Description
Benny Goes to Bed by Himself introduces a unique roadmap.
For parents: Simple strategies based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy principles.
For kids: A humorous and intriguing bedtime story that illustrates how children and their parents can easily overcome nighttime fears.
“Mom, Dad, I’m scared. Please don’t leave until I’m asleep”
“I heard a scary noise and thought that something was here”
“I’m scared of having nightmares again”
Sounds familiar?
These are all things Benny the lion cub used to say to his parents every time he went to bed or woke them up in the middle of the night. But that was a long time ago, before Benny learned how to go to sleep on his own.
This book’s goal is to engage children in getting rid of nighttime fears while giving parents a roadmap for helping them through that process. This is done by using simple, proven, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy strategies, based on Dr. Kushnir’s years of experience.
Going to bed and falling asleep can be a serious and stressful challenge, especially for young children. Many children experience the night and the “getting to sleep” moments as an anxious process, in a way that makes them feel distressed and many times dependent on their parents.
Parents, in turn, think that nighttime fears will probably go away if they just attend to the child’s need for a few nights. Unfortunately, in many cases, the anxiety children suffer persists and intensify. The child’s parental dependency at bed time increases, which often leads to frustration and anger.
This book tells the story of Benny and his family and of how they were able to work together to get rid of Benny’s nighttime fears. The journey was not easy, and along the way, they had to overcome challenge after challenge, until they finally succeeded. Today Benny and his parents enjoy much better sleep. Benny is not only totally independent, but he also teaches other cubs how to overcome their own nighttime fears!
Newly Launched!
A comprehensive parents guide, accompanying this book in beating kids’ nighttime fears,
Children and Parents Beating Nighttime Fears: A Parents Guide. Check it out on Amazon.
Please visit our Facebook page for more information, or if you have any questions or suggestions:
https://www.facebook.com/NIghttimeFears/
Enjoy the book and sleep well!
The information contained in this book is provided for educational purposes only. It is not meant to replace professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any attempt to diagnose and treat a medical condition should be done under the direction of a healthcare provider or physician. For any medical conditions, each individual is recommended to consult with a healthcare provider before using any information or ideas discussed. The author shall not be liable or responsible for any loss or adverse effects allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
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Spencer Durant –
Our daughter is 10, since lockdown her sleeping routine has changed and the fact of increased hygiene with frequent hand washing and face masks. I think despite us having conversations and acknowledging emotions, the last few weeks she hasn’t been able to settle herself to sleep and would keep coming into our bedroom the first few hours of bedtime. This book has changed everything as your child will be able to relate to the characters feelings and situation.
BUY this book, you won’t regret it and it actually works because it contains parent advice and your child will relate to the story with their own feelings.
As a parent any support and further help goes along way in ensuring our children recognise their emotions and how to deal with that emotion.
Thank you and Dr Kushnir you really have provided a technique that works.
jessica Smith –
This book scared my son more than it helped him. The pictures were scary too. I wish I would have previewed it more before trying to read it to him.
Michelle P –
This book is good resource for parents to use when trying to help their little one who is having trouble going to sleep on their own. The book includes tips for parents to help them empathize with some of the thinking their child might be experiencing and the story emphasizes one technique which may be helpful, told through a cute story with original illustrations.
Shane Lewis –
The book starts in the middle, reads to the end, then you have to read the last part backwards!
Super messed up page numbers and printing.
Katie Cronce –
If your kid isn’t scared or is using about monsters yet don’t buy this book. Read this to my daughter a few times and now she won’t stop taking about monsters.
Emma van Lint –
Personally this book was not for us. It was very long and complicated and ended up scaring my 4 year old by putting ideas of monsters and evil in his head that he wasn’t worried about before we read it! I did change up the words when I read it to my son but unfortunately my husband had already read him the full story! Might suit older children but I felt the story took too long to get the message across.
Steph83 –
This is such a cute book with a great plan to combat nighttime fear for kids. We are hopeful it will help our daughter overcome fear and get back to sleeping in her bed!
Amazon Customer –
This didn’t work as intended for our family. The story is nice, but our daughter lost interest in it pretty quickly. We have been having issues with her wanting to sleep in her bed for quite awhile now. It may work for the right family, but not for ours.
