The internet is full of various sleep training blog posts and helpful articles by ‘sleep experts’, so what makes my post any different. Well, keep reading and you may just stumble upon some unconventional hacks on how to sleep train your clingy child.

In my case, I need to start getting Azmu used to sleeping in her bed all through the night. We’ve already cut out the afternoon naps, and night time is the one we need to work on. For us, her bed is next to our master bed and even though she dozes off to sleep in her bed to begin with, half way through the night she creeps back to the middle of our bed. I have tried to put her back in her bed, once in deep sleep, only for her to return back in our bed within an hour. So, yes there has been interrupted sleep for us all, occasional back aches and a lot of pushing and pulling of the duvet from every side. Frankly, it is time to teach her to settle in her own bed for good.

Sleep training is not going to happen over night. Infact, it may not even happen over a few days. However, the trick is to stay consistent and stick to your night time/bed routine. Also important is to continuously ensure your child that he/she is in a safe environment. And finally, the most important out of them all: never underestimate the excuses your child will come up with at the last moment. Yes, they’ll feel thirsty, want to pee, want that special toy, want one more hug or story just as you are about to switch off the light. It’s happened to me and it would only be wise to share with you a few things in order to prepare yourself for the night time routine:

1. Purchase a good night light.

Trying to sleep in bright light is impossible, and especially for the little ones, sleeping in pitch black darkness can be unnerving. A new night light, shaped as a moon or heart, or one showing stars moving across the room can help in calming them down, and eventually doze off to sleep.

2. Make your own ‘Scare spray’ bottle.

Yep, I can’t believe I’ve done this with Azmu, but it’s worked so well. The first few nights Azmu has told me she gets scared of scary things or monsters when I switch off the light. Therefore, I filled a cheap spray bottle with clean water and some glitter. Before she would go to bed, she would spray ‘away’ all the scary things around her bed, making sure none of the monsters would get to her. Ofcourse, getting soaked herself was an extra bonus.

3. Maintain minimal touch.

For us, because her bed is next to mine, I would let her hold my hand while she would doze off to sleep. The first few nights you’ll find yourself holding for a long time, maybe even waking up with an aching arm, but as you move on day after day, they start to doze off quicker.

4. Cut out any day time naps if still having them.

This helped me tremendously, because it meant she was tired from all the play through out the day and therefore was ready for bed quicker. Ofcourse, she could wake up late the next morning, to make sure she got the 10-11 hours of recommended sleeping hours based on her age.

5. Sleep Sticker chart.

Is this even a surprise? So, yes, for every night she slept in her bed, she was allowed to put a sticker of her choice on her sticker chart. This also came with a promise that mummy and daddy would take her to the arcade games on the last day, if she collected all the stickers by the end of 20 days. For this, we stocked up on some pretty looking stickers and a personalised sticker chart. I have attached a sticker chart for 20 days here with this post, should you wish to download and use.

I hope this post has been helpful and given you some tips for your Mission Sleep Training. It is going to take a lot of work from you, a whole load of patience, but in the end when you get to spread yourself like a star fish on your own bed and sleep through out the night, it will be all worth it.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and found it useful, please share it on your social media pages. Also, if  you would like to read more posts on parenting, please see below:

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Disclaimer: The above opinions and views are that of my own and speak of my own experience. I do not claim to be an expert on sleep training and because every child is different, the above hacks may or may not work for you. Kindly speak to a professional if you require specific help with sleep training your child.