For many parents, getting kids to fall asleep can be a nightmare. But a children's bedtime story currently topping Amazon's Best Sellers List promises to make the process easier and help kids to drift off to sleep faster. 
 
 "The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep," a self-published picture book written by Swedish author Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin, employs psychological and positive reinforcement techniques to promote relaxation and induce sleep. 
 
 The tale follows Roger The Rabbit and his mother as they journey to meet Uncle Yawn to help him find sleep. Along the way, they meet characters like Sleepy Snail and the wise Heavy-Eyed Owl who give Roger advice on how to fall asleep faster. 
 
 The key is the story's language pattern and sentence structure, Ehrlin says. "The entire story is focused on getting the child involved and to get the child to identify with Roger who will fall asleep in the end," he told CBS News. "The main goal is to keep the child focused on the goal of relaxation. One could say that this story is the verbal equivalent of rocking the baby to sleep." 
 
 By the time Roger reaches Uncle Yawn, he is already feeling tired. Magical sleeping powder ultimately does the trick and he can barely get home before falling asleep and getting a good night's rest. 
 
 The book - with the words "I can make anyone fall asleep" emblazoned on a sign on the front cover - allows parents to personalize it by using the child's name, and it offers written cues for parents, such as encouraging them to yawn at the end of a sentence, to help them tell the story more effectively. 
 
 Dr. Umakanth Khatwa, Director of Sleep Laboratories at Boston Children's Hospital, likened the book to "gentle hypnosis." 
 
 "The authors have created a character that is just like the child and who has a similar problem as the child - trying to fall asleep," he told CBS News. "So the whole time, you're talking about sleep, you're trying to solve a problem about sleep and you see how the character falls asleep. The authors use the words, the patterns and the story in a way to induce a kind of hypnosis. The characters' names even sound like sleep initiation." 
 
 "The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep" was originally published in Swedish in 2011. In 2014, an English translation was released and it is now available in seven different languages. It is currently outselling big releases like Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman" and Dr. Seuss' "What Pet Should I Get?" on Amazon. 
 
 This is Ehrlin's third book, and his first for children. His previous two books, focusing on adult psychology, leadership and personal development, have not been translated into English. 
 
 Reviews of the book online are largely positive. "My two year old daughter always fights sleep," one parent wrote. "It normally takes 1 -2 hours & she was out cold within minutes. This will definitely be a regular part of our bed time routine." 
 
 "I am amazed!" another parent said. "We battle sleep every night with my now 2 year old. We got to page 3 and he was out!" 
 
 "It feels almost like a guided meditation," another reader observed. 
 
 Ehrlin said he is happy the book has reached so many families, many of whom have reached out to him with suggestions for future stories that could help their children. His next book, he said, may focus on similar techniques for potty training. ||||| A psychologist has claimed that he may finally have the answer to the age old problem and has developed a new book scientifically designed to send children to sleep within minutes. 
 
 Since going on sale, The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep has rocketed to the top of Amazon’s best sellers list. 
 
 The paperback was written by Swedish psychologist Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin and tells the tale of Roger the Rabbit, the Sleep Snail and Uncle Yawn on their quest to help the rabbit go to sleep. 
 
 Parents are advised to read slowly and methodically and to yawn throughout the narrative. It is believed that these psychological reinforcement techniques transfer to the child who then mimics their parents’ sleepy behaviour. 
 
 Mr Forssen Ehrlin claims to use language patterns and complementary images to lull even the most energetic child to sleep over the course of its 26 pages. 
 
 He claims: "This is an innovative and groundbreaking type of bedtime story that uses sophisticated psychological techniques. 
 
 "These are formed in a way to help the child relax, fall asleep faster and sleep calmer every night. The tale gives suggestions to the child's unconscious mind to sleep." 
 
 It is believed that this is the first time that an independent author has topped Amazon’s best sellers chart. ||||| Do you struggle with getting your child to fall asleep? 
 
 In The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep you will follow Roger The Rabbit when he gets help from Uncle Yawn and other friends to fall asleep in the evening. Your child is quickly compelled by the story and falls asleep when you read it or after. The story is in a lovely way sleep-inducing and helps children all over the world to fall asleep. 
 
