Sorry this is going to be a big long blurt. I am exhausted - have a 4.5 and 2.5 year old. The oldest one is fine now - but her brother wakes us all before 6am every day - if he has no sleep in the day he wakes at 6am - if he has a nap then it is 5.30. He goes to bed between 7 and 8 - makes no difference what we do with him cannot get him to sleep much beyond 5.30am. We have tried everything - screaming. control crying/ ignoring. He is tired when he wakes, sure, but wont' go back to sleep for anything. He has huge huge will - he is tiny, very very active. never slept much as ababy at all. Do I just give in to his natural rhytyms and go to bed at 9 every night to cope with it all - and have no life (which I pretty much have anyway). or do I try and beat him into submission. i dream of 7 - 7. I have been at various breaking points for years but now worry about my health I suppose. this sleep deprivation thing is really really getting me down and hurting my marriage/ everyting really. makes me a totally crap mum too because by 9am i am exhausted and shouting at everyone - i keep it up throughout the day, obviously. Help anyone who has been there. When my friends say they had to wake up their kids to get them to school/ nursery on time I want to shoot them...!