My daughter is almost 3. We don't have a strict schedule. Her first dose is when she wakes up: week days due to day care around 6:45 am but on weekends she often sleeps until 8:00. I get nervous if she is still asleep at 9:00 but I never wake her. We then shoot for 6 hours to next dose and final dose before she goes to bed at 8:00. Our endo has said ideal is 8 hours but anywhere between 6-8 hours is ok, it was never suggested we wake her for meds. And she is a terrible sleeper I don't think we could. We have never had her problem