Despite decades of scientific research, it is still a mystery what allows people to fall asleep. That’s especially true for little people.
Several weeks ago, my daughter Jessie and her little girl Emmi were visiting for the weekend. Her dad was taking a weekend off to do projects at home. Emmi will be three years old in October. She is an adorable, bright, dramatic and headstrong toddler. She has trouble getting to sleep, especially when she is away from home.
That Saturday evening was no different. Jessie tried and tried to get Emmi to sleep in the futon toddler bed we had fixed up for her. Jessie was tired from weeks of Emmi giving her a hard time at bedtime, from a demanding job and some recent health issues. She had “a sprinkle” to go tomorrow with old high school friends. (For those of you who are not Gen Z, a sprinkle is a baby shower for a young woman who is pregnant with her second, third, or fourth baby.)
“May I put Emmi to sleep?” I asked my daughter.
“Ok, Dad,” Jessie said, skeptically.
I went upstairs with Jessie. Jessie kissed Emmit goodnight.
“Poppa is going to read to you, honey,” Jessie said as she backed up cautiously through the door.
Emmi looked worried, but “Mimi” and I had read to Emmi lots by now and I knew she loves books. I read her one, than another. Then I turned to one that Jessie had read to her several times already. It was a book about sleep. Good bedtime choice! It was a sweet little board book, “The Sheep Who Wouldn’t Sleep.”
The Mama Sheep helps her little Baby Sheep who can’t sleep to visualize herself floating through the clouds, and to pretend to be anything she wants to be in her imagination —- a doctor, an astronaut, anything. Since Emmi, like most bright children her age, lives in the world of her imagination, she loves this book.
Emmi lay on her tummy as I read to her and showed her the pictures. She recited most of it. She knows this book by heart. I read it to her half a dozen times. But each time I went to leave, she began to cry, saying “Mommy! I want my Mommy!”
So I lay on my tummy next to her and said, “Let’s do this Emmi. Pretend that we’re floating in those clouds with the sheep. Imagine yourself floating, flying. You can be anything you want. Dream of being anything you want…. Do you want to be a doctor?” (She often carries her little doctor bag around with her like Doc McStuffins.)
“Isn’t it comfy on your tummy? Don’t you enjoy floating in the clouds like those sheep? You can dream of anything!” I timed my words with her breathing.
Pretty soon her eyes were closed. She was fast asleep. She awoke once but did not cry, when her mom came in to say Goodnight to her later on.
The sleep experts don’t usually suggest lying down with your child to help him or her to go to sleep, but there are reasons for exceptions, like helping your little granddaughter sleep in a place which is not her home, and helping her tired mom.
And remember that the Imagination is one of the Superpowers of childhood!