The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep: Psychologist develops bedtime book to

Forssen Ehrlin’s theory is that such psychological reinforcement techniques transfer to the child who duly imitates their parents’ behaviour.

The book – with the words “I can make anyone fall asleep” emblazoned on a sign on the front cover – allows parents to personalize it by using the child’s name, and it offers written cues for parents, such as encouraging them to yawn at the end of a sentence, to help them tell the story more effectively.

Numerous ideas behind The Rabbit who Wants to Fall Asleep are sound; I really like the concept of a story designed to reassure an anxious child that they are loved, good enough, and that their worries (including mortality) can be deferred until the morning.

Ehrlin is now planning a new book which will help children learn how to use the toilet. “Ehrlin himself told the Daily Express that his book is “the verbal equivalent of rocking your child to sleep”, adding that it “[helps] the child focus on relaxation and become part of the story”. He’s the title character from the children’s book “The Rabbit Who Wants To Fall Asleep“.

And the reaction from other parents has been equally positive.

“My two year old daughter always fights sleep”, one parent wrote. “I’m sat here waiting for someone to pinch me. We got to page 3 and he was out!” I am truly amazed’.

Mr Ehrlin used Amazon’s Create Space, where authors upload books via the Internet and each order is individually printed. The Amazon write-up for the book states: “No need for How-to skills, it’s as easy and simple as reading a normal bedtime story with improved language pattern that will help your child relax and fall asleep”.

It is believed that this is the first time that an independent author has topped Amazon’s best sellers chart.

The story follows Roger The Rabbit, who is advised by Uncle Yawn, the Heavy-Eyed Owl and the Sleep Snail to “think slowly, breath slowly and calm, slow and calm” and “let your whole body be heavy, so heavy it feels like it falls… just like a leaf, that falls down, slowly down, down…”

The No. 1 best-selling book on Amazon in the US right now is not about an S&M-loving business exec or historic racism in Maycomb, Alabama-it’s a self-published picture book about a very sleepy rabbit.