5yo dd driving me insane, neighbours complaining.

[SushiPaws]

Dd, 5yo has always been a bad sleeper apart from one week when she was 12 weeks old and she slept 12 hours a night.

We tried everything, and at 18mo the sleep therapist just told us she'd grow out of it. Which to a certain extent she has, she usually sleeps from 8pm till about 5am.

The problem is that some mornings she gets up at 4.30. She switches lights on and wakes everyone up, including 3yo ds who falls into her pattern and now wakes at 6.

When we go to my mums house, because me and ds sleep in a different part of the house and dd sleeps near my wonderful mother, ds sleeps till 7.30. So he's clearly not getting enough.

She has a gro clock set for 6.30, we tried a reward chart, she only ever managed one day till 6.30 a week. We tried moving her bedtime later, she still got up at the same time but was exhausted. We tried moving bedtime earlier, she just got up earlier.

She gets lots of exercise, eats plenty. We don't eat meat (she eats meat outside the house if she wants it), so I am very aware of making sure her nutritional needs are met with iron and b vits.

The neighbours on one side have mentioned they can hear the kids early in the morning. The neighbour on the other side has complained saying dd has woken her kids up.

What can I do?

[Reaa]

Take DC back to Drs and explain they should be able to help.

[valiumredhead]

What are the consequences of her turning on the light and waking everyone up? At 5 she should know that this is not on and everyone needs their sleep. I would start with telling her if she doesn't stay in her bed until the gro clock tells her to get up then there will be a punishment - no telly worked for us.

Reward charts have their place but so do punishments and a stern talking to!

[Seeline]

My DS was similar - he just didn't need the sleep. BUT he learnt that just because he was awake no-one else wanted to be. At 5 your DD should be able to stay quiet - reading etc until it is time to get up.

[valiumredhead]

We used to tell ds he could get up for a wee but straight back to bed and no lights on until the clock said.

Interestingly he then slept in much longer than the gro clock, he had obviously just got into the habit of thinking whenever he opened his eyes it was time to get up.

If the neighbours are being woken up then she is obviously being very noisy which is totally unasseptable