 
 
 This is a new safe and innovative way to help your child fall asleep and is recommended by psychologists and therapists. The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep will help you accomplish the task of getting your child to have its beauty sleep and sleep well all night. 
 
 
 
 "Have you ever struggled to help your child get to sleep and wished that you had a magical spell? Carl-Johan’s enchanting book will soon have your young ones dreaming." 
 
 – Matt Hudson, Bestselling author and psychotherapist 
 
 
 
 No need for How-to skills, it’s as easy and simple as reading a normal bedtime story with improved language pattern that will help your child to relax and fall asleep. After massive feedback from parents all over the world it’s safe to say that The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep is a quick and guaranteed way to help your child relax in the evening or during a nap. 
 
 
 
 This children’s book will with ease help your child to fall asleep, at the same time its fun for you to read a bedtime story that’s written in a special compelling way. While reading the kids book you can also enjoy the lovely pictures that improves the sleep-inducing state of the bedtime story. The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep also gives you opportunities to personalize the story by using the child’s name and commit them even more to the story. 
 
 
 
 Make your evening routine to something special and loving; buy the Rabbit Who Want’s To Fall Asleep today. 
 
 
 
 "Use the story about The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep when exciting things are happening, or when something temporarily makes it difficult for your child to fall asleep." 
 
 – Mikael Odhage, Psychologist ||||| Bunmi Laditan talks about giving up something very important for the sake of her son 
 
 For parents, bedtime is sacred. Our children’s bedtime, that is. It’s the time of day where we can finally do the things we want to do without tiny hands and voices beckoning us. That’s why a recent viral post from a mom who’s been there is striking a chord with parents. Because we’ve all been there. 
 
 Bunmi Laditan, the hilarious mom behind Honest Toddler, wrote about a recent night where she had to set aside her hopes and dreams of sweet silence to be with her young son. She talks of that amazing feeling when a parent finally has the kids asleep and they can do whatever they want. And then, the cry from one of the bedrooms. 
 
 We all know that cry. 
 
 She writes, “Night time is my time. While the days are for work, cleaning, and errands, once the last child breathes heavily and steadily in their bed, I come alive in a new way. Silence descends upon my home and I’m free to do whatever I’d like.” 
 
 It is a precious time, especially when your kids are very small. And when it’s intruded upon, the urge to quash whatever your child is asking for is strong. But as Laditan shares, sometimes, you just need to be there. 
 
 She explains that he cried out an hour after having gone to sleep and after listening for a moment, she knew he wasn’t going back to bed on his own. After going into his room and trying all the usual “tricks” to help him fall back asleep, she surrendered to it, despite her desire to do otherwise. 
 
 “Nothing worked and I felt that familiar frustration rising. I didn’t want to be here, in his room, battling with the most difficult version of him. I wanted to lie down, read, watch Netflix, or eat something I shouldn’t. I deserved it. I only had an hour or so left before I’d fall prey to the sleep that’s always behind my eyes. And what if he wakes the others? The only thing worse than one awake child past their bedtime is three in the same predicament.” 
 
 Her concerns are highly relatable — who among us hasn’t been there? After a tough evening of meeting your child’s every need, all you want is to sink into the couch with a glass or wine or bowl of ice cream and zone out on some mindless television. My husband and I often call that cry from the bedroom after we’ve settled in for adult time “the final insult.” Like, everything else we did all day and night for our kids wasn’t enough? They have to cut into our beloved evening hours too? 
 
 Well, yes. Sometimes they do. 
 
 As Laditan says, her first instinct was to protect her time to herself but quickly realized it wasn’t going to be so simple this time. So she let it happen. She was there for her son when he needed her. 
 
 “I relaxed into the thin rug on the wood floor and surrendered, not to him or his needs, but to what the moment needed of me. I needed to be there and I knew it. There was no escaping this, no convincing, bribing, or threatening my way out of it. The parenting books and experienced grandmas might say different, but I could feel in my bones where I needed to be: here.” 
 
 Losing out on evening alone time is a huge deal to a parent, no question, but these are the sacrifices we make. There are times where our children’s needs supersede ours and yes, it sucks. But if we are honest, we wouldn’t have it any other way. 
 
