Lancaster man releases sleep science inspired picture book to help kids nod off quicker

Greg Wilson, a public relations consultant based in Lancaster, was first inspired to write the book 15 years ago while reading with his own young children at night.

The idea came to him after noticing that when his children yawned, it should be the last book, as they were ready for sleep.

After reading a newspaper article that suggested that contagious yawning itself triggers sleepiness, he then developed The Biggest Yawn of All with Preston-based illustrator Kath Walker, as a fun way to encourage yawning at bedtime.

With vintage 1960s style illustrations, based in a cosy zoo at bedtime, the story takes your child on a journey through a parade of adorable animals – each with a yawn bigger than the last.

From snake to bear, hippo to whale, every creature’s contagious YAAWWNN builds toward one inevitable outcome: sleepiness!

After shopping the book around a number of publishing agents, the feedback was that the original plan to end the book with a mirror would be too expensive a risk for a first time author with traditional publishing.

And so the project was shelved until this year, when Mr Wilson read a new article on the same subject that seemed to confirm the theory of contagious yawning being a cause rather than an effect of sleepiness, and decided to try publishing the book directly with Amazon.

He says: “I always really enjoyed reading to my own kids at bedtime but there was still a small sense of relief after three or four books when they would do a little yawn, which was a signal it was time to wind things up and put out the light.

“So, when I read that yawning – and contagious yawning in particular – actually works as a trigger for sleepiness, I wondered if that could be the basis for a fun book that could also work as a subtle sleep tonic for young children.

“After previously putting the idea on ice, I had almost forgotten about it until I read another article earlier this year about chimpanzees getting themselves ready for bed after picking up contagious yawns from a robo-chimp placed in their camp, confirming the theory that yawns actually make you sleepy.

“Amazon publishing wasn’t really a thing when we first developed the book, so I called Kath to check she was up for giving it a go publishing directly, this time with a different ending that is cheaper to print, but which still works as well, I think.

“We are initially targeting the UK and US markets with the English version of the book, and its success or failure is very much at the mercy of the Amazon algorithms.

“But if it takes off in those markets, the plan is to get it translated and try publishing it across the world, as a way of helping hardworking parents everywhere get their own little monkeys off to sleep at the end of the day.”

The Biggest Yawn of All is aimed at ages 2 to 6 and is available from Amazon at https://amzn.eu/d/hQyfh7F