Waking at 1am every night

[LuLuBai]

Hi - DD is 22 months and basically doesn't need as much sleep as the guidebooks seem to suggest a child of her age ought to.

Her sleep has always been erratic but lately it has fallen into a pretty regular pattern:

7:15 bedtime with milk and a story. Lights out some time around 7:30ish. She then quite often takes 40 mins to an hour to actually go to sleep.

1am wakes up really quite hysterical. Depending on hsyteria level she might get out of bed and run around the house sobbing and howling inconrtollably.

5-6am wakes up, bounces out of bed singing and chatting and is ready for the day.

I realise that I might not get her to sleep in much later than she already does and she might never go to sleep earlier either, but I would really like to get rid of the 1am wake up call. Any tips?

does she still have a daytime nap? would you consider reducing/dropping it?

Have you tried wake to sleep? You just gently rouse them so they open their eyes very briefly, roll over and go back to sleep.

BTW you need to do it for 7 nights in a row for it to work.

Ragged she has a day time nap probably 4 or 5 days out of 7. Less daytime sleep may make bedtime a bit quicker but doesn't seem to impact on the 1am wake up.

The wake to sleep sounds interesting. I may have to pick my weeks for that (ie when DH is working away from home as as I don't think he would respond well to the alarm in the middle of the night ).

Thanks for the tips.