A Bedtime Story

Once upon a time, there was a Little Man whose sleeping habits drove his parents to distraction and cost them many, many nights of sleep. Sleep became such a precious commodity to his parents, that his own mother devoted an entire section of her website to her obsession with it.

And then, time passed, and things improved. There came a point where Little Man’s parents realised that sleep had returned to their household, and they were loathe to change anything for fear it would take them back to the bleary-eyed days of yore.

More time passed, and Little Man’s parents had to admit that it was time to make the change from Cot to Big Boy Bed. They tried it once. And lasted less than a week before they switched back!

Still more time passed, until finally, they decided Little Man was sleeping well enough to try once more.

The first day in the new bed, Little Man took two hours to settle.

The second day in the new bed, Little Man took ninety minutes to settle.

The third day was much the same.

But on the fourth day, the novelty wore off, and the tiredness kicked in, and the Little Man fell asleep easily and slept deeply.

In the morning, he was refreshed, and woke his parents with a gleeful shout. “Wakey! Wakey!” he said.

Since then, weeks have passed, and the sleep habits of Little Man have been carefully monitored by his parents. Bedtime is an hour later than it used to be. But so is “wakey wakey” time. No longer rising at 5am (or 5:30 on a good day!), Little Man now wakes close to 7am – and on one or two occasions has slept to 7:30!

This week, Little Man went to bed with minimal effort each night, and slept soundly until a reasonable hour the following morning! His parents were very happy!

“The transition to Big Boy Bed is complete,” they said.

And they all slept happily ever after.

The end.

Sleeping Beauty

PS – how many James the Giraffes can you spot in this photo? 🙂