The inside scoop - Sleep Now Little One’s
Meet our latest collection - Sleep Now Little One’s. They're like magical bedtime friends for little one’s who sometimes find it tricky to fall asleep or stay asleep. These special sessions are here to do two awesome things: first, they help little ones to fall asleep in the coziest way ever. And second, they teach little one’s the important skills to understand and handle their thoughts and feelings.
These sessions were made with the support of the expert Charlotte Melki, Cognitive Hypnotherapist with an educational background in Neuroscience and a Mum. She is like a sleep superhero with a brainy background in how our brains work. So, when little one’s use the Clementine Sleep sessions, they’ll have the power to dream sweet dreams and be a pro at handling all their thoughts and feelings.
We’ve gone behind the scenes to chat with Charlotte & Kim our founder who were instrumental in the development of these new sessions. Let’s dive in.
Kim what prompted you to create these sessions for little one’s?
We decided to create these sessions for children for several reasons. Firstly, our eldest son (9) has ADHD, and even though he's tired at the end of the school day, his racing mind can sometimes make it challenging for him to sleep, causing him to get super frustrated which made sleep even more hard to come by. To help him, I started whispering affirmations like "it's time to get all snuggly now in bed" and "you can sleep because you are a fantastic sleeper," which he enjoyed and and they worked so I always thought we could do something more significant than me whispering but using the same techniques we use now for our sleep sessions which we know work.
Parents had also expressed to us their interest in their children learning mindset skills at a younger age. And because we know that sleep is so so important for kids but also for parents too (wink) we thought we should start with this and see what impact they can make and then explore all the other ways we can help kids with their emotional wellbeing.
Oh and we pitched this to a very well known kids brand and they loved it too so we knew we were onto something….we’ll be launching them too in 2024.
Charlotte what were your thoughts on creating these when Kim approached you?
Well funnily enough I had been experimenting with sleep scripts for our daughter who was 2 at the time. We had a completely disastrous 3 weeks sleep regression and I was desperate to help her (and us). So I created these little sleep stories using all of my expertise and like magic they worked. I knew there was something there with these so when Kim mentioned creating these sleep sessions for little one’s - I was like ‘bingo’ yes, I knew we could create something really special and helpful for little one’s and parents.
Can you give us an overview of what parents and children can expect from these sessions? What makes them so special?
These sessions are designed to assist children to get to sleep and to learn the important skills of finding sleep on their own. When a little one is sleeping well it’s one less worry for parents/caregivers. So whilst they are designed for little one’s - everyone benefits.
They're not your typical relaxation or meditation tracks, as there are already great options available for children in that category. Our sleep sessions go a step further. They focus on harnessing children's natural imaginative abilities and using these to their benefit. Kids excel at using their imaginations. This is a skill that often diminishes as we grow older, where adults tend to imagine worst-case scenarios. Our sleep sessions aim to help children find sleep by capitalising on their innate imagination, offering sessions with themes like emotion regulation, dealing with intrusive thoughts, enhancing their body awareness & being grateful for their bodies, helping them to feel safe and secures, and learning to wind down their bodies and minds for bedtime. All these themes share a common thread: using your imagination like a blank canvas to paint whatever helps you fall asleep.
Charlotte can you tell us a bit about the techniques used in these sessions? And how these help not only with helping children to sleep but to also learn vital skills to help with their emotional wellbeing?
These are essentially the same techniques I use on my clients to help them with their self belief but adapted to children and focussed around sleep. This is about belief as well. The belief that you are a good sleeper and that you can control when to go to sleep, that it’s your super power.
The sessions have 3 key thereaputic techniques:
The suggestions around sleep are here to trigger the mind into relaxing and starting the sleep journey.
Creative tasks these are where the magic happens:
Engages the Imagination: Creative tasks encourage little one’s to use their imagination to vividly picture a desired outcome or goal. This engages the subconscious mind and makes the experience more immersive for them.
Emotional Connection: If little one’s are able to visualise their sleep or emotional goals, they often experience the associated emotions as if they were real. This connection can enhance their motivation and reinforce their belief that sleep is achievable.
Repetition of key suggestions/goals/ideas. This is such a core part of these session as they aid all of the following:
Reinforcement: Repetition helps reinforce the positive suggestions & increases the likelihood that the subconscious mind will embed and accept these suggestions.
Deepening relaxation: Repetition can help deepen relaxation which helps to allow your subconcious mind to be more open and receptive to new learning, new ideas.
Truths: Repetition can turn suggestions into truths. By repeating positive statements, you're effectively affirming them as truths, which can be powerful for promoting self-belief and behavior change. So if you repeat ‘I am safe, secure and strong’ in my castle (their bed) they will come to believe this to be true.
Memory and Conditioning: Repetition aids in memory and conditioning. The more a particular thought or idea is repeated, the more likely it is to be remembered and integrated into daily life. So the wholy grail would be that over time little one’s would not need these sessions. But that they could recall the key words, the key skills taught to build their own sleep rituals.
Comfort and Familiarity: Repetition can create a sense of comfort and familiarity, making it easier for little one’s to relax and trust the process.
Kim & Charlotte, what expertise or research informed the development of these sessions?
Kim - Finding the right expert was a big part of the process. We needed someone with expertise in how our brains work, hypnotherapy and experience in some capacity with children. We were lucky enough that Charlotte ticked all of these boxes. This meant she had all of the skills and knowledge to develop sessions that were safe for children and transformative for them too.
Charlotte - I have used all of my skills and knowledge from my background in Neuroscience and my hypnotherapy practice and of course being a Mum to create these sessions. Sleep, or the inability to fall asleep, unless medical condition, is nothing but a belief. And this is what I do day in and day out with my clients - change their beliefs. So for me this was about taking all of my skills & expertise and focussing it on children and sleep.
Kim - Once we had some draft scripts we shared these with some of our community who volunteered to provide their feedback and insights. This was so so helpful as it really made us work extra hard to make these sessions more inclusive, they ended up being longer to help little one’s ease into bed, and the language used was super key to keep it all accessable.
And of course now we are sharing them with you, our community and would love your feedback on these too so please do share them. Remember this is the first collection and their are tonne’s more that we can do but we it’s always good to get started, learn what works, what resonates and adapt.
What age’s are these new sessions for?
Any age from 4+.
Is it safe for my kids to listen to these?
Charlotte - Absolutely. Like I say to my clients suggestions are exactly that “suggestions”, children are in total control of themselves during and after listening to the sessions. What we are encouraging here is even more control. Creating more independence for them not less.