How to Use the Bedtime Hero Full Program
Before You Begin
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Starting the Online Program
After purchasing your Bedtime Hero Program membership:
- Go to the Bedtime Hero website and log in from the Main Menu.
- After logging in, you should see “Welcome to the Bedtime Hero Program” in the page title.
- Scroll down and click “Start Bedtime Hero 2.0.”
If the program does not start, log out, clear your browser's cookies and cache, and then log in again.
Bedtime Hero Is a Therapy Method, Not a Training Course
It is important to understand that Bedtime Hero is not a training program or a conventional course. It is a therapy method designed to help your child develop new ways of thinking and coping with bedtime fears.
For this reason, you should not expect the program to proceed in a fixed sequence, like chapters in a book or lessons in a course. The sessions your child does will depend on how they respond and which fears continue to bother them.
Of course, there are limits to how flexible a computer program can be in responding to your child's individual progress. Some repetition is necessary to help your child establish new ways of thinking and behaving at bedtime.
Although the structure of the sessions is similar, your child's thinking should become more personal and creative as they progress. Encourage your child to come up with their own ideas about how they can cope with bedtime fears and become more comfortable sleeping on their own.
How Often Should We Do a Session?
Do one session every 3 to 5 days with your child.
Your First Session
When you first start the program, you will see two buttons:
- First time here
- More sessions
If this is your child's first time using the program, click “First time here.”
This first session focuses on the fear of being alone. It begins with a rating scale that looks like a thermometer. Your child uses this scale to rate how anxious they feel at bedtime.
The same rating scale is used again at the end of the session so you and your child can see whether their anxiety has changed.
Choosing the Next Session
At your next session, click “More sessions.”
Your child will again use the rating thermometer to indicate how anxious they currently feel at bedtime.
If your child's anxiety is 3 or higher
As long as your child rates their bedtime anxiety at 3 or higher, the program will provide a list of sessions that can be worked on.
Your child should choose the issue that still bothers them the most and complete that session. Some sessions may need to be repeated several times before your child begins to cope with that particular fear in a different way.
You will know that you are in a different session because the opening image will be different from the opening images of the other sessions.
Encourage Your Child to Think in New Ways
The beginning of each session follows a similar process. One important part of this process involves choosing a confident scene.
I recommend that your child choose a different confident scene each time they do a session.
When your child combines their confident scene with the idea of lying in bed alone, there is no single "right" way to do this.
Many children simply imagine themselves lying in bed at bedtime while thinking about their confident scene.
Other children are more creative and discover a connection between their confident scene and sleeping alone. For example, a child might realize that sleeping on their own is similar to going down a water slide on their own. Both experiences might feel scary at first, but can also feel good once they have taken the first step.
This kind of personal discovery is an important part of the program.
Encourage your child to think about the problem in new and different ways and to come up with their own ideas about how they can achieve their goal of sleeping on their own.
There is no need for you to provide all the answers. Your role is to encourage your child to discover their own solutions.
Each Fear Has Its Own Strategy
Toward the end of each session, Bedtime Hero introduces a new strategy for managing that particular fear.
The strategies are different because different fears require different ways of coping. For example, the strategy for fear of intruders is very different from the strategy for fear of the dark.
If your child seems stuck after repeating a particular session several times, it can be helpful to switch to a different session for a while.
For example, if your child has repeatedly worked on the fear of the dark without making much progress, you could switch to the scared of sounds session. Sometimes changing the focus can help your child approach the problem in a fresh way.
Throughout the program, be sure to encourage and praise your child for even small amounts of positive progress in coping with bedtime.
When to Finish the Program
Continue doing sessions until your child's bedtime anxiety rating drops to 0, 1, or 2.
When your child selects 0, 1, or 2 on the rating thermometer, the program will take them to the Final Confidence Session.
This final session helps your child recognize and reinforce their positive progress and strengthen their confidence in their ability to cope with bedtime on their own.
This is when your child can truly become a Bedtime Hero!
Best wishes,
Dr. Lauderdale
