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Exhausted mum couldn’t figure out why her baby was waking up before the sun every morning.

The 31-year-old told Belfast Live that her 10 month old daughter’s inability to sleep past 4:30-5am in the morning was impossible to deal with.

She was neither hungry, nor teething and she found herself at her wits end, until a casual comment from a friend that mentioned to the exhausted mum how plunging the baby’s room into total darkness could be the answer to her dilemma, as complete darkness helps release melatonin- the sleep inducing hormone.

The mum was struck with a genius idea that revolutionised her sleep – garbage bags.

“I put the bin liners up over the edges of the nursery room window where the light was getting in, I didn’t even care what the neighbours must have thought as I was desperate to get more sleep,” she told the online site.

“We had blackout curtains in her nursery but I did notice one morning when I went in, there was still light getting in through the top – above the curtain and when I thought about it, the room was a lot brighter than I’d expected.

“I didn’t really want to spend a fortune on new blinds and curtains in case they made absolutely no difference to her sleep so I decided to think outside the box and look for an alternative, and there it was right in my cupboard.”

“I couldn’t believe it, the first night she slept until 8am, she had never done that before. I thought it might have been a fluke but she’s sleeping to at least 7.30am every morning now, it’s amazing.”

Genius indeed! Do you have an early riser? Do you think this sneaky trick could help?

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  • Whatever works and keeps baby and mum happy.

    Reply

  • Unfortunately windows and blinds don’t fit close enough to the actual glass of the windows. We discovered the only way to have limited success was to have the curtains and blinds a LOT wider than the windows, put the head of the bed in front of it but with a fair gap behind it.

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  • you will do anything for precious sleep, very clever idea !

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  • As a parent nothing is off Limits! I myself need an eye mask and ear plugs to sleep. That is with roller shutters also. Glad she found something that worked!

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  • A very simple solution for mums with this problem.

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  • I have an early riser but she is my 7 year old she goes to school and even on weekends she wakes up at around 6:30-7:00 am. But the idea mentioned in the article is really good for the moms of small kids who wakes up because of sunlight.

    Reply

  • Easy to fix. I love a totally dark room for sleeping.

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  • This is an amazing idea. And much more affordable

    Reply

  • I have used a blockout sheet, but it hasn’t stuck to the window very well… Maybe I will try this.

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  • Great idea! I did go to the expense of getting the blinds but then was told by the landlord I was absolutely not allowed to put them up on his newly painted windows! Grrrrr. We ended up swapping rooms which helped a little but I surely would have liked to think of the garbage bags lol.

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  • I’m glad it worked for her. A very simple but effective decision, absolutely!!

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  • A very simple solution that worked!

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  • What a fantastic idea, Use what you have!

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  • Good thinking. Smart to first find out if the early waking is indeed caused by light, before going into spending more money for other curtains/blinds. My youngest always wakes up before there is even a hint of light in the sky. My boy was the same, always up at 4.30-5am, summer or winter didn’t make a difference.

    Reply

  • Garbage bags wish I had thought of that. We used tin foil on the tops of the windows to block any lights from the sun or street lights.

    Reply

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