My 6 year old DD1's sleep issue is making everything else a lot more difficult. She's miserable, the rest of us are getting miserable, and I don't know what to do. Unlike most of the problems I've read about in trying to help her, she has no problem going to sleep at night (as she is shattered) but she wakes up really really early no matter what and keeps waking up others.
She used to get bad night terrors and nightmares. She learned how to deal with the latter on her own (her preference) and the terrors appear to have gone. The last few weeks she's complained of stomach pains when she goes to bed, but I'm not sure if that's a delay tactic or real deal but she says it's better now. I think it was likely due to major changes in the family (DH just got a new job and now works nights when previously he had been the children's main carer since before DD1 was born and almost always got up with her, now I get up with them and do both morning and afternoon care and lessons - DH does a bit in the morning before going to bed and he gets up just before dinner on days after he works and just after lunch time on days after he hasn't) as she is quite the worrier and easily panicked.
We had a system previously - she would wake up and come down and read quietly to herself, but she now seems to foget t she quite often wakes up her 4 year old sister and they get really loud together (and that often means they wake up the toddler, who unlike the others I can't just send back to bed). We've tried putting in rules like 'if she wakes [the toddler] or me before 7:30, she has to go back to bed as she's onbiously too tired to remember the rules' but it's not working. Today was eyeshatteringly early with her and her younger sister both playing so loudly in the bathroom (which is right next to the bedrooms) that I thought someone was hurt as they were screaming so loudly. A really rubbish way for me to wake up. They both were sent back to bed, but I had to remain up as they'd woken the toddler. It's getting really draining for everyone, and DD1 looks and acts shattered all day (it's causing great problems in maths, things she could easily do before making her panic) and DD2 is just feeling and acting awful from tiredness.
So we've tried rules, book systems so everyone else can get sleep, bedtime routines, different bedtimes, black out blinds, white noise, and now we're saving up for a new mattress in hopes it will help her sleep better. Is there anything I can do to help her and us sleep better in the mornings? I know this too will likely pass and I'll have to drag her out when she's a teen, but we all need more sleep now.