Description "Mommy, why won't sleep come to me?" Recommended by childcare counselor Jeong Yu-jin ("Chapssaltteokgaru")! A story about a "sleep friend," seen through a child's eyes. How many children actually go to bed willingly when bedtime rolls around? Kids resist sleep at night for all sorts of reasons — they want to keep playing, they want to talk with Mom and Dad a little longer, or they simply feel a vague fear of falling asleep. That's why grown-up logic like, "Go to sleep now so you can go to daycare tomorrow," or "It's nighttime, you have to sleep," rarely works to convince a child. Most children see sleep as something negative — the moment that stops them from doing what they want, or a vague, unknowable darkness. Naturally, it's not something to look forward to. But what if we could gently change that image of sleep? Wouldn't a child's reluctance to go to bed change too? In author Yu Hee-jin's The Story of Sleep Coming to Visit, "Sleep" is like a friend who comes to visit every night when it's time for bed. Sleep puts on a hat, slips on shoes, and packs tonight's dreams into a bag, waiting patiently to be called. Sleep is no longer a harsh, merciless darkness, but a friend who brings dreams. Jeong Yu-jin, a child psychology expert who runs the parenting counseling blog "Chapssaltteokgaru's Ttok Parenting Project" (director of "Hi, Todak" and author of Handling a Child's Tantrums and Stubbornness), shared that after reading this book, she stopped saying "You have to sleep now!" and instead started saying, "Your sleep friend is waiting for our baby to call for it," and instead of "Don't talk when it's time to sleep!" she now says, "What if your sleep friend gets startled and runs away?" By "introducing" sleep instead of "forcing" it, she says her child now looks forward to meeting this friend and can settle into sleep on their own — and she highly recommends this book. From the grown-up's command of "Go to sleep now!" to the child's own eager call of "Sleep, come here!" The story begins with Mom and Ha-yun lying side by side in bed at bedtime. Unlike Mom, who falls asleep the moment she closes her eyes after the lights go out, Ha-yun — like so many children — just wants to keep playing even though it's bedtime. Ha-yun wonders why sleep doesn't come easily to her the way it does for Mom. Mom explains that Sleep lives far away, so it takes time to arrive. Only when Ha-yun calls out, "Sleep, come here!" does Sleep get ready to set off — putting on a hat and shoes, and packing the most important thing: a bag full of that night's dreams. Inside might be a dream of becoming a princess or a ballerina, a dream of becoming a superhero, or a dream of eating all the delicious food in the world. Carrying these precious dreams, Sleep slowly makes its way down a long road. But even as Sleep is on its way, if the child opens her eyes or speaks, Sleep says, "I guess she's not ready yet," and dashes right back home. So after calling for Sleep, a child must close her eyes tight and wait quietly. Is Sleep really coming? Could it be getting distracted along the way? If Ha-yun waits silently with her eyes closed, will Sleep finally find its way to her? As children listen to this story, they'll find themselves drifting off to sleep with the most excited, hopeful heart in the world. A "Momstagram" sensation shared again and again — a real mom's miracle bedtime story This book first appeared as a sketched picture diary on author Yu Hee-jin's Instagram. On nights when her two children wouldn't fall asleep, she used to tell them stories she made up on the spot — and this was one of them. When she posted it as a picture diary, "The Story of Sleep Coming to Visit" instantly took Momstagram by storm. Hundreds of comments poured in: "Thanks to this story, my child who never napped now tries hard to close her eyes and sleep." "My child woke up and said she wanted to dream about Pikachu, but her sleep friend brought her a dinosaur fossil dream instead." "I used to scare my child to sleep with goblins and ghosts, but now I can put her to bed sweetly." People couldn't keep the story to themselves and kept tagging friends and family to share it. Because of this background, the book reads just like a mother telling her own child a bedtime story — familiar, warm, and comfor