For people with early wakers and no judgey pants, is there SOMETHING we can give them?

[MissHonkover]

It's been about 10 months of waking any time from 4.30ish to 5.15ish. We can't stand it any longer. Utterly sick of it.

Is there anything that can be prescribed or bought?

Please, I don't want to hear from anyone who says "just go to bed earlier".

Oh, it's horrible :( DD used to be an early waker, 5.30am was a lie-in for a long time. Going to bed early was miserable since we then had no time to ourselves at all. Putting her to bed later never worked either although people always suggest. We eventually cured it using a Groclock and telling her to wake-up when the sun rose. She was 22 months at that point - I was 39 weeks pregnant with DS and we decided we couldn't cope with a newborn and waking in the night. I was surprised by how well it worked but don't think it would work on a younger one (you don't say how old your DC is but I'm guessing 10 months).

Sadly, I don't think there is anything that can be prescribed. I've heard people say the wake to sleep method can work (gently wake them up, not completely awake but just stirring, about an hour before they get up, do it for a few days and you reset their body clock).

Sympathies though, it is awful, especially in the winter.

Oh, also just think about any household noises that might be waking them up - it's possible that the boiler coming on is disturbing them. We found a few weeks ago that DS was getting up a bit earlier because our boiler was coming on slightly too late in the morning and he was waking up a bit earlier because he wa s cold. We changed it to come on 30minutes earlier and he went back to sleeping as normal.

If I have the heating on quite high, about 24 degrees, we all sleep longer at night.

Mine wake up earlier on chilly mornings and I can't sleep unless I'm hot.

Obviously you can't overheat babies but for older children a bit more warmth might do the trick.

Wake to sleep worker for us although he did regress a couple of times and, even now, 6am is not unusual. Ds was waking at anytime from 5am. I set the clock for 4.15am and at that point I would go through and roll him over and tuck him in again (just enough to rouse from deep sleep). It didn't work every day for the first week, but then he consistently started sleeping through until after 5.45/6am so I gradually moved the alarm later (15mins every few days) until he was waking after 6.30am most days at which point I stopped getting up in the middle of the night

As I say, we had to go through the process twice but neither tend to wake any earlier than 6am now (ever) and quite often sleep until around 7am or later.

You don't say how old your child is. We also encourage picking a book to take back to bed or playing in room.

Also, don't underestimate the power of lots of fresh air and running around. We need to make sure our boys have lots of physical exercise (particularly at the weekend when they don't have school/nursery) and, when they were younger we ate evening meal early enough so that they could also have 'supper' (cereal/toast/milk & cookie along those lines) as ours often woke up STARVING!!!

She's 18 months, this has been going on since about 10 months. Sorry, my OP was written in a sleep deprived rage.

We've tried:
blackout blinds
heating on
heating off
bottle of water in cot in the hope that she'd resettle
later bedtime
earlier bedtime
later nap
tea early
tea late

I don't think she's waking hungry as she is happy to potter about for a bit before asking for breakfast.

Our heating is hideously noisy, so we run the risk if it's on during that light sleeping cycle at 4.30ish that it will wake her.

She won't co-sleep.

We've never tried wake to sleep, just haven't had the heart for it, but maybe it's time to give it a go. Not sure when would be the best time.

If she's woken through teething/illness and we've dosed her with Calpol at 3.30 ish, she can go a bit longer. The other night she was up about 6 times in the night (very unusual) and then slept til 7.45. Perhaps I should go in and poke her at hourly intervals.

Thank you for your sympathy, I've posted about this a lot.

Ah, it really is so hard. We now have a rule about not going downstairs before a certain time but didn't start that until youngest was about 2.5

The only difference bedtime makes to my boys is how 'well' they sleep, not a jot to aking up time! So pick a bedtime which suits you and your child and stick to it. I would try going in at about 3.30am and doing the wake to sleep thing...keep going at it for 4-5 days then shift to 3.45am, then later every few days if you can. Don't worry if it doesn't work at first, or consistently.

The good thing is that 3.30am is 'early' enough for you to fall right back to sleep! [sees bright side]

Well, my sleep is totally messed up now, unfortunately. Waking at strange hours unable to get back to sleep.

Honestly, if drugs were available, I'd give them to her.

Most of the advice on problem sleeping in books is about getting them to sleep, and I don't really have trouble with this. dd1 has always been an early riser, she's 5 now. It was 5am almost all her life, but since she started school it's been about 6am. I give her my iphone and she goes and plays on that for an hour. My sleep is interrupted but I can often snooze again. Now it's cold, she's more likely to want to share my bed for the last hour or so, which means no sleep for me - she shares a bedroom with her good-sleeper sister so she can't start watching telly in her own room.

One thing I did read about is to slightly wake the child while they're sleeping, so before you go to bed you just go and turn them a bit so they almost seem to be waking but don't wake. I've had some success with this, but never do it on purpose, just noticed a link between doing it by accident and longer sleep. I think it's probably flukey, but may be worth a try. She's still very young at 18m, I know it's awful, though.

You poor thing. Sleep deprivation is torture (literally). I have a 16 month old and she has been early waking for a while (started at 0530 and crept to 0400). Like you, we tried everything and I was on my knees.

Then I got some really helpful advice which was, pick a strategy, whichever one works for you (and your partner if appropriate) then stick to it. For us it was treating any waking before 0600 as the night. Even though she was acting awake, pointing at the door and screaming, I give her a big cuddle, repeating it is sleep time and put her down. I then go back after 2, 5, 8, 10 mins and lie her down. It is taking about an hour to get her back to sleep but she does eventually go. I am hoping that the hour settling time will get shorter - fingers crossed.

