Customer Reviews

Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer

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3 star:		(82)
2 star:		(32)
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This product totally works, my son is only 22 mths old, but 5 days later it had completely changed his waking times from 4am to 6am! And 9 days in, he's now consistently waking up between 6.15 - 6.30am. Below is how I did it -

My 22 mth old son has always been a bit of a challenging sleeper, but recently it was just getting ridiculous. 4am starts told me that something needed to be done (not least of all because my husband was away, so I was doing all the early morning starts!) Anyway, I invested in a groclock after a friend recommended one. I have to say, I was a bit dubious, my son is only 22 mths old, and I wondered if he'd actually understand what was going on.

The first day I got it, we read the accompanying book a couple of times, then I spent 3 x 5min sessions with him running through the demo mode, so we saw the sun wink (bye bye Mr Sun!) and turn into the star (Night night! Sleeping time! - we pretended to go to sleep) then into the sun again (Morning Mr Sun! Get up! Get up! - we leapt up and danced around). We did this until it seemed like he understood what was going on. I ambitiously set the sun to come up at 6am, and waited to see how it would go.

Anyway, needless to say, day 1 he woke up at 4am, I went into his room, sat with him, and just kept saying, no, sleeping time, we need to wait until the sun gets up (I'd put some toys in his cot for him to play with, and I encouraged him to do so). After an hour of this, he was beginning to lose the plot, so I subtly changed the clock to the sun, and waited for him to notice. When he did, I made a HUGE fuss of him - yes, yes clever boy, it IS the sun. Let's get up!!

Day 2, woke up at 4.10am. This time I gave it a bit longer before I went in to sit in his room, then again encouraged him to read his books, play with his cars etc. I talked to him about having to wait for Mr Sun, and didn't stay in the whole time, went in, reassured, then went out. At no time did I get him out of his cot, I just encouraged him to wait for the sun.

Day 3, woke up at 5.40am. This time, because it was only 20 mins until he had to get up, I didn't go in at all, just talked to him from outside the door about having to wait for the sun.

Day 4, woke up at 4.55am. I was a bit discouraged, felt like we were going backwards, but this time I didn't go in, just called out to reassure him, and encourage him to play with his cars, read his books, and wait for the sun. Again, I constantly reassured him if he called out or cried, but I didn't go in.

Day 5, woke up at 5.45am, and played until the sun came up

Day 6, woke up AFTER THE SUN!! 6.01am!!

Day 7, woke up at 6.35am

Day 8, woke up at 6.16am (I then took the plunge and changed the wakeup time from 6.00am to 6.15am)

Day 9, woke up at 5.40am, but didn't cry, then put himself back to sleep until 6.20am. He has NEVER put himself back to sleep before.

My top tips for success are

1) Decide you really want to do this before you start. You'll need an iron will to keep going even when bubs is protesting.

2) Once you really decide you want to do it, do NOT get the child out of bed until 'Mr Sun' comes up. I found it was ok to go in and sit with them, encourage them to play in their bed / cot, reassure them etc. If the child really starts to lose it, I would press the button to bring on the sun for the first day, or the second at a real push, but try not to let them see you doing it, otherwise they'll associate you with the sun - and it's key they understand the sun comes out independently of Mummy or Daddy coming into their room! Similarly, try not to go in if you can possibly help it.

3) Set the wake up time as their regular wake up time for the first day, then move it by 15 mins each day until you get to your desired time. I didn't do this, and think it would probably have helped.

4) Think about what you do with your child when they wake up. I thought about it and realised that we were letting him watch telly (mainly because we were so wiped!!), but actually this was reinforcing the early waking, as he was leaping out of bed, so excited about watching Peppa Pig! By not allowing him to watch telly until I was preparing dinner, I removed this association. So now, it's a cup of milk and independent play until 7am, when he has breakfast.

5) Spend a bit of time each day for the first week running through the demo mode with very exaggerated actions and enthusiasm (e.g. loud snores for sleeping, big leaps for getting up). Make it fun. And do it until your child understands. Reinforce it whenever you're reading any book, most kids books have pictures of suns or stars somewhere in them - point at it, and say what is this? Child will say 'sun, stars' etc - say, yes, it's the sun, star - what does that mean? Child - wake up, sleep. You - yes, that's RIGHT. Clever boy/girl - when we see the SUN we WAKE UP!, when we see the STAR we SLEEP.

