Sleepless in America: Is Your Child Misbehaving or Missing Sleep?

Kurcinka (Raising Your Spirited Child) recasts misbehaving children as children missing sleep (and thus, children who can be helped sans drugs and punishment) in this treatise on the manifold virtues of a good night's sleep. ""Sound sleep is the foundation of good behavior,"" Kurcinka says, warning parents that temper tantrums, irritability, screaming-bed-jumping-freak-outs and other unwanted behaviors can be scaled back dramatically if parents ensure their kids get enough sleep-something admittedly easier written about than done. Using advice and case studies from many of the parents who have participated in her workshops, Kurcinka provides insights into why kids do not go to sleep (an imbalance of ""calm energy"" and ""tense energy"" is one theory) as well as how parents' fatigue can affect their children. She advocates tension management as a way to foster good sleeping habits and includes how-to regimens to establish bed-time routines tailored to individual children's needs. She also helps parents reset their kids' (from infants to teenagers) body clocks to avoid sleepless nights and the morning battles, stress and school bus scramble.