Take a deep breath… Relax… Sleep…
Our kid drew a doodle and told the child psychologist, “I can’t sleep at night”.
On most nights, she had trouble falling asleep. She started hating nights as it brought back ugly memories from the initial hospital stay — from being poked at night in the ER, to port leaks, dressing changes near the chest, monitors beeping loud every now and then, nurses rushing in and out… The result was intense emotional trauma. She had multiple night terrors, where she‘ld wake up crying hysterically. She was so scared of what may happen at night, that she did not want to sleep…
Continued sleeplessness over weeks was driving us tired and insane. Desperate, we tried anything and everything that the doctors and our friends suggested. Bedtime routine of shower, followed by storytime, lullabies, calming nightlights, a cozy tent with favorite stuffed toys… Somehow nothing seemed to work… We went to the child psychologist, but that wasn’t of much help either…
After trying various things, a couple of ideas that finally worked are rocking her to bed (yes, like a baby!) while singing a song or telling her a story, and trying the 7 minute Heartfulness relaxation technique while lying on bed. This is a simple technique that progressively relaxes each part of the body. Every time we tried it, she and my husband were fast asleep before we completed the script! 😉