Genius dad swears by a ‘brain hack’ instead of story time that puts his kid to sleep within minutes
Putting their little ones to sleep is one of the biggest challenges for most parents. It often leaves them exhausted as they try different tricks, but to no avail. However, the bedtime routine needn't have to be as challenging anymore, as one dad on TikTok, Jon (@wholeparent), suggests trying a surprising "brain hack" that he uses to put his kid to sleep within minutes. This not-so-common trick has caught the attention of parents everywhere as they can't wait to make their toddlers' bedtime smoother, faster, and tantrum-free.
In the video, the man claims that by using one smart trick, he took his kid's bedtime from over an hour to just under 15 minutes. He says, "It is a brain hack and nobody talks about it. Start by doing bedtime exactly as you normally would, and then when you get to the very end, instead of reading them a story or telling them some random story, I want you to tell them the story of their day." He encouraged parents to gently walk their child through the events of their day, starting from the time they woke up and had breakfast, all the way through to bedtime.
The toddler dad also suggests parents ask their kids simple questions about their day, encouraging them to recall their memories as part of the calming bedtime routine. He further added, "When you get to the end of the story, you say, 'And then they close their eyes and they fall asleep'." He claims that the hack, despite being fun, activates a part of the toddler's brain called the Hippocampus. It is responsible for storing short-term memory and organizing it as long-term memory. Exhausted parents rushed to the comments to thank the dad for the simple yet effective hack.
One TikTok user, @benji_the_rescue1, commented, “I did this out of the blue about two weeks ago with my son without ever thinking it would work/help, etc. He has asked me to tell him about his day ever since right before bedtime, and he loves it. I tell him about his day from breakfast to what book we just read for bedtime. I then give him a preview of the next day, which helps him have something to look forward to.” Another person, @coachjennyjen, wrote, “I did this last night and it was so cute, and my 4-year-old actually took herself to bed, which is unheard of haha.”
Similarly, @mariab13345 chimed in, “We do this! I say, ‘now it’s time to close our eyes and dream about all the lovely things that happened today and all the lovely things that will happen tomorrow,’ it works on all our kids!” Meanwhile, @andersenart shared their struggles with bedtime and wrote, “It takes me an hour to get my 2-year-old down. Then she's up in two hours, takes another half hour to get her down, then she's up every 20 minutes until I eventually put her in my bed at 3 am from exhaustion. She's my 4th, and none of my others did this.” Perhaps, this dad's hack could help parents get their sleep on track, too.
You can follow @wholeparent on TikTok for more parenting tips.