When Your Child Is Afraid of the Dark: The Bedtime Book That Teaches Kids to Find Their Light
It’s 9 PM and you’ve already been back in your child’s room three times.
You’ve checked the closet. You’ve left the hall light on. You’ve promised, again, that everything is okay. And still, your little one is wide awake, heart racing, convinced that something in the dark doesn’t feel safe.
You’re not doing anything wrong. But you might be missing one thing: a tool your child can use on their own.
That’s exactly what Night Time Wishes and Starry Kisses: Ezra’s Heart Light by Carolina Romanyuk was created to give them.
More Than a Bedtime Story
This is not a book you simply read to your child and set on the nightstand. It’s an experience — gentle, interactive, and rooted in something most bedtime books don’t touch: the idea that your child already has everything they need inside of them.
Through a tender conversation between three-year-old Ezra and his parents, young readers are introduced to their own “heart light.” A simple, imaginative way for children to access calm, courage, and inner safety, especially in the moments when fear feels the biggest.
The book includes six playful, interactive exercises that guide children to connect with what Romanyuk calls their “inner star.” These aren’t just cute activities. They’re tools. Ones that children can return to again and again, long after the book has been read, in the dark of their room, on the first day of school, or in any moment that feels too big to hold alone.
For children ages two through six, Ezra’s Heart Light arrives beautifully illustrated and written in language that lands softly, the way the best bedtime stories do.
: Ezra’s Heart Light
The Real Story Behind the Book
This book didn’t begin at a writing desk. It began with a child who was terrified of bedtime.
Romanyuk, a board-certified holistic healthcare practitioner and pediatric sleep specialist, was working with a three-year-old whose fear of the dark had become so intense she would feel physically sick at night. The home was loving. The parents were patient. And still, nothing was fully working.
So Romanyuk looked deeper. She wove together sleep structure, emotional support, and energy-based work. And then she did something simple: she wrote the child a story in a Word document, one that gave the little girl something she could actually do when the fear came.
That night, after doing one of the activities and making her own paper star to keep near her bed, the little girl told her mother something that stopped everyone in their tracks.
“I don’t feel sick anymore.”
That was the moment Romanyuk knew this needed to be more than a document. With the family’s blessing, she turned it into a book, then into an entire series, and ultimately into Empath Kids, a children’s book collection designed to support emotionally sensitive children from an early age.
What This Book Actually Teaches
At its heart, Ezra’s Heart Light is about building what Romanyuk calls an internal sense of safety. The kind that doesn’t depend on a parent staying in the room or a nightlight staying on.
In the gentlest, most age-appropriate way possible, children learn how to recognize when something doesn’t feel right inside them, pause instead of reacting to fear, move through a feeling rather than be swallowed by it, and trust themselves to find their way back to calm.
The book’s central metaphor, the heart light, is simple enough for a toddler to grasp but layered enough to grow with a child for years. Romanyuk describes feelings as clouds in the sky: natural, ever-changing, and always passing. No matter how heavy they feel, they move. They shift. They don’t stay forever.
For a two-year-old just beginning to experience big emotions, that reframe is everything.
The Practitioner Behind the Pages
Carolina Romanyuk has spent more than a decade supporting families through the intersection of sleep, emotions, and the nervous system. She created the Sleep Trifecta System, a whole-family framework that addresses sleep habits, the child’s nervous system, and the emotional environment of the home, and has trained more than 200 practitioners in this approach.
But her path wasn’t purely professional.
After the birth of her first child, Romanyuk experienced postpartum anxiety that her doctor recommended managing with medication. She chose instead to look for another way. That search led her into energy work, Reiki, and a deepening understanding that the body and mind don’t just need to be managed. They need to be understood.
That personal journey, layered over years of supporting families navigating sleep and emotional overwhelm, is what makes her approach different. And it’s what lives quietly underneath every page of this book.
A Tool for the Whole Family
One of the most important things Romanyuk wants parents to hear is this: your child’s big feelings are not a behavior problem.
“Most of the time, it’s not about behavior,” she shares. “It’s about what the child is feeling and not knowing how to process.”
And she adds something that may surprise you: those hard bedtime moments aren’t just about your child. They’re an invitation for parents too.
“Our children often reflect what’s happening inside of us. If something feels triggering, it’s a moment to gently pause and ask, what is this here to teach me?”
Ezra’s Heart Light holds space for both. It helps your child find their inner light and it quietly reminds you that yours is still there as well.
Try This Tonight
Before you even open the book, you can start here.
Have your child place their hand on their heart. Ask them to imagine a small, warm light inside and then guide them to imagine it growing bigger and brighter. Then ask gently:
“How big is your inner light right now?”
That’s it. That’s the whole exercise.
Simple enough for a two-year-old. Powerful enough to shift the entire energy of bedtime.
Book Details
Title: Night Time Wishes and Starry Kisses: Ezra’s Heart Light
Author: Carolina Romanyuk, Board-Certified Holistic Healthcare Practitioner, Pediatric Sleep and Reiki Practitioner
Publisher: Empath Kids
Publication Date: December 28, 2023
Recommended Ages: 2–6
