The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep: A New Way of Getting Children to Sleep

My daughter and son in -law are first time young parents of the most adorable child God every created. ( Of course, I’m grandma.. right?). They live with my husband and me. Most recently, my sweetie pie started having difficulty falling asleep. She would also wake up all hours of the night and cry. I’m sure the neighbors could hear her too! We figured her crying episodes were attributed to teething. But, when the teeth erupted through the gums and the nightly episodes continued, her parents began to feel hopeless. They tried everything to get her to fall asleep. Desperate and sleep deprived they even took her for 2 hour drives in the middle of the night! from Los Angeles to the Mexican Border!!!! No, they weren’t going to drop her off!!!
When I heard about this book during a local news segment, I thought, “Why not give it a try.” I use to facilitate relaxation group sessions for adults many years ago. So, I figured I’d use the same relaxation voice while reading this book to my granddaughter. The initial time, she had a major meltdown during the first page or two. She cried, kicked, and screamed. But, by page four she was snoring. Her pacifier fell out, while her precious eye lids fluttered..YES… REM sleep!!!
I was pretty shocked and skeptical….So, within a few days, she woke up crying in the middle of the night . I quietly went to their bedroom, picked her up and took her to my bedroom. Next, I swaddled her in a lightweight wrap, dimmed the lights and began rocking her while I read the book. Once again, she had a major meltdown. I nearly gave up because she seemed to cry louder the more I read. Then I opened an App on my phone to add background noise. We knew she preferred and responded well to brown noise. Meanwhile, my dear husband of 36 years, admitted he too couldn’t sleep because he was having racing thoughts about nothing specific. So, now the captive audience increased to two! My husband was a huge skeptic, but I didn’t let that deter me. My granddaughter fought harder than the first time. But. I continued to read and made sure my breathing pattern stayed the same. Alas! By the time I reached page two, I heard snoring…. this time it was my husband. One down..one to go, I thought. I got to page four, and the ‘pacy’ fell out of her mouth that was now wide open! Her little limbs slightly twitched, as she too began to snore. I gently placed her between my husband and I in bed. Then I felt my eyelids feeling heavy too! Everyone in our household slept peacefully for five uninterrupted hours!
Now, my daughter wants me to make a recording because she knows the offer to put the baby to sleep was a one time offer. However, I’m a softy. This afternoon, I caved because my poor son-in- law was babysitting ,and once again my granddaughter would not go down for her afternoon nap. Long story short, by the beginning of page 2 all of her deep sleep gestures were visible. This book works miracles!
My recommendation to folks in similar situations is to be consistent and patient because every child is different.
Just tune into your inner calmness before attempting to read the book ,and I assure you the child,or adult for that matter, will enjoy a very peaceful sleep. It’s the best $20 ( rapid shipping) I’ve ever spent. I intend to give it as gifts to other parents and grandparents. Also, I can’t wait until Mr. Ehrin publishes more books!! Enjoy!

Swedish hypnosis? Yes, I will try ANYTHING to get my 3 yo to fall asleep quickly and STAY asleep, in her bed the whole night, but this book was NOT it. Heard about it from a friend on Facebook and ordered it immediately instead of requesting it as a present or waiting for it from the library. My 3 yo said, “Dis book is boring!” as she was jumping up and down on her bed as I’m trying to read in a slow calm voice. The pictures are nightmare-inducing. The Sleepy Snail looks like an aging-Steve Buscemi-worm and the wizard’s house makes me think there’s a witch waiting inside to cook me. Remember when Homer Simpson builds that clown bed for Bart? That bed is less scary than the wizard’s house.

Plus it was translated from the Swedish (and apparently not edited AT ALL). But, I pretty much hate all books translated from Swedish. Stieg Larsson, John Ajvide Lindqvist, IKEA directions (That last one was a joke, obvs.).

This is a direct quote from the book.
“After a pause with relaxation the kind Sleepy Snail said that the secret is to calm down and to do everything in a more slowly manner. Walk slowly, so slowly. Move slowly, so slowly. Think slowly, breathe slowly and calm, slow and calm, just down down now.”

So my kid will be sleep deprived AND speak with bad adverbs? I know I’m tired, but I can’t do that to my kid.

Good ol’ Amazon refunded me.

I am one of the lucky majority for whom this book worked. My 2 year old daughter (2 years and 4 months) fell asleep the first night and has done so without fail every night since – about 3 weeks. Bedtime has gone from 2 exhausting hours of crying, carrying and singing to a pleasant, quiet 30 minutes in which we enjoy a story together. So, yeah, it works – much has been written about the book’s effectiveness and my wife and I were hoping that this would happen.

What I DIDN’T expect was my daughter’s total shift in attitude toward sleeping. She looks forward to our special bedtime story and now feels positive about the idea of falling asleep (probably because she knows how to now – the story teaches that), whereas she would cry at the mention of sleep or bedtime a month ago. I feel that the book has made sleep a safe and pleasant thing for her, given her ownership of bedtime (falling asleep is now something she DOES, not just something that happens to her) and empowered her by teaching her ways to relax and get ready to sleep. This is a far greater gift than merely hypnotizing your little one to sleep in 20 minutes each night, because these feelings of safety and confidence will stay with her into the future, even when her bedtime routine does not include this book. Amazing stuff.

A few notes on our experience with the book, in the hopes of helping other parents…
1) Our little one gets REALLY excited about new stories – that helped to get her to buy into the story the first time, as it isn’t particularly exciting.
2) I lie down on the bed next to my daughter and we read the story in a soft, low light. When she gets sleepy, she just rolls over and hugs me and falls asleep like that. I always keep reading until the end of the story anyway.
3) My daughter was a little scared the first time we read the story, so I emphasized the kindness of the characters, Roger’s friendship with her (“Roger is a nice friend – he’s thinking about you”) and how nice Roger feels as he gets closer to sleeping. I kept stopping to talk to her and asked if she wanted to keep reading the story.
4) If my little one starts losing interest or playing with her fingers, I stop reading and ask her a question about the story to get her interested again. Maybe we laugh about how funny Sleepy Snail looks or how long Mummy Rabbit’s ears are, or I ask her what Roger is doing or how he feels, etc
5) Your child needs enough vocabulary to understand the story, and for you to be able to chat to them about it to get the full benefit. (“Are you feeling a bit sleepy, too? Does it feel nice to close your eyes?”) I am not sure if we would have been this successful had we tried even 2 months earlier. Who knows, though? Other parents have had success with younger kids.
6) On the handful of occasions when she was not quite asleep by the end of the story, I put the CD version on and we cuddle each other and listen to the story again together. We’re usually both out within 10 minutes or so.

Wishing you all peaceful bedtimes and a good night’s sleep 🙂

Como método para dormir no es tan bueno e infalible como se ha publicitado y como historia tampoco es nadad del otro mundo. Está bien pero nada más.