Watch the video HERE.

You made it through the early years of either sleep training or lying in your child’s room until they fell asleep, right? So why is your big kid constantly coming down or lying in bed awake until all hours of the night?

When our oldest started preschool, it was like as soon as he got into bed his brain became alive. He built his best creations our of Duplo Lego or Zoobs when he was supposed to be sleeping, asked many intriguing questions and would even cry because he couldn’t get tired enough to fall asleep. The fact was, he was overtired and we tried everything to correct it - switching up the bedtime, creating a more soothing routine, we even got our the essential oils and massagers.

When he was in 1st grade, I found this great book and we read it together. It has helped him understand it is his job to help his body relax and there are many ways to do it. There’s also a game in the book that really helped our 3-year-old...

I didn’t sleep through the night for 7 years.

That isn’t something you expect when you decide to try for a family!

I don’t want to sugar coat it, parents, sleep is something you take for granted until it’s gone. You are super fortunate if you get a baby that sleeps and you are a good sleep trainer. Unfortunately, whether it’s me or my three babies, they wake me at night often. Even now. I used to get woken up by the kids multiple times a night every night.

I would never suggest taking advice from me on how to get your baby or child to sleep through the night, but I have learned a lot about how to function on interrupted, not great sleep.

Here are my seven best strategies:

1. Work with your sleep cycles as best you can. Our brains’ sleep cycle works in 90 minutes, and the goal is to get 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep each night. The next best thing isn’t 7 hours, or 6.5, it’s actually 6 of sleep. Not lying in bed, but sleep. So...