When the Day Starts at Silly O'Clock
The Early Waking Masterclass
A live, evidence-informed session for parents of babies and toddlers who are regularly waking before 6am
Tuesday 24 March · 1:00pm GMT · 60 minutes
Even if you can’t attend live, the full recording is included so you can watch whenever suits you.
With Catherine Wasley - OCN Level 6 Holistic Sleep Coach and mum of four
The house is still dark. Your alarm hasn't gone off. And yet there it is - the unmistakable sound of someone who is absolutely ready for the day and has very strong feelings about sharing that with you. It's 5:18am. Again.
But honestly? It's not just the early start that's wearing you down. It's not knowing why it keeps happening, and not knowing which, if any, of the things you've tried are actually worth persisting with.
Earlier bedtime. Later bedtime. Different nap. You've read the forums, saved the posts, tried the advice. The pattern hasn't shifted. And somewhere along the way, the tiredness and the not-knowing have started to feel like the same thing.
Here's what most sleep content doesn't tell you:
Early waking is almost never a behaviour problem. It's almost always a rhythm and distribution problem - shaped by biology, body clocks, and the way sleep is spread across the full 24 hours.
Which means it's not something you solve by being firmer or trying harder. It's something you solve by understanding what's actually driving it.
That's what this masterclass is for.
"A voice of peace and reason in a sea of fear around baby sleep."
Anna, mum to a nine-month-old
This session is for you if:
Your baby or toddler is regularly waking before 6am, and you'd be genuinely delighted with anything that started with a six
You've adjusted bedtimes and naps but the pattern hasn't shifted
You're seeing conflicting advice everywhere and have no idea what actually applies to your child
You want to understand the why behind early waking, not just another list of things to try
You'd like to approach the next early morning with a bit more clarity and a lot less dread
"I found her advice really reassuring rather than overwhelming — like lots of conflicting information that is offered online by others."
Emma, mum to a five-month-old
What we'll cover
This isn't a session built on generic sleep rules. It's built on the specific biology and rhythm patterns that sit behind early waking, because once you understand those, the practical steps stop feeling like guesswork.
The three real drivers of early waking Total sleep across the full 24 hours, the body clock, and daytime sleep distribution. Understanding these three things changes everything - it moves you from "what am I doing wrong?" to "what does my child actually need right now?"
Why the early hours are biologically the lightest part of the night What's happening with sleep pressure, melatonin, and cortisol in those final hours, and why this matters more than the bedtime you've chosen. This is the context that makes everything else make sense.
Why the usual advice often makes things worse, not better Why an earlier bedtime frequently backfires. Why chasing the twelve-hour night is working against you. Why overtiredness is almost never the cause of a cheerful 5:10am start.
Nap transitions and early mornings How the 2-to-1 nap transition and dropping the nap altogether can both trigger earlier starts, and what to do when they do.
The 7-Day Sleep Clarity Method A straightforward, observation-first framework for understanding your child's actual sleep need, so that any adjustments you make are based on what's in front of you, not what a chart says should be there.
What to actually do at 5:15am Real-life, practical guidance for babies and toddlers. Not a perfect solution, but the things that are genuinely worth trying, and why they work.
"She gave the why. She explained the why behind what she suggested so we could fully understand what it was aiming to achieve."
Kath, mum to a two-year-old
What's included
The 60-minute live masterclass A calm, practical session covering the real drivers of early waking and how to start shifting them - without overhauling everything at once.
The Early Waking Guide A comprehensive written companion - evidence-informed, detailed, and designed to be kept. It expands on everything in the session: the science, the practical framework, feeding-driven early wakes, habitual waking, clock changes, and the full 7-Day Sleep Clarity Method laid out step by step. Something to return to whenever sleep shifts again, not a document you read once and forget.
Full recording access Whether you can't attend live or your child decides the night before is a great time to experiment with 3am, you'll have the full recording to watch in your own time.
Live Q&A - A dedicated session where you can bring your specific situation and get guidance that's actually relevant to your child. Early waking often has a few different moving parts, and sometimes it genuinely helps to talk them through with someone who knows what they're looking at.
A note on what this isn't
This masterclass won't teach you to sleep train your baby. It won't tell you to leave them to cry. It won't hand you a rigid schedule and tell you to stick to it regardless of what your child is telling you.
Baby sleep is shaped by biology that isn't within anyone's control. What you can do is understand it, and stop spending your energy fighting things that were never going to shift the way you hoped.
About Catherine
I remember being on holiday with my family - the trip that was supposed to mean everyone finally got some rest - and finding myself up with a wide-awake baby at some ungodly hour every single morning while the rest of the house slept. And then, just as I’d made a kind of exhausted peace with it, two more of my children appeared. It felt as though I’d lived a lifetime before 9am.
I know what this phase feels like from the inside.
I’m an OCN Level 6 Holistic Sleep Coach, one of the highest qualifications available in this field, covering infant and child development, sleep science, and the kind of responsive, whole-family approach I believe in. Before that I spent years working as a childminder and early years practitioner, supporting families and young children in everyday life.
I have also been that mum sitting in a kitchen at 5am, wondering what everyone else seemed to know that I didn’t.
I ended up going deep into the science of sleep because the surface-level advice kept failing real families. What I discovered is that most early waking has clear, identifiable causes, and that when parents understand those causes, things often begin to shift. Not overnight, and rarely perfectly, but genuinely.
My work isn’t about fixing babies or training them into rigid routines.
It’s about supporting parents with evidence, honesty, and a calm understanding of how sleep actually works, without the fear-based noise that makes all of this so much harder than it needs to be.
What other families have said
"I found her advice really reassuring rather than overwhelming - like lots of conflicting information that is offered online by others."
Emma, mum to a five-month-old
"She gave us clear instructions, useful advice that helped to adjust our mindsets when it comes to our baby's sleep, and perhaps most importantly, made us feel that we weren't going mad."
Tom, dad of a ten-month-old
"The approach taken with The Parent Rock is a breath of fresh air. Attachment-focused and evidence-based. We only needed easy simple tweaks to change everything for us."
Sarah, mum of an eighteen-month-old
"Catherine suggested a few simple tweaks to begin with and within the first week we already saw some movements in the right direction. Having the support was great because sometimes you need someone just to tell you that setbacks are okay and expected, and that you're not failing."
Hayley, mum of a ten-month-old
What it costs
Early Bird: £12 Available until Tuesday 17th March
Standard: £17 From 18th March
Your place includes the live session, the full recording, the Early Waking Guide, and access to the follow-up Q&A session.
Ready when you are
If early mornings are wearing you down and you'd like to actually understand what's driving them, this is a good place to start.
It won't solve everything in 60 minutes. But it will give you a clear, evidence-informed picture of what's happening with your child's sleep rhythm, and a calm, practical framework for beginning to shift it.
Masterclass - Tuesday 24 March · 1:00pm GMT
Q&A session - Thursday 26 March - 8.00pm GMT
Early Bird £12 until 17 March · £17 thereafter.