Sha –
We have a 4 1/2 year old who was overall a great sleeper (did sleep training at 6 mo., slept in own bed and room, etc.). Flash forward a couple of years and after an ambulance ride (allergic reaction) at age 3 1/2, she wanted mommy in her room to fall asleep. After she would fall asleep and I returned to my own room, 1 or 2 wake ups would happen during the night. I’d have to wait until she was asleep again to leave. After an exhausting year of this, I decided it was time to change things. I tried to leave the room “cold turkey” and you can imagine how that went over :(. I was desperate and way overtired!
This book, however, CLEARLY outlined a plan for us. I definitely recommend it, and some additional things that have helped us have been:
1) Read the book first on your own (I chose to eliminate certain words (like “evil” and some descriptions of monsters (didn’t want to add to her scary ideas…) and just replaced them with “scary thoughts”…). (*A note to Dr. Kushnir: This is a wonderful book! The parent tips at the bottom are so helpful. Thank you! You may consider simplifying the descriptions of scary things to not add ideas a child might not have. In addition I’d suggest that the text could fully rhyme or not rhyme. Right now it’s a combination of both which can make it feel choppy when read aloud. We love the illustrations by Ram! My daughter enjoyed them and they are not too scary. There are, however, no trees on page 5 where the description says, “under the broad and green trees that were his home”. This isn’t a deal breaker, but as an elementary school teacher and artist it definitely was noticed).
2) Read it with your child (I’d say age 2.5/3+..) during the day after they have had success doing something and are in good spirits. Try not to plant ideas (“there are no monsters in the closet/under the bed…etc.). They might have not even had thought of those things (I made that mistake…I was tired!;). Instead ask them, “do you worry when I leave the room? What are you thinking about?” My daughter said, “spiders”. I was surprised but neutrally said, “hmm. I see. I will check for spiders to make sure there are none. Oh! Did you know lavender spray keeps the ___ away?!” (Aromatherapy). She suggested that we draw a “No Spiders” poster for her door:).
3) I asked her what helps her fall asleep and she said, “when I’m tired”. Brilliant, lol! Sounds obvious, but she’s spot on. When she’s outside and more active (no naps or 30 min. nap now at age 4.5) we’ve noticed that things go much more smoothly at bed time.
4) Limit screens after dinner (dinner at 6, bath at 6:30, family game, books at 7:30, bed at 7:45/8pm). The only screen she sees is my phone to listen to one audiobook podcast we love called Storytime With Mommy and Phillip (she looks at the cover image of the book). If you need help (ex. While doing dishes, handling other things…this awesome podcast is worth a try! It can be found wherever you listen to Podcasts or just search for it).
5) 7:30/8pm Bed time: 2 short books, lights out (night light on called Mella that changes to green at 6am when she can get up, also has white noise that we use, a little song, “fill her dreams with baby bunnies (etc.”), prayers, back rub for a minute with “Sleepy Paws Moshi” sleep story on my phone (search and it comes up on YouTube) she just listens and it’s like magic. She falls asleep within 10 min.).
This is a lot of info. which may or may not be helpful. This book, however, Benny Goes to Bed by Himself, has helped us with the final step of getting our daughter to fall asleep in her own bed and sleep through the night!!!!
With the recommended of a psychologist friend/mom, we did set up a small sticker chart where after a week of this she will earn a prize. It took two bumpy nights (with praise for trying and no negativity, just re-teaching (it is a skill after all!), then we had two excellent nights of her falling asleep in her room and bed on her own at 8pm and sleeping until 6am). I know it’s early, but this book definitely has given us the language and tips to help our whole family feel confident about teaching this very important this life skill. We’re ALL in a much better mood these days! Thank you Dr. Kushnir & Ram!!!
Chad Edward Hensley –
This story described my son and every one of his fears perfectly. We read this together every night and I think it’s helped a lot!
Kelli F. –
This book is great! I have an almost 4 yo. Who will fall asleep just fine. But wake up all hours of the night. Quite literally my daughter, after reading this book. Slept all night in her own bed, didnt the second night (which follows the pattern of the story) and over all has made a tremendous difference in her ability to sleep longer on her own. As someone who has tried EVERYTHING. This book works wonders. Helping both parent and child understand why they can’t sleep all night. The book is a bit long. So I read it a little bit before bed time. My daughter usually sleeps with it to. A great purchase, im so glad to finally see some positive results, with my daughter’s sleeping habbits!
Sha –
This book is absolutely wonderful and perfect for my four-year-old. He can process the story as well as it helps me understand and apply techniques to help my child, fear sleeping alone