child Sleep Consultants, www.IACSC.com and Founder/President of the Family Sleep Institute, www.familysleepinstitute.com, which instructs, mentors and certifies Child Sleep Consultants around the world. Deborah resides in Stamford, CT with her teenage son, Soren. She has a private practice consulting parents on how to establish and maintain healthy sleep habits in their family. She has been quoted/interviewed in The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Parents Magazine, NY Family Magazine, and has been a contributing sleep expert for “The Doctors” television show. Deborah is a member of the National Sleep Foundation and the American Sleep Association.