I hope you find a solution that works for your family.

CharlyH, we're too chicken to try that as we live in a terraced house and we know the neighbours can hear her. I'm sure they're being woken as it is, and to let it go on for an hour seems too long. Maybe we should try it though.

Out of interest, is she in a bed or a cot?

What's wrong with going to bed earlier? honestly, if it gets you through this patch.....

Apparently if you regularly expose them to daylight later on in the day it helps. A walk around dusk might work. It's something to do with re-setting their circadian rhythm. I must admit that when my DS has gone through phases of early waking i've tried this method and it has worked.

OP - no advice I'm afraid, but DD1 did this for a few months and grew out of it at almost exactly 18 months, so maybe you are nearly there (just to counterbalance the five years thing!)

This may seem a bit silly but my DD was very much like that, and we actually found out that by putting her to bed earlier she had a better nights sleep AND slept for longer. If she goes later then she seems to be up and down a lot, and then gets up about 3/4 of an hour earlier than if we'd put her to bed at 7 on the dot?

Also how long is her nap for and what time is she going to bed?

Neither of mine have ever slept more than 10.5 hours over night if that, and DS2 (15 months) averages 12 hours total sleep at the moment, so if he has had a 2 hour nap, then he will only do 10 hours at night.

I have also found that pushing bedtime later only becomes effective (slightly) after a few days. It never works the next day!

It's rough, we are regularly up at 5.30am, and that is bad enough!

She is getting to the stage where she may respond to bribes. I'm sure the promise of a chocolate button has convinced my 2yo how much she likes staying in her own bed all night and not waking mummy and daddy.
Worth a try if you haven't already anyway

My ds used to wake up at 5 every morning. Bright and cheerful.
I would struggle to keep him awake beyond 6 in the evening. If I put him to bed later he would still wake up at 5am but would be really grumpy all day.

It got better when he was old enough to use the remote for the tv. He would get in bed with me and watch tv for a few hours. I would put on an eye mask and try to sleep!

He is now 8. He is still an early riser, more 6am. But he will now go downstairs, make his own breakfast and watch iplayer. He doesn't wake me up until 7.

I did try everything ( like prev posters). Black out blinds etc, but nothing worked.

She's in a cot, in a grobag.

5.15 this morning. She's now yawning in front of Charlie and Lola.

Thinking we should get a gro clock and give it a go. She knows what stars and moons are, so she might possibly just get it, even though she's little.

seeker, you've said this before on another thread I was on. Sorry, but getting up at 5.15 isn't acceptable to me no matter what time I've gone to bed. I just cannot put up with it any more, waking at that time makes me miserable.

We did push her bedtime back gradually to 8.15, but the effect was negligible. Her nap is usually about 1.25 hours, but it varies. It's definitely too soon to cut her daytime sleep, isn't it?

I don't know about the bribe idea, the only thing she is doing 'wrong' IYSWIM is not lying silently in her cot until it's time for us to wake up. Not sure how we'd explain that one.

Thank you for the ideas and sympathy. I'm so fed up of talking about bed times, nap times and sleep with an equally grumpy DP.

Haven't posted for yonks, but had to reply (was searching for help with another sleep problem!) - I have such sympathy, it truly is hell. Particularly in the depths of winter. DS1 (now 3.8) did this til nearly 2, and DS2 (18 months) is just coming out of it... awful, particularly when everyone you know seems to have to wake their children up!

Stuff that has worked for us:

Bribery (we did this at 22 months with DS1 and it worked a treat) - he got a chocolate button if he stayed in bed til 6. He still has phases of early waking and this generally works (last week he got some glow stars for his ceiling for doing 10 days good sleep). 18 months might be still a bit little (not sure that DS2 would get it yet), but anytime from now!
Gloclock (also from about 22 months with DS1), he really got it - we're going to get one for DS2 soon
Snacks at bedtime, with milk (we did oatcakes)
Probably the most successful thing (particularly for DS2) has been to put an audiobook on (Thomas a particular favourite) - he drifts back off to sleep, and after a few nights it seemed to break the habit and expectation that he'd be getting up as soon as he woke
Treat any waking before 6 am as night time (I'm rubbish at leaving them crying), but I'd go in quietly and reassure, say 'sleepy time' and go out again

They're still relatively early risers, and both have phases of getting up early, but a combo of these tactics fixes it. We have a rule that no-one gets up before 6.30 (awake from 6 fine, we put on CDs, or bung toys in the cot)

Good luck, and boundless sympathy!

PS would also have been willing to resort to sedation!

we are now looking at melatonin. dd wakes 4-5am and always has but she doesnt go to bed till 10pm and never naps. sob.
Its prescritption only though (in the US you can just buy it over the counter)

I like the audio book idea. From birth she's had a little dreamshow type thing that plays music, and she presses the button herself if ever she wakes in the night.

We do go in and tell her it's night time. This works fine on the rare occasion that she wakes in the night, but once 4.30 has gone she just screeches. I'm considering warning the neighbours and going for it with controlled crying.

In terms of bribing, won't she need something to judge by eg Groclock, so she knows she's been 'good'. She won't know the difference between us going in at 4.30 and (hopefully) 7. Sorry to be dim. Obviously it's very clear cut if you have a child who is climbing out of bed.

streetcar, thanks for coming back to help!

awww you have all my sympathy, DS is almost 6 and rarely sleeps past 6am, usually he's up at 5am.

It's grim, go with audiobook (we have a mp3 player with a speaker like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sanyo-ZipTunes-Portable-Speakers-Players/dp/B000EPVPYG/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1328174132&sr=8-17 here and things to look at /do in her cot

sorry