Maintaining the Plan

Every step you have taken so far to help your reluctant sleeper deal with their sleep anxiety must be constantly tweaked and updated. Talk to your child and make sure they are feeling good about the changes already made, and if there is anything else they would like to do to help themselves. 

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that once they have slept well for a few nights or weeks that the problem is fixed, because it is not! Your child's sleep anxiety has not gone away, and it will definitely rear its ugly head again. 

We call this a 'glitch'. Our Little Miss will sleep wonderfully for as much as 4 or 5 weeks with no problem at all, then suddenly she will glitch and be terrified to sleep again. We have found that there are some triggers for this - if she stays up later than 10:30pm, we can pretty much guarantee this will happen; and if she has any sugar after 6pm, this also causes her to glitch. Finding out what these triggers were was difficult in the beginning, but once we realised what they were, and we adjusted for it, it made a huge difference.

We all glitch about one thing or another, so its not a huge deal. Always remember to allow your child to have as much control over this plan as possible, and flexibility and negotiation is paramount to success.

Don't ever forget to tell your child how well they are doing (even if they just had a bad night), because encouraging them and building up their self-confidence and sense of self is not only the key to conquering their sleep anxiety, but it is also the way they will achieve their dreams when they grow up!