It's not often that someone who doesn't read books offers up reviews of books (at least, I hope not). And yet here I am, preparing to sing the praises of a book I've never once cracked open. Perhaps it's more accurate for me to say that I'm singing the praises of the wife's interpretation of the book, as she is the one who actually read it.

The book is:


"Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" (Marc Weissbluth)


I may have mentioned that my son, while he has slept pretty well at night, has never been one to take naps. Though it may drive us crazy at times, it's not a big concern - UNLESS he is not getting close to the recommended amount of sleep that he should be getting for his age. This was the case recently, as he would not nap, and consequently would spend the last few waking hours of the day resembling a very cranky zombie.

The weird part was that though he was visibly very tired, he wouldn't go to sleep when we put him to bed at his normal bed time. He'd stay awake in his room for 30-40 minutes before drifting off. The worse part is that he'd combine that with waking up EARLIER, even though he went to bed later and was very tired.

Enter Dr. Weissbluth and his book. Though I'm sure he says a lot in all those pages of that big old book, I took two very important ideas from it - or rather, from the wife's interpretation of it:

1.) If he's waking up too early in the morning, put him to bed earlier at night

and

2.) Sleep begets sleep

I was very nervous about this. Conventional wisdom says that if you put the kid to bed earlier, he'll wake up earlier. Waking up earlier = BAD. And sleeping more at night seems like it would make him less likely to nap during the day. His theory is that when the kid is overtired, it becomes harder to fall asleep, so the problem perpetuates. My theory was that this guy was a quack and should have his license revoked. But after running out of legal alternatives (I found out that it's actually NOT legal for me to buy Lunesta over the internet and give it to him) we finally decided to give it a try. We put the kid to bed at 5:45.

He proceeded to sleep for 13 hours and 15 minutes. Straight.

The following day? He napped -- TWICE, almost 3 hours total.

If you have a kid who has any trouble sleeping, read this book. Or, if you're more like me, get someone else to read it and pass on the highlights to you. This guy knows what's up.

If Dr. Weissbluth were to start a religion, I'd join.