How to Avoid "Elfsomnia" During the Holidays

Tis the season, meaning that many families are partaking in Elf on the Shelf, the fun Christmas tradition where Santa’s Scout Elves fly back back to the North Pole each night to report on children’s behavior and then re-appear in a different location each morning. While fun and seemingly harmless, could this family tradition result in a sleep disorder Dr. Anne Marie Morse calls “elfsomnia”? In a light-hearted episode, Dr. Morse defines this “new sleep entity” and provides tips and tricks for parents to help themselves and their children manage “elfsomnia” until it’s time for the elves to head up North.

Dr. Morse on “Elfsomnia”

All right, sleep friends, I have a proposal of a new sleep entity. This is a new sleep disorder that I’m proposing to be in a newest version of the ICFD, whether that’s going to be a four or a text revision on top of a text revision. This is called “Elfsomnia”

As a parent of two little kids, one of the things that I’m going to say is that we celebrate Christmas. And whether they celebrate Christmas or not, I think Elf on the Shelf is something that every house should have to deal with. This is something where there is a true Elfsomnia, which is going to cause sleep initiation, sleep maintenance, and even early arousals. What do I mean? This is happening in both parents as well as the children. The children don’t want to go to sleep because of the fact that they’re waiting to see that magical elf appear and be able to get into all type of mischief.

What we’re seeing on the parent-side however, is the night sweats that come with the sudden arousal of realizing we haven’t moved that elf. What about that magic that is going to be able to enlighten our children to be able to have that delight of what is actually Elf going to do? So with this stated, I hope that during this holiday season, you are not suffering from Elfsomnia.

If you are finding that you are suffering from Elfsomnia, a couple of tips and tricks. Number one, have your children touch the elf. It makes it lose its magic. No, I’m just kidding. Don’t do that. It makes them very upset. Number two, make sure you read the book. I didn’t and I didn’t know that, and I allowed my children to bring it to school. And therefore everyone in the school did not sleep that night because they thought that all the elves had lost magic.

So make sure you read the book. Don’t let your kids touch the elf. Make sure that you are looking at YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. You use your favorite social media to find out what other people are doing with these elves, so you don’t have to lose sleep about what to do. Make sure you’re putting it in your calendar. Make sure you have an alarm after your children go to sleep. This is whose responsibility is it, mom or dad’s tonight? And then making sure you’re moving that thing no matter what you do.

So these are your tips and tricks. Make sure that you are not losing any hours of sleep and encourage your children that if they don’t sleep appropriately, go to bed on time, that this is going to be something that also diminishes Elfie’s magical capacity. And so use it to your benefit. And hopefully as soon as we are done celebrating Christmas, he’s going to be going right back to the North Pole. And therefore, this may be just a temporary Elfsomnia until next year.