Why is DD (9) waking up at 10pm every night?

[Rainallnight]

Has anyone else experienced this? DD has been waking up at 10/10.30 every single night for the past couple of weeks.

It’s really disruptive and she’s missing out on sleep.

Over the past few weeks, she’s also really started visible signs of puberty (early in my view!). Could this be connected?

I’d love to know if anyone has any experience or advice.

(So as not to drip feed it’s disruptive cos she needs me to lie down with her to go back to sleep. She’s adopted and this has always been something she needs so that bit isn’t up for debate. I just don’t want to have to do it for a second time so late at night!).

When does she go to bed? Probably too early?

This was also my first thought. My 10 yo has lights off at 8.45/9pm, probably not asleep till 9.15+. What time is your DD going to sleep?

Have you tried to move bedtime for later?
Have you checked all external things that might trigger her waking up : steer light, heating, neighbors coming home, tv sound
Does she go to the toilet then ? It might be the reason
Does she have caffeine drinks in the evening?
Or maybe she is hungry as her dinner is too early?

Her bedtime is probably on the early side. She’s usually asleep by about 8.15. Maybe we need to move that later. She and her 7 year old little brother go at the same time!

I think temperature, light, noise are all ok - and haven’t changed. She could be hungry. Will think about that.

We’ve always been pretty keen on the early bedtimes because both the DC are pretty full on and need a lot of attention/input, so we really value the hour on our own in front of the telly!

Yes unfortunately that time disappears as your kids get older 😩 but you should be able to put her in bed at her brother’s bedtime to read for a bit and then go up and do lights out and cuddle later. If she’s more tired she will hopefully go to sleep quicker too.

What time do you go to bed?

Yeah that’s quite early. I miss the quiet nights too but that’s just how it goes at some point. Every child is different - my daughter was in bed by 9 at that age but my 9 year old son is closer to 930. He never has any issues getting up in the morning unless he’s up past 11 and then he might sleep in a bit.

If she's waking at that time, it's likely her bedtime is too early. My 9 year old would have just fallen asleep around that time. I have a younger child. I tried hard to keep their bedtimes similar, but I no longer do that. My 9 year old now has a 9pm bedtime, but he doesn't actually sleep until 9:40-10:20pm. He sleeps throughout the night this way.

If she's got into the habit of waking at that time you need to change up her routine a bit to change her sleep cycle. I would try with a slightly later bedtime. It doesn't necessarily need to be much later, maybe try half an hour and see how that goes.