Hello!

We’ve just sold our house and moved to a rental. We used to have block out curtains that kept the rooms nice and dark but now have timber blinds that allow sunlight through the slats. My 2.5 yo DS has started waking up early at 5.30am because its so light. Any ideas on what to do to make the room dark as I can’t change the blinds? Thanks so much.

Posted by anon 26.10.2012


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  • I covered the windows of my youngest with a black out window film. Easy to apply and remove again especially ideal for rental properties.


  • Near impossible! There really interesting and good comments on this!


  • Cover your blinds with something darker and make sure you have taken them to the toilet before bed. I find they are waking because like everyone else they need to go…..


  • Much older post, however I would also do as suggested by a few other Mum’s, rig something up to the windows at night.


  • I had this problem as an adult when doing shift work. Easiest solution was to get a dark sheet and rig it up over the window, to make the room darker. Or, depending on what type of windows you’ve got, you could cut cardboard to fit the glass panes of the window, and attach them to the inside of the window at night, and remove them in the morning.


  • 5:30 is a pretty normal time for kids to be up, early to bed early to rise


  • I used to hang blankets up. cools the room too


  • put them to bed later . . .


  • Hope this has been resolved for you.


  • My mum used to string up old blankets over the windows…I remember her doing that for my brothers


  • If you cannot afford to purchase anything for now why not try cover the window with a light sheet or blanket for the night? Or even move a wardrobe infront of the window for now to block light out.


  • Darken the roo. Cut out the day nap. Make sure they have a full day so there really tired. Good luck most of the time he only person that gets really tired is mom


  • My youngest has an internal body clock that wakes her up like I seem to have. It won’t matter that the room is still dark. If I put her to bed between 8:30 – 9:30pm then she will normally sleep through until 7am. Any earlier and she is up at 6am.


  • I hope you found ideas that are useful for you


  • Over time their sleep patterns will change, it could also just be a stage they were going through.


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