A Beach in the Bedroom (Kip’s Guide to Sleep: Visual Imagery and Relaxation technique) by Robert Boddington and Jack Robertson, illustrated by Yoon Park and Matt Hughes

Title: A Beach in the Bedroom (Kip’s Guide to Sleep: Visual Imagery and Relaxation technique)

Author: Robert Boddington and Jack Robertson, illustrated by Yoon Park and Matt Hughes

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Published: 1^st August 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 57

Price: $14.99

Synopsis:

Shamik just can’t get to sleep. He feels all tight and tense. Thankfully, Kip has just the trick to help him relax. A beach that Shamik can build in his bedroom.

Worry can be a big problem when it comes to getting to sleep. Especially as children get older. But relaxation techniques and visualisation can help take their minds off these worries. This story can help get them started as they imagine they are lying on the beach, with the sound of waves lapping the shore and a warm breeze passing over them.

This is a technique best suited to children aged four years and up, and best used at a time other than bedtime to start with. We don’t want them getting worried about the technique working, which can happen if they start learning it at bedtime. Start perhaps on the floor of the bedroom in the afternoon. When this technique works, you’ll find children start to use it naturally before bedtime.

Oh, and it’s best not to ask a child about their day just before bedtime. If things haven’t gone so well, this may upset them. Try talking about the day in the afternoon or at dinner time.

~*~

Shamik is trying to fall asleep, but he is tense, tight and anxious. He wants Mum or Dad to come and help them. When they don’t come, Kip appears to help him. Shamik needs to learn to relax so he can go to sleep. Everything he has tried hasn’t worked, so Kip comes up with a fun idea – imagine a beach in his bedroom! As Shamik starts to picture the beach, the sand, the sea and everything else you might expect to find at a beach, he starts to calm down, and feels his anxiety disappear.

This book and technique is aimed at older children – aged four and older, as it is explores deeper themes and issues, and techniques that younger children may not be able to grasp. Just like adults, children get anxious about their day and things that are going on. Whilst this book focuses on the technique being used at bedtime, MCRI advises that you should try this technique at a time other than bedtime, so your child doesn’t get worried about it not working for them. So, start away from bedtime, and it can naturally evolve to work when children go to bed. It may help teenagers and young adults as well, who will also be navigating worries about high school and other issues.

Like the other books in this series, a gentle and entertaining story is used to explore what is making it hard for children to fall asleep and present a variety of techniques to try and help them – and to see what works for them as well. Stories are powerful vehicles to impart knowledge as well, so using this technique is one way to help, and I liked the way Kip communicated this technique to Shamik in a fun, simple, educational and entertaining way that will help younger readers engage with the book.

The research of Professor Harriet Hiscock, a leading figure in paediatric sleep studies has inspired this series of books designed to help families navigate a range of sleep issues and challenges, and her scientific insights have been distilled into charming and captivating stories that speak to children on their terms and in ways that they can understand, so they can learn about proper sleep and empathy. This story tackles children struggling to go to sleep without mum or dad – and this book can help families navigate the challenges around kids who try to delay going to bed and show them that it is okay to have fears, and at the same time, give them visual imagery and relaxation techniques to help. The story captures the anxiety about being left alone to sleep, nighttime fears, and how children can calm themselves down – particularly older children, as well what it must feel like for young children who struggle to sleep.