My 7 year old is a lot like me - a night owl. Every night he would lie in bed and wiggle around and simply not be able to fall asleep. I sympathize 100% - I still feel that way most nights. But while I sympathized it also made me more than slightly crazy.

He was up past 10 every night, impossible to wake up in the morning and a grouchy and frustrating person; we were all at a loss at what to do. A google search suggested a book: What to Do When You Dread Your Bed: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Problems

I was honestly at a "what is there to lose" point so went ahead and bought it. This book saved the day.

How it works

It's a workbook for a child so the kid in question should probably be in the 6-12 year old age range so he/she can work through it themselves and really understand the concepts. It wouldn't work for my four year olds.

It goes through all kinds of concepts on why sleep is important, how habits are formed, and how to overcome fears. The best part? It reinforces a lot of those lessons with MAGIC TRICKS!

It gets the child to make decisions about what will work and what won't and then they follow through an action plan of a consistent routine.

How are things now?

I don't know if this will work for everyone, but our son bought in to the logic behind everything and ultimately he was willing to implement the suggestions in the book. It took a couple of months to slowly implement but we are now rarely hearing from him after 8:30 pm and he's actually usually asleep by 9. He's become a far more pleasant person, often running around in the morning helping to make lunches and get everything organized instead of dragging around, crying and complaining of a stomach ache.

It worked for us. If you have any questions, leave a comment I'd be happy to offer any extra insight. If you had something help with getting your kids to sleep better also please leave a comment. I know so many parents who struggle with kids who just can't seem to get to sleep.