If you curse spring and the clocks going forward for the knock-on effects it has on your child’s sleep, you’re not alone.
I actively look forward to winter, with its dark, early skies and bleak mornings, and that’s because young children – my young children – are like birds.
They’re up every morning at 6am with the dawn chorus, and when it starts getting light earlier on, so do they. I’ve tried everything, from a portable black-out blind to curtains lined with black-out material, to sticking pieces of black card over the window panes – but light always seems to find a way in.
Thankfully, a mum in Northern Ireland thinks she has discovered how to end early wake-ups, with a simple – yet achingly effective – solution. And you don’t need to spend a ton of money, or shop somewhere obscure, to get one.
All that you need…. is a bin bag.
[Read more: ‘He Uses My Face As A Footrest’: How Long Should We Let Our Kids Sleep In Our Beds?]
Yes. You heard that right. The 31-year-old mum was so tired of her 10-month-old daughter waking up at 4.30 or 5am each day, that she came up with a cunning plan.
She told Belfast Live: “I was losing my mind trying to figure out what was waking her up every morning. I thought it was hunger but she wasn’t overly fussed on her bottle when she did wake up.
“I tried everything but nothing seemed to work and I had resigned myself to the fact she would forever wake before 5am.”
The unnamed mum said she was inspired by a friend who asked if her daughter’s room was dark enough – because babies sleep better in those conditions due to the ‘sleep hormone’, melatonin.
[Read more: Pokémon Sleep: Is This Every Parent’s Dream Invention?]
“We had blackout curtains in her nursery but I did notice there was still light getting in through the top above the curtain,” the mum explained.
“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.”
And in the end, it was simple: she put bin liners up over the edges of the nursery room window where the light was getting in. She said she “didn’t even care what the neighbours must have thought”, as she was so desperate to get more sleep.
“I couldn’t believe it, the first night she slept until 8am, she had never done that before,” she revealed. “I thought it might have been a fluke but she’s sleeping to at least 7.30am every morning now, it’s amazing.”
I think we all know what’s at the top of my shopping list…