Using sleep pressure to help toddler sleep

This page is part of a collection of short articles called Brief & simple, which together make up a quick summary of The Possums Sleep Program in plain language. For comprehensive information and support, please go to The essentials section of The Possums Sleep Program, and begin to work your way through the program's online text and videos.

If your toddler regularly takes a long time to go to sleep, this shows that your toddler's sleep pressure isn't high enough yet. This is why toddlers are often bright and active just when you would really like them to go to sleep - you might be tired after a long day, but your child's sleep pressure is still rising!

It is possible to set up the day and night so that your toddler's sleep better aligns with yours by

• Same get up time for the toddler in the mornings, as early as you can possibly do it

• Keep daytime naps in the midst of noise and activity, if your toddler is still napping

• Don't put your toddler to bed at night until the sleep pressure is very high.

If you've misjudged, and tried to put your toddler to bed when the sleep pressure isn't high enough, you might both get up and continue with the day or evening activities, or you might read more stories together.

Acknowledgements

I'm grateful to Professor Sophie Havighurst, Ros June, and Caroline Ma at Mindful, The University of Melbourne, for their feedback on the articles in the Brief & simple section of The Possums Sleep Program. They helped me keep the language plain and the concepts as accessible as possible. For comprehensive information and support, please go to The essentials section of The Possums Sleep Program, and begin to work your way through the program's online text and videos.