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Byline: - Nancy Dillon

Co-sleeping is hardly a new phenomenon, but parents will have a new coping tool when "The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep From Birth to Age 5" (HCI Books; $14.95) hits bookstores next week.

The new title, from Jill Spivack and Jennifer Waldburger of Sleepy Planet in Los Angeles, offers step-by-step techniques for parents tackling the sleep problems of infants, toddlers and young children.

While 60 percent of Sleepy Planet's practice deals with babies, the other 40 percent deals with children transitioning from cribs to big-kid beds, Spivack said.

Here's a sampling of tips for parents hoping to wean an "ambulatory" child off co-sleeping:

1. Have a family meeting where you sit down with your child and explain that a lack of sleep causes people to feel "yucky and grumpy."

2. Avoid over-stimulating entertainment such as action-packed TV shows right before bedtime.

3. Give kids choices as they wind down for sleep. Tell them, "Mommy will wait with you for 2 minutes or 3 minutes after we turn off the light, whichever you want." This gives kids a sense of control.

4. Don't shut the door. Instead, try a baby gate, and explain that it's necessary to keep the child "safe and cozy" in his or her room.

5. If a new sibling recently entered the family and has an older child feeling neglected, have dad spend a few nights in the older child's room for extra reassurance.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) In their Sleepy Planet practice, Los Angeles therapists Jennifer Waldburger, left, and Jill Spivack help parents with their children's bedtime woes.

Axel Koester/The New York Times

(2 -- color) no caption (book: "The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent's Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep From Birth to Age 5")