6) Be consistent - be consistent, be consistent. Don't do it unless you're going to see it through, as your child will absolutely test you to see if you're serious. So this is why it helps to set the wakeup time close to their actual wakeup time to begin with - it's much easier to reinforce if you don't have to deal with an hour of protesting to begin with!

I bought this a few weeks ago for my 3 year old son who kept getting up ridiculously early, whatever time he had gone to bed. As he has been growing out of daytime sleeps he was getting really tired and bad tempered in the day.
The price nearly put me off but the clock seemed a good design and I decided to give it a try over the holidays. It has worked perfectly. He has enjoyed setting it in the evenings (watching the sun close its eyes and change into the moon) and comes into our room at 7.30am with a beaming smile every morning telling us that the sun has come up. He has always had a night light in his bedroom and this doubles up as that, plus you can alter the brightness.
Setting it up initially was quite straightforward and if you unplug it to move it or to take away on holiday, it retains the settings. The fact that it can also be set to display digital time and has an audio alarm if required means that it will go on to be useful as he gets older.
In summary we are all getting more sleep and are a much happier household!

We bought this clock for our son for his birthday, when he turned 3 a month ago. He had been waking at 5.30 - 6.30 wanting to get into our bed or to get us sleeping on the floor in his room.

We showed him the demo of Moon with stars countdown and how "Mr Sunshine" would appear when it was "morning" - we optimistically chose 7am. From the first day it worked - I must say I was amazed, he did wake me at 5.30 to tell me the moon was still there for a couple of days.

But he is now checking before he shouts us in the morning - we hear him stir then go quiet if it's pre-7am, then we are woken with a cheery, "Mummy it's morning - the sunshine is here".

My friend has had similar joy with hers too.

Well worth a try - and the clock is lovely addition to boy or girl's nursery - much nicer than the other "pre-time-telling" clocks available.

I think it would even suit children younger than 3 as it comes with a cute storybook to introduce the idea to them at bedtime.

I would recommend this clock to any parent that has trouble keeping their little one in bed in the mornings or quiet in their cot (we haven't had to use it for getting her to bed as that has never been a problem for us). My daughter always wakes at about 6/6.30am but with this clock she is now happily staying in bed til 7am giving us just that bit of extra sleep which we all crave as parents. It comes with a well written well illustrated book (which rhymes) to explain to your child what the clock is all about and why they should use it. It gives you something that makes the getting up rule. In other words "you need to stay in bed" is no longer coming from you making you the bad guy but coming from the clock ie waiting for the sun to rise. With the book and the clock you are armed with a fantastic tool to keep you little ones in bed longer. If my daughter calls for me I now only have to walk in and say "oh look it's still night look at the moon, mummy must go back to bed, can you call me when the sun comes up?"....she then snuggles back down and I go back to bed...now a couple of weeks later I no longer have to go in she is sleeping til 7am now or sometimes later as when the sun rises it doesn't wake her. It's totally silent, runs on very little electricity as it's an led clock. The clock can also be used as an alarm clock for when they are older so it's not something you use for a while then pack away and forget you really get a lot of use out of it. I am very careful what I buy for my daughter as a nanny for 14yrs I am aware of gimmicks that are a waste of money this is NOT one it really works and is of good quality. Gro-Clock

I had great hopes for this item after reading the other reviews, but unfortunately this only lasted 3 days in our household before I returned it.

The product quality and build are very good and the concept is great. However, we found one major flaw. The clock face is quite large and the image is back-lit, so that the whole face lights up. At 2am in a dark room, this is a REALLY bright light, and it would wake my daughter up and she would say that it had to be morning time because it was so bright in her room. We moved the position of the clock so that it wasn't shining over her bed, but then she couldn't see when the moon had turned into the sun, so that was pointless. We turned the brightness down to the lowest setting, but it was still extremely bright.

It would be much better if the moon symbol was illuminated and not the whole clockface. This would mena that their concept of the moon turning into the sun to show get-up time would still work, but it wouldn't look like Blackpool Illuminations in the child's bedroom!

