How to wake a deep sleeper?

[anteater]

Anyone any ideas how to wake a very deep sleeping dd without using huge threats??

Our dd1 has always been a good sleeper, needed waking on first night to be fed.. Great as a baby but school starts at 8.30 and we are running out of treats/bribes/pasta to get her up..

This is not just a 'bit sleepy, lets get an early night tonight sort of thing' but a major fall out on 4 out of 5 mornings. Seems to be getting worse.

dd2 and ds1 roll out of bed no trouble.

any ideas??

Snore snore..

Anteater, what time does your daughter go to bed? She might be tired if she gets less sleep then she needs and i know each child is individual so may be she just needs an hour longer or even half an hour? Another thing you could do is come ealier in her room, have time for a gentle kiss and tell her it's time to get up, darling, start singing some song you just make up for her with her name and try to make it humorous, she will start listening, may be gigling and may be you can say: 'I bet you can't get to bathroom quicker then me' or something like that, you know your daughter, you know what helps in general. And another thing - imagine someone asked you for advice. you'll be surprised how many ideas come to your head when you're trying to help someone else. Suddenly it all becomes so clear. Anyway, best of luck!

Thank you Fedda.
We have tried bedtimes from 7 onwards. It does not seem to make any difference. On average she will be asleep by 8.30. But on the odd occasions we have managed to get her to SLEEP by 7 she still is a nightmare to wake at 7.

Ive tried just about every combo of gentle waking half hour before she needs to wake right thro to a call 10 min before I leave, all with about 80% failure rate. And by failure I mean MrsA or I losing it a bit.

I just wondered if there is something to lighten her sleep.

She is still in pull ups, which I put down to her heavy sleeping..

Hi, anteater, I doubt that pull ups make a difference. My first son doesn't sleep in pull ups (he is 9) and he is sleeping like a log. it's very hard to wake him up as well and I come many times in his room, kiss him, talk to him, tell him that I'm going to prepare his lunch box, ask him what he wants in it, what he wants for breakfast, I suppose my questions help to wake him up and I have to come many times saying come on, etc. He eventually does get up looking very tired but soon he is more awake. I don't know what makes it lighten the sleep and I think there are some good sides about sleeping so well. So many times my youngerst was crying at night and he alsmost never woke up my 9 year old. By the way, have you tried stickers? If she wakes up promptly, she will get a sticker and if she does it for say 7 days, she'll get a small treat.

Anteater, how are things now?

I remember someone saying that if you can get a drink down them, it can help them to wake up - maybe a cup of water or some fruit juice?

Does it work if you open her curtains at 1/4 to 7 so the light starts to wake her up?, or make a noise?

have you tried going in at say 7 and opening the curtains? then let the other two get dressed at that time (as noisily as they like) and hopefully it might start making her rowse

I'm not sure you mentioned her age but one of the things that stopped ds sleeping like this was getting him night trained. He used to wake up with a massive sopping wet nappy because he was sleeping so deeply that he never woke up in the morning to wee so he'd wee in his nappy and sleep through! Some mornings he would sleep till 9.30 (on the weekend)!

If she's young though, there's probably not much point doing it yet.

I used to be such a heavy sleeper that my parents would roll me out of bed, dress me and put me in the car to go on holiday, all without waking me. I remember really struggling to get up in the morning. One thing that helped me was having the morning sunshine on my face, so mum would come into my room early and open the curtains, and even move me around on the bed so that the sunshine fell on my face. Of course this only works at the right time of the year, and if the bed can be in the right part of the room.

Sometimes being brought a drink of water or juice and sitting up, feet on the floor, to drink it before getting up helps.

Definite no-no is to tell the child to get up and then leave the room. High-maintenance maybe, but necessary to stay with the child and help her get up and wake up properly, even escort her to the loo or to breakfast.

Thank you every one.
dd1 is 8 yrs and have been trying the shutters open at 7am approach for what seems like years.
She is just a very deep sleeper. We are getting a little concerned over her night time toilet training.. or lack of it!

Becauseof this we try not to give her a drink after dinner, maybe we should be giving her gallons??
Will try the wake up with a drink idea for a few days.
Up to now the only thing that gets her out of bed in a good mood is when shes off riding..

My ds(5) is also a very heavy sleeper, I have found the best way to get him up on time for school is, as soon as I get up I go into his room, open his cutains and leave his bedroom door open, I do not try and wake him, but the noise of me in the bathroom and getting dts up gently stirs him awake.

also when he starts stirring, if he seems a bit grumpy, I start to tease him, for eg, I say come on lazy bones wakey wakey, in a silly voice, he usually starts laughing.

I was like that when I was 8. They tried all sorts to get me dry, lifting/bells/diet/headshrink. I got very upset by it. I think I was asleep to deep to wake up but I don't think they believed me. I wish they just left me alone and stopped fussing. When I was older I woke up and went to the toilet and also then it also got easier for me to wake up when my alarm clock went. Please give her a break and don't get her more upset from it.