The Happy Sleeper: the science-backed guide to helping your baby get a good night’s sleep — newborn to school age
About this ebook
Many parents feel pressured to ‘train’ babies and young children to sleep. Sometimes hours are spent rocking, singing, and coaxing. But kids don’t need to be trained — they’re built to sleep.
Over time, all that cajoling can have the opposite effect to what is desired. Problems can arise when parents (with the best of intentions) overhelp or ‘helicopter parent’ at night, overshadowing their baby’s biological ability to sleep well.
In The Happy Sleeper, child-sleep experts Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright show parents how to avoid and undo cumbersome sleep habits. They provide guidance on how to be sensitive and nurturing, but also structured, so that your baby or young child can develop the skills they need in order to:
- fall asleep independently
- sleep through the night
- take healthy naps
- acquire natural, optimal sleep patterns for day and night.
Using these methods, parents can guide their children in learning how to soothe themselves to sleep — putting kids (and the whole family) on track to a full night’s sleep.
PRAISE FOR HEATHER TURGEON AND JULIE WRIGHT
‘Turgeon and Wright‘s compassionate but firm system reminds parents that even the smallest infants are already learners, and to be more cognizant of what they want to teach. Solid information on children's brain development and physiology supports a clear and systematic “attunement” philosophy that strikes a happy balance between “cry it out” and “overhelping”.’ Publishers Weekly
‘A must-have purchase if you can't remember the last time you had an uninterrupted night's sleep.’ Baby London
Ratings and reviews
About the author
Heather Turgeon is a psychotherapist and author. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other publications. Turgeon runs parenting groups and works with families in her clinical practice in Los Angeles. She has two (well-rested) elementary- and middle-school-age kids.
Julie Wright is one of Los Angeles’s best-known parenting-group leaders, and has taught thousands of mothers in her popular Wright Mommy and Me groups. She trained at Cedars-Sinai Early Childhood Center and co-founded a program for parents and babies from zero to three at the Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic.
