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My Six Year Old Child Wakes Up Every Night And Always Has

by A Jones
(London, UK)

My six year old daughter wakes up every single night. She has always done so. In her short life she has slept through the night only a dozen times.


We have a calm bed time routine which includes reading and she is usually asleep by 8.30pm and wakes at 7.00-7.15am. We maintain this during the week and weekends.

She wakes at least 2 times a night, mostly between 3 and 5 times. She goes back to sleep now, but she has always needed comfort and physical contact with me, her mum, to calm her. When she was a baby we always had the sense she could not 'let go' for sleep. Because of this, we have mostly co-slept to ensure some sleep for all.

We are now despairing as I have not had a full night's sleep in over six years. Her little sister just sleeps and wakes perhaps once if she has dropped her dummy in her sleep.

We eat healthily, watch only little TV and are otherwise a happy family. The sleep deprivation is however now taking its toll.

We have tried letting her sleep with us, on a mattress, scolding, giving incentives and giving magnesium supplements but nothing has changed the constant night wakings. What can we do?

Comments for My Six Year Old Child Wakes Up Every Night And Always Has

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Oct 17, 2016
 Me too. Mine is 4 years old NEW
by: Chantelle

Did you get any feedback on here? We use a grow clock and incentives and while we've seen some improvement, he wakes early and can't get back to sleep. He often calls us in to him during the night. With a 4 month old waking me up too, I'm exhausted.

Any suggestions!? (Chantelle@stieghan.de)
Oct 17, 2016
 Outcome NEW
by: Anonymous

Hi,
No, in the end we got no suggestions but the sleeping has been resolved now. Our solution was to let them sleep together in the same bed so they have each other to cuddle. We now miraculously get a full night's sleep practically every night. In the end I think it's a mixture of growing up and the comfort of sleeping with her little sister. They giggle a lot when we leave them at night to fall asleep and they comfort each other.

Hope your sleep issues resolve themselves sooner than they did for us! Good luck!
Dec 22, 2016
 Same Story in This Family NEW
by: Bernd

Thanks for sharing your story and all I can say is WOW. We are a family of 5, with three children aged 3, 5 and 6. Our oldest is Ella and we have had the same sleep issues you are talking about. We are out of ideas at this point and she just keeps waking up anywhere from 1-3 times a night.
Only difference is that Ella also has a hard time falling asleep and we would love any comments and feedback on what we could do to get her to sleep through the night.
After all, our two boys are just fine about going to bed and also about sleeping through the night. Although our youngest still comes to our bed several times a week at some point during the night.
Thanks for the help.
Feb 03, 2017
 lack of sleep NEW
by: Anonymous

After nearly five years we now have a good bedtime routine. Didn't need it for older son but DD does. Dressed for bed at 7pm, little play, story and then sleep. Lots of checks n now drops off ok. Wakes anytime between 10pm-1am. Just gets in my bed. Ok during the week as hubby works nights but weekend means me sharing with her in a single bed. Not fun but can't work out why she wakes and she doesn't know. Tired mum of two 😊

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