Comments on: The "wake up light" system helps to solve many sleep issues

By: KathrynWhiteley

KathrynWhiteley — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:59:12 +0000

Hi Jae!
Yes, it actually does begin to work with 8 month olds. The younger you start with a wake up light, the more this becomes a natural part of their natural world. You can point out the light in the morning and say, “Look! the light!”. Good Luck if you give it a try! Best, Kat.

By: Jae

Jae — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:28:18 +0000

But how would you use it with twins just 8 months old? I don’t see how that would work… Maybe when they are a year old?

By: Tammi @ My Organized Chaos

Tammi @ My Organized Chaos — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 02:27:31 +0000

THANK YOU so much for sending me the link to this post, I think this may help me with my 2 year old Twins. And, it may also be great for my 5 year old too! Just wonderful!

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:50:13 +0000

My cousin sent me to this post after asking for some bedtime suggestions (I have 2 but there is 3 years between them!) Bed time had become a disaster at our house with our 3 year old! We used your sleep rules sign exactly how you have it on your site – just added a few extra phrases for us so that we could be sure we were both saying the exact same thing. We held a family meeting and covered the rules. We could not believe it!!! It worked instantly!!!! There was s little more crying but nothing like we had and in a few days it was gone. Thank You for thus great simple idea!!!

By: Christi Thomas

Christi Thomas — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:03:11 +0000

We started this after the kids turned 2. My son was starting to wake up too early in the morning and getting fussy about wanting to get up. This has fixed the problem. Sometimes I can hear that he wakes up before the light, but he just chats a little, off and on, until the light comes on. If the kids are really rambunctious before the light comes on, I go in and remind them that it’s still rest time. If the time is close, I sometimes model the desired behavior by lying down quietly on their floor until the light comes on. That usually helps them settle down until it’s time to get up.

As with other things, it really helps to have a “neutral” third-party authority saying that it’s still sleep time. I use a light up on the wall, but with a very dim, LED night-light bulb. (That way they can see it without having to sit/stand up.) When kids can’t tell time, yet, it’s so helpful to have something visual like this so when they wake up they know whether or not it’s time to get up.

What a great idea. Thanks Kat!

By: Heather Grassman

Heather Grassman — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:52:25 +0000

We started this when the kiddos were about 15 months, and it has worked beautifully! We used timers from Home Depot and cute lamps. I have the boys in toddler beds now, and I can leave their doors open at night and they know to remain in bed until the penguin tells them to wake up. They always yell “mommy! time to get up and play! the penguin is awake!”

Thank you for such great advice!