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.

The second way sleep is controlled is by sleep pressure.

People might tell you that sleep is controlled by sleep associations like always putting your toddler in the cot to sleep, but that is not actually true: it's high sleep pressure that sends toddlers (and all humans) to sleep.

Sleep will happen wherever your toddler is and whatever youre doing, once the sleep pressure is high enough.

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.