May 18, 2026 · 33 min · 13 segments
In this episode, we break down the most common reasons children struggle with sleep and share gentle, effective ways to help them rest better. You’ll learn what’s normal, what may be disrupting your…
To start, I'm just trying to think of the best way to say this, but kids don't always sleep well, and sometimes part of that is just being a kid.
I feel like especially when I was a new mom, like 2016, 2017 era, it was all about how do I get my kids to sleep independently? How do I get them to sleep, you know, drowsy but not awake? How do I make them sleep on their own? And I think that that messed with so many of our minds, and I think that's still definitely out there today, this idea that unless a child sleeps through the night, sleeps perfectly, sleeps independently, we're failing as a parent.
Okay? So we need to understand that children will wake up in the night sometimes.
That's part of being a child and just checking to make sure that they're safe, that they're okay.
Now, where sleep can really become a struggle that's above the norm of, like, once in a while your child climbing into your bed and just, like, having a bad dream and needing you is when your child just, like, frequently is waking up multiple times a night, when they're having terrible nightmares.
Bedtime is taking hours and hours, and it's so difficult to put your child to bed.
That goes above and beyond I would say, like, the typical sleep struggles that are developmentally appropriate and we're seeing in kids.
And especially when it's impacting your quality of life as a parent, there are things that we can do and things that we can get curious about to help your child sleep well.
To start, I'm just trying to think of the best way to say this, but kids don't always sleep well, and sometimes part of that is just being a kid.
I feel like especially when I was a new mom, like 2016, 2017 era, it was all about how do I get my kids to sleep independently? How do I get them to sleep, you know, drowsy but not awake? How do I make them sleep on their own? And I think that that messed with so many of our minds, and I think that's still definitely out there today, this idea that unless a child sleeps through the night, sleeps perfectly, sleeps independently, we're failing as a parent.
Okay? So we need to understand that children will wake up in the night sometimes.
That's part of being a child and just checking to make sure that they're safe, that they're okay.
Now, where sleep can really become a struggle that's above the norm of, like, once in a while your child climbing into your bed and just, like, having a bad dream and needing you is when your child just, like, frequently is waking up multiple times a night, when they're having terrible nightmares.
Bedtime is taking hours and hours, and it's so difficult to put your child to bed.
That goes above and beyond I would say, like, the typical sleep struggles that are developmentally appropriate and we're seeing in kids.
And especially when it's impacting your quality of life as a parent, there are things that we can do and things that we can get curious about to help your child sleep well.
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