Innovative digital strategies and traditional storytelling help improve children’s sleep
What's the child health challenge?
Quality sleep is the gateway to good health and this is even more critical for children in their early years of life. Yet approximately 30 per cent of preschool and school-aged children have behavioural sleep problems and experience poor-quality sleep.
Not getting enough sleep can impact a child’s performance at kindergarten, childcare and school and therefore their learning and development. Poor sleep can also worsen a child’s mental health during this important formative period of their life.
Parents and guardians of children who have sleeping problems can also suffer. If a child has poor sleep, this will often keep the caregiver awake for longer and disrupt their sleep throughout the night. This is associated with poorer performance at work and symptoms of depression.
As sleep research and relevant information are not always easily accessible to families and healthcare professionals, many children who have sleep problems miss out on care altogether or spend excessive time waiting to access sleep support via specialist clinics. Families may have to pay out-of-pocket costs to get this help – something not everyone can afford.
What's the discovery or innovation?
The Sleep with Kip book series is an innovative and fun way to help children and their caregivers set up good sleep habits and manage existing sleep problems.
Sleep with Kip is delivered in a variety of interactive formats, including a series of six books (also available as audiobooks), podcasts and a website. The different elements of the series are designed to keep children engaged with the material in a variety of ways.
The material provides parents and children with child-friendly, clinically-validated and evidence-based resources that teach children how to sleep well. The content in the series is supported by 20 years of clinical sleep research to help children learn and maintain healthy sleep habits.
The Sleep with Kip series takes children on an adventure during bedtime reading and is supported by a number of post-reading resources to promote ongoing discussions and learning.
Each book in the six-part series focuses on one important aspect of healthy sleep, such as how to:
- Fall asleep
- Manage bedtime anxiety
- Sleep in their own bedrooms
- Relax and minimise worry
- Stay in bed throughout the night.
As well as supporting children to lead healthier lives, the books are also widely entertaining.
How did the Murdoch Children's innovation team contribute?
Our world-leading sleep expert Professor Harriet Hiscock worked alongside the Innovation team to turn Sleep with Kip from an idea into a first-of-its-kind evidence-based product.
This innovative solution is already enabling more Australian families to tackle sleep problems and give their children a healthier start to life.
Our Innovation team played a pivotal role in the development of the books and pitched the idea to stakeholders to secure seed funding for production. In addition, the Innovation team was integral to the design thinking and vision-setting phases, helping to create a commercially viable business model that would help make Sleep with Kip a reality.
By working with and managing an external writing agency, our Innovation team helped to ensure the contents of each book were fun, clinically accurate and age-appropriate. The team also worked with an external PR company to create a media strategy that would successfully launch and promote the Sleep with Kip series.
How is it changing children’s lives?
Sleep with Kip is helping to change the lives of children and their families in Australia.
As the series gains more traction, it will help to ensure that children sleep better, thereby improving their mental wellbeing, development and ability to engage in critical education.
