Behavioural Insomnia in Childern

Behavioral insomnia in children explained

Behavioral insomnia in children (BIC) where children have difficulty falling or staying asleep. Its prevalence is estimated between 20% to 30% in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. BIC has significant adverse effects on the parents, including sleep deprivation, maternal depression, and increased parental stress leading to reduced concentration and difficulty functioning during the day. Often, BIC is underplayed as being ‘normal’ and the burden of care falls disproportionately on the mother.

Our work

Prithi is a Child Sleep Coach working exclusively on BIC. She counselled 200+ families in 2025 across India (80%) and Indian families across the world. Her youngest client was around 7 days old (newborn) and the oldest was a 10-year-old. However, the median client's age is 6-14 months. The common problems she attends to are

Sleep association - falling asleep only under specific conditions, often involving parental presence or specific objects (e.g., being rocked, fed, or in jhula/swing/rocker)
Sleep maintenance - difficulty staying asleep, with frequent awakenings during the night, and being unable to return to sleep
Circadian rhythm disruption - very late bedtime or waking very early
Sleep initiation - taking more than 20 mins to sleep
Limit-setting issues - resistance or refusal to go to bed
Combination of the above problems

The intervention is simple, effective, and non-pharmaceutical. Our scientific and evidence-backed behavioral approach is spread across

Cognitive strategies - Educating parents on child sleep needs, patterns, and it evolves as they grow, how child sleep differs from adult sleep, correcting beliefs held by parents that negatively affect sleep in their children, etc
Behaviour techniques - Stimulus control and sleep schedule across day naps and nights
Improving mindfulness and confidence in parents to successfully handle sleep challenges

Our coaching success rate is 85% (much higher than the global average of 60-70%) because of

Custom program for each family incorporating the child's temperament, parenting philosophy, and family constraints
Judicious use of both parents and child-led approaches rather than rigidly following one approach
Practical recommendations are broken down into small executable steps so that parents are not overwhelmed
Continue interaction with parents over the engagement period and modify activities and action points depending on how the child responds (Global practice is to offer one time prescription approach and is often templatised)
Counselling and doubt clarification on publicly available sleep information

Education

Certified Child Sleep Coach, International Parenting & Health Institute (USA)

Recognition by the medical community

Partnerships with a Bangalore-based paediatric pulmonologist to refer out cases of sleep disorders (sleep apnea, parasomnia etc)

Select clients from medical background and the issues resolved

A Paediatrician: Resolved feeding-to-sleep and rocking-to-sleep associations in their 18-month-old
A Gynaecologist: Corrected late bedtime and reduced contact napping in their 5-month-old
An Anaesthesiologist: Helped their 17-month-old transition away from the feed-to-sleep
An Oncologist: Guided their 21-month-old in breaking the rocking-to-sleep dependency
A Dentist: Achieved longer, more consolidated night sleep in their 16-month-old
A Radiologist: Weaned their 6-month-old off the jhula (rocker) sleep association

Reference

Morganthaler et al. Sleep. 2006;29 [10]:1277
Definition and age grouping - Infants (0-12 months), toddlers (1-2 years) and preschoolers (3-5 years)
Wake et al. Pediatrics. 2006;117[3]:836