anyone had success with wake to sleep tactic?

[dan34]

am in need of some motivational success stories! anyone sorted early morning wake ups by doing the wake to sleep tactic?

Yes - I did it with DD2. She had been a great sleeper ever since she was tiny, but then at about 13 months she started regularly (3 or 4 times a week) waking and crying at about 4am. If I went in to her she would settle back to sleep immediately (no more than a pat and a kiss). If I left her alone she would eventually settle herself back to sleep after about 20 mins of on and off crying. It drove DH and I insane! This went on for about 4 months before I heard about wake to sleep. It worked immediately - i.e. waking her up earlier meant we didn't have the 4am wake - but of course I was still up to wake her so not great. After a couple of days I tried waking her at about 11pm before I went to bed and that still stopped the 4am wake thankfully. I did this (waking her before I went to bed) for a few weeks before leaving it. She didn't wake again in the night for about 3 months but then the 4ams kicked off again, so I started waking her before I went to bed again and that sorted it out. As soon as I went back to waking her at 11pm she stopped waking at 4am. I stopped waking her at all after about 10 days and again she remained fine.

For ages I would always wake her before going to bed if we were away staying somewhere as if I didn't she would ALWAYS wake in the night - something about not being in her own bed I suppose.

I was surprised by just how hard it was to wake her. By wake I simply mean getting her to a semi conscious state, eyes flicking open, perhaps some mumbled speech or grumpy grunting! I have no idea how it works but disrupting the sleep patterns definitely does have a huge effect on habit waking.