Reply to What is the light at the end of the tunnel with a bad sleeper?

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[quote=Anonymous]Our issues are slightly different but figured I would chime in. My now 7yo was always a bad sleeper - the biggest issues were that she has always needed less sleep than her peers, she woke up between 4:45-5am every single day from age 1-3 no matter what (we had a sleep consultant give us our money back when she was stumped). It has also always taken her a while to fall asleep. Even if she is super tired she was never the kind of kid to lay down and be asleep in 10-15 mins (which my second kid does most of the time).

What worked for us was a couple things which we implemented right around age 5. First off, we set sleeping rules and explained this is how it is and there will he consequences if you don’t follow. The rule is that she stays in her room from 8:30pm to 7:00am. She does not have to sleep - but she has to stay in her room and do something quiet. If she needs something she is allowed to call for us once but not leave her room (except to go to the bathroom). Second, we added some incentive to this. We went to Target and she got to pick out a toy she wanted. It had to be really enticing so she picked like a $50 LEGO set and that was fine. We told her we would buy it and as soon as she follows the rules for 5 days in a row it was all her (we got a calendar to mark it off). Of course she couldn’t make it to 5 days at first but after a few slip ups she did. Then it became 10 days to the next prize and so on. Eventually it just became the norm and we don’t do prizes anymore.

Could be worth a try. You don’t have to do prizes - it can be anything that will incentivize your child. Some of my friends use treats but doesn’t work for us.[/quote]

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