Since birth, my son has always been an early riser. We got this clock and it has really made a difference to the amount of sleep we get. It has not stopped him waking early but with a bit of consistency he now knows that its not 'up time' until the star has turned in to the sun. It has small stars all around the sun, so if he wakes in the night we can point out that there is still some hours of sleep left. Also two time settings, we use one for weekdays and the other for weekends. A bit fiddly to set up but once its done you are good to go. My son is 3 year 3 months. We have been using it for about 6 months. He has also completely coped with the recent clock changes. Would highly recommend this.

Our 3yr old started to wake in the mornings between 4:30am and 5am and wanted to get into our bed, we had given in to crying and we did not want the noise to wake our 22 month old. So we let him into our bed, sometimes he would go to sleep and other times he would just wriggle and chatter keeping us all awake. I read some of the reviews on here and bought the clock because of desperation! not really believing it would work. Oh how wrong was I! within 3 days he was sleeping until 6:45 in fact our 22 month old is up before him, he tells everyone about his clock and loves it and the storybook that came with it. This clock has been a saviour, we all now get a good long sleep without interruption and the days are much nicer because everyone is in a better mood for it. Even though I felt it was a tad expensive I would highly recommend it.

Our 2 year old has had this clock for about 6 months now, and it's working really quite well. I'd definitely recommend getting one, even though when we initially bought it I felt it was rather overpriced.

Part of our bedtime routine is to wave bye-bye to the sun and watch the "sleepy moon" come up - it helps her know that it's really bedtime, despite any protestations. If she wakes up during the night, showing her the moon helps her understand that it's really not morning yet.

Most mornings, she'll still wake up early but she'll stay in bed talking to herself until 07:45 when we've set the "sun" to come up. At that point, she'll shout "the sun is up!!" and get excited. Some days when we have to get up earlier, I'll move the "sun up" time back and she's up like a shot as soon as it appears, even if it's an hour before she normally gets up. Also, as spring comes around and it's getting lighter in the morning, it's useful to have the clock giving a consistent wakeup time.

So, as tired parents, we're pretty pleased. It's a simple idea, but one that definitely works with a toddler: if the moon is up it's stay-in-bed time, and when the sun comes up, you've got free reign to yell for mum & dad.

I have 2 1/2 year old twins and they were transferred into junior beds at Christmas. Prior to this, they went to bed at 7 and got up at 7 and we never heard a peep. However, when they went into beds, it changed!

We finally sorted the going to bed issue, but we were battling with 4am wake ups and wanting to play. I bought this clock after reading all the reviews and WOW - it actually did work!

First night was very exciting for them then for a week, they didn't wake us at 4am at all. Then, DISASTER! We had to remove their chest of drawers after they pulled it over during their lunchtime nap! Anyway, that meant I had nowhere to put the clock so on Friday & Saturday night, we were woken at 4am.....coincidence?? Last night, we had put up a shelf, and the clock made its return - Ta Dah - not a peep until 7am !!!

The accompanying book is really lovely. The boys love having it read to them and get really excited. During the story they are looking at the clock and chattering away about the animals and what they are doing.

Just one VERY small critism. It would have been helpful to have the option to run it off batteries - that would have solved my 2 early morning wake ups this weekend as I wouldn't have needed to drill through the wall to plug it in!

In short.....buy it - I am SURE you won't regret it. I have NEVER reviewed anything but felt that I really should review this!

With a 2 year old getting up every morning at 6am we were getting pretty desperate to find a solution to somehow keep her in bed just a little bit longer and had looked at various sleep training clocks. A friend recommended the Gro-Clock and I'm glad he did as I'd never heard of it.

This piece of kit is BRILLIANT! The storybook that comes with it is particularly helpful and after just two read throughs the first night using the clock our daughter understood what was expected of her. The next morning 7am arrives and I hear from the next room "Sun's out, wake Mummy up now"! Genius! From day one it worked. I thought maybe it was a fluke but every night since she has only got up when the sun comes out...and we bought it 2.5 months ago.

Worth noting that it's mains operated only so you need to make sure you have a socket in a convenient place. It would be really useful if there was the option of battery operation as well for when you're travelling. The only other gripe I have is that the time is displayed with digits (ie. "7.30pm") so no hope of using it as a teaching aid for learning the time - it would be excellent if it displayed a digital dial clock throughout the day.

All in all it is a fantastic concept and since it's all digital there are no noises to wake your little one if they happen to sleep in for once (like some of the other sleep training clocks). Thoroughly recommend this product and I wouldn't be without it now.