Has anyone done sleep restriction therapy with their child?

[JimmyJam2019]

After being fobbed off for the last 2 years by HVs and paediatrician, we've spent money on sleep support for my 4yo daughter's sleep issues. For the last 2 years, she has got into a pattern of going to bed fine at 7 but waking up in the early hours for 2/3 hours talking, bouncing on her bed in the dark (going into her doesn't help) after this time she goes back to sleep and then sleeps in to compensate and get her approx 11 hours a night she needs. We can't let her sleep in (school, been told to keep a routine for sleep hygiene), so she is massively sleep deprived and this has affected her behaviours in the day.
We are going through sleep restriction therapy which is painful and I wondered if anyone had been through it and could tell me your experiences.

What does this involve? My DD is only one but I have to be quite careful about how much she sleeps in the day and ensure she is awake for long enough in the day for her not to wake up for 2 hours overnight. It’s not painful at all, apart from having to wake her from naps which I would rather not do... but if it means we get a full night’s sleep I’m fine with that! Sorry I can’t be more help!

It's quite extreme but completely resets the system and used with adults with chronic insomnia. My daughter is well past napping age. I wouldn't have thought this was suitable for a one year.
Put simply you keep the child up late and only allow them a restricted amount of time in bed (forcing a wake time in the morning) that means that they sleep through with no waking (analysis of sleep diaries and a bit of trial and error gets to a baseline number of hours). Once they are doing this for a week or so, you start adding back time in small increments until they are sleeping through and waking naturally after an age appropriate amount of sleep.
We've been doing it a couple of weeks and I'm glad we're in lockdown and not at school as she is very tired but sleeping through and we are starting to add back 15 minutes at first. It does mean keeping her up past 9pm and having no evenings but if it works, I'll survive.

That all makes sense. It does sound really tiring for you all but if it helps her (and you!) get more rest in the long run it’ll be worth it.

Not something I’m thinking of doing with my DD - just I have to be quite careful with ensuring she’s awake long enough to sleep through the night. I find that not letting her sleep in after a rough night is really important as if she does then she hasn’t been awake long enough in the daytime to sleep at night and she goes down fine but then is awake half the night and just gets more and more exhausted. It’s hard because it goes against all your instincts as a parent to wake your child when they’re tired, but it’s much better for her.