Turner has always been a fairly good sleeper. I can generally always count on him for a good 10 hours each night (usually from 8 PM – 6 AM), but since he moved to his big boy bed, he’s been starting to wake up a bit earlier than I’d like. Granted, he is very good about staying in his bed, but he always talks to me through the monitor before 5:30 AM and asks yells “Mommy! Is it daytime yet?!” Not my ideal way of being woken up. Even if I can convince him to go back to sleep (which usually doesn’t happen), I can’t manage to fall back asleep, which leads to some really early mornings for me each week….and on the weekends. Blah.

I remembered hearing about the “OK to Wake!” clock quite some time ago, but we didn’t really have a sleep issue with Turner, so I never bought it. But now that he’s waking up a bit too early, I decided to give it a try. The OK to Wake! clock is a typical bedside clock/nightlight that has a cute design that kids enjoy. The difference is that you set an “alarm” for the time that it is okay for your child to get out of bed. When that time comes, the alarm doesn’t sound; instead, the entire clock glows bright green. That way, if your child happens to still be asleep at that time, they won’t be woken up by a sound.

On the first night we had the clock, I tested it to show Turner how it would work, and explained that he could get out of his bed ONLY when his clock turned bright green. He was excited to try it out. The next morning, I heard him stir in his bed around 5:45 AM. I checked the monitor and could see that he was awake, but he didn’t make a sound! He just rolled over and went back to sleep. At 6:45 AM, he yelled, “It’s green!” and came to our room. I was so impressed that he actually stayed in his bed over an hour longer than normal!

We’ve used it for several nights now, and it has truly made a difference. He hasn’t talked or gotten out of bed at all before the light turns green, so I’m definitely sold on this product. The only drawback is that it is battery operated, but the extra sleep is worth the cost of a few batteries every now and then to me! More sleep = less crankiness for everyone involved. I’m going to slowly push the time back for the weekends to see if he will sleep until 7:30 AM. I would definitely give it a try if you have an early riser!