There’s a Monster in My Closet is designed to deconstruct and demystify the science of sleep to gi
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I am a mom of two who is consumed with unpacking the mysteries of the miniature humans in my life. When not wearing my mom-hat, I am a primate-loving, evolutionary-biology-teaching, neuroscience-studying, behaviour-examining, globe-trotting PhD who loves good research and is on a personal quest to understand why it is we do what we do. What is the basis of our human behavioural repertoire? And what could be more enigmatic in this realm than sleep?
That’s where the idea for this website was born (pun intended). After becoming a parent myself, I became enthralled by the Holy Grail of how to get more sleep now that our new little bundle had arrived. More than enthralled, I became obsessed. I was determined to crack the mystery of sleep success. As an academic, I approach all unknowns in the same way: through research. I read, day and night, and in the wee hours of the morning (because let’s be honest, I wasn’t sleeping), everything I could find about paediatric sleep. Rhythms, schedules, hunger, associations. I wanted to know why my baby was exhibiting particular behaviours. I wanted to know what was “normal” in the world of sleep. What I discovered overwhelmed me: a quick search on Amazon reveals over 20 000 books written about baby sleep, and Google features upwards of one million websites, blogs, and advice columns all offering up that perfect infant sleep solution. Yet despite the overwhelming amount of anecdotal information out there, research reveals that we still don't fully understand sleeps’ complexities and nuances, nor really why we do it in the first place. Turns out, there is no normal – at least not a single, unified theory that we all agree on. But there are countless theories, patterns, principles, and techniques that have been described by all varieties of professionals about what you should be doing to soothe your child and yourself into the best slumber achievable. There’s so much information, in fact, and so many different perspectives, that, like many things parenting, I found it difficult to navigate my way through the trenches. To find the advice that would best suit my family and me.
And so this website surfaces out of my own desire to compile, analyze, and dissect everything I could about infant, childhood, and lifetime sleep. To provide a sort of one-stop-shop for all things sleep related. The research. The strategies. The products. I wanted to do the heavy lifting for you, the reader. To take on the challenging task of information gathering in this information-saturated world. To foster a culture of thriving, rather than barely surviving, parents when it comes to pediatric sleep, regardless of your ideology. I am not a sleep consultant. I do not promise to have all the answers. I am a mom who loves good research and is consumed with knowing the what and the why of all things behaviour in an attempt to understand the new normal in my life. And while I can assure you I do not hope to unmask this well-kept evolutionary secret, my aim for this website is to help you, as individuals, as parents, as participants in the act of sleep, to connect the dots on what we do know about this supreme mystery and to guide you through ways to improve your entire household’s slumber. I’ll walk you through the science behind sleep – evidence-based research on its origins, its function, and its control centers. I’ll discuss some of the most common “issues” in infant and childhood sleep habits, distinguish these from clinical sleep disorders, and summarize various modes of thought on the topic to equip you with a toolkit to help your children, and yourself, get the sleep you need. In all of my research and experience there is no magic solution, no ‘catch-all’ strategy that will get your sweet little one to lie down on their own, close their eyes, and fall swiftly into dreamland (someone would be very rich if there were). But it has become my view that, like all behaviours, sleep, or at least the act of falling asleep, is a habit that can be molded. That in recognizing our own behaviours as being intricately connected with those of our child’s and training ourselves to adjust our responses to various situations, we may begin to uncover a smoother parent-child sleep relationship. And that means more of that beloved, desired, oh-so-luxurious slumber for everyone.
So read on, explore, comment, tell me your stories and join me in dissecting the ultimate paradox that is sleep.
