Sleep Myth Busting: "Don't Do This...or You'll Break Sleep"

When I was about 10 years old, we had family friends visit us for the weekend. One parent brought us each of my siblings and I a pack of stacking point pencils --did you ever have these?

They were plastic pencils that had, instead of one long lead, individual short cartridges of lead. When one cartridge was all used up from writing, you'd pull it out, push it in the hole in the end of the pencil, and it would push up the next unused cartridge at the tip.

They were totally awesome (if you ignore what would have ended up in landfill).

At one point I started fiddling with one of my stacking pencils, turning the plastic end where you put the used cartridges. "Don't wind it up!!", the mom said to me.

I paused, confused. "Why?", I asked.

"It winds it up. It will break the pencil."

I furrowed my brow, looked at the pencil, and thought about how the pencil worked. I started twisting the end again. The mom insisted, "don't wind it up! You'll break it."

I started wondering if I had missed something --had I completely misunderstood how this simply pencil worked? Was there some complex mechanism that would break by twirling the end? And why would they make a pencil so complicated when it didn’t have to be?

I was also confused about what would happen if I twisted the end. Like, what would actually happen that would break the pencil.

At that age I was a pretty compliant child. And this mom seemed pretty upset about the idea of twisting the end. So I stopped.

But this story comes to mind this week as I help some of my clients navigate the messages they've gotten about what to do to support sleep:

• Don't let them sleep in your bed (or they will never leave).

• Don't nurse to sleep (or they will always need it).

• Don't rock them to sleep.

• Don't let them fall asleep in your arms. Put them down drowsy but awake.

• Don't, don't, don't.

Sound familiar?

There's a sense with each of these "don't"s that something will "break" with sleep. Even if we don't exactly know why it would work that way.

So I encourage you this week to reflect on the "don'ts".

What don'ts are you hearing (from others or yourself) that, when you look at them more closely, don't make any sense?

I’d love your coments --what sleep don't comes up for you?

Warmly,

Heather

(Want to further explore sleep myths? I’ve got a resource for you. You can sign up for it here.)