 As Laditan says, our kids can teach us some important lessons, and the one she learned that night? 
 
 “Sometimes you have to sit.” ||||| A new bedtime to-do list, courtesy of sleep researchers at Baylor University: 
 
 
 
 1. Write a to-do list before bed. 
 
 2. Go to sleep. 
 
 3. Sleep better than all the non-list-writing people you meet tomorrow. 
 
 It sounds simple, but there's evidence that it just might work. According to a small study published in the January issue of Journal of Experimental Psychology, participants who took 5 minutes to write out a to-do list before bed fell asleep more quickly than participants who wrote about tasks they had already completed. The key, according to researchers, is in mentally "offloading" responsibilities before bedtime, theoretically freeing the mind for sound sleeping. [How to Sleep Better] 
 
 "We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime," lead author Michael Scullin, director of Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, said in a statement. "Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to explore whether the act of writing them down could counteract nighttime difficulties with falling asleep." 
 
 To test this hypothesis, researchers invited 57 men and women between ages 18 and 30 to spend one weeknight in a controlled sleep lab. The rules were simple: lights out at 10:30 p.m., and no technology, homework or other distractions allowed. 
 
 Five minutes before bedtime, each participant was instructed to complete a short writing exercise. Half of the participants wrote about anything they needed to remember to do in the upcoming days, while the other half wrote about tasks they had completed during the previous days. When the exercise was done, participants tucked in for bed. Researchers measured each participant's brain activity overnight using a technique called polysomnography, which records eye movement, muscle activity and other biological changes. 
 
 The researchers found that the participants who wrote to-do lists fell asleep an average of 9 minutes faster than those who wrote about already-accomplished tasks. 
 
 In fact, "the more specifically participants wrote their to-do list, the faster they subsequently fell asleep," the study authors wrote. "The opposite trend was observed when participants wrote about completed activities." 
 
 While 9 minutes may not seem like a lot of extra shut-eye, it's comparable to the improvement seen in clinical trials for some sleep medications, Scullin told Time magazine. A 2006 study similarly found that napping for just 10 minutes sufficiently improved participants' cognitive function and energy. 
 
 The authors acknowledged that the new study could be improved by a larger sample size and more data taking each participant's personality and propensity for anxiety into account. Still, the paper's findings are consistent with other published research on the therapeutic power of keeping a journal. Previous studies have observed that expressive writing — writing about emotions and stress for 20 minutes a day — was linked to boosted immune function in patients with illnesses such as asthma, arthritis and HIV/AIDS. Other studies have drawn a line between journaling in times of stress or emotional hardship and stress relief. 
 
 So, give writing before bed a try — and hope it's boring enough to put you to sleep. 
 
 Originally published on Live Science.
– A new children's book isn't just written for kids—it's written to make them fall asleep, and fast. Author Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin, a Swedish behavioral psychologist, says he filled The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep with psychological reinforcement techniques to make young listeners doze off in minutes, the Independent reports. "These [techniques] are formed in a way to help the child relax, fall asleep faster and sleep calmer every night," Forssen Ehrlin says. "The tale gives suggestions to the child's unconscious mind to sleep." Not only does protagonist Roger The Rabbit encounter characters like Sleep Snail, Heavy-Eyed Owl, and Uncle Yawn, but parent-readers are instructed to yawn often and speak italicized words in a calm and slow manner, the Telegraph reports. Think it's bizarre? Well, it's the first self-published book to top Amazon's best-seller list. Forssen Ehrlin says he got the idea on a long road trip when his mom dozed off, and he realized the power of his techniques. He devised a story within three years, and saw the Swedish version published in 2011; the English translation appeared last year. In the story, Roger The Rabbit "is just like the child" in needing to fall asleep, a doctor tells CBS News. "So the whole time, you're talking about sleep, you're trying to solve a problem about sleep and you see how the character falls asleep." But while Amazon reviews are mostly glowing, Imogen Williams at the Guardian considers the book's manipulation "sinister" and "terrifying": "Bedtime stories are not, to me, about deceiving your child into conking out," she writes, and vows to continue her "bedtime pilgrimages up and down the stairs. After all, there’s always gin." (See 15 sad, strange things that keep us awake at night.)