Why Does My Child Wake Up Early and How to Fix Early Rising: Understanding the Causes and Solutions
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Does your child wake up early?
As a baby sleep coach and parent, I know that some of the scariest questions you can hear when raising a child are, “Is your baby a good sleeper?” and “Does your child sleep through the night?” and “Does your child wake up early?”. It becomes the standard by which we judge our parenting—whether we get a good night’s sleep or whether the bags under our eyes tell a very different tale.
You begin to wonder how others seem to manage it while you feel doomed to restless nights and early mornings. Even though you have to remember that every child is different, there are a few things that you can do to try and make supporting your child to sleep through the night easier for your family.
Why Does My Child Wake So Early?
There are many reasons why your child may be waking early, some are more easily solvable than others but with this guide, we’ll work through how to support your little one to sleep better. Here are some of the most common reasons (or ways to find the reasons):
- Check their overall sleep needs – When you looked at the above sleep chart, were you surprised by the amount of time your child needs to sleep? Sometimes, parents put their child to bed at an earlier time because their child seems tired (particularly after they’ve dropped their naps) but don’t consider their child’s actual sleep need when calculating bedtime. For example, if your 3-year-old has a low sleep need of 9 hours and you put them to bed at 7 pm then it only makes sense that they will wake up between 4 am and 5 am.
- Is it the force of habit? – Some children get into a routine with their sleep the same way they do about eating and other activities. The longer a habit goes on, the harder it will be to change. If you think your child has just gotten into the habit of rising early there are ways to try and change this but it will require patience.
- Sleep environment causes – Does your heating start at 5 am? Does light start to trickle through the window? There are many sleep environment factors that can affect wake-up times that we need to look into and address.
- Day-time Nap Sabotage – The sleep needs above are over a 24-hour period, if you’re still allowing your child a 2-hour nap because they are going to sleep easily enough at bed-time, you could be sabotaging your wake-up time because they have filled part of their sleep need during the day.
- Nappy Time – If your child is still in nappies or diapers it could be that they are waking because their nappy is uncomfortably full.
- Breakfast Time – Children who tend to eat little and often, snack more or have a lighter meal before bed sometimes wake up because they are hungry. Is your child desperate for breakfast when they wake?
- Anxiety – If your child has had a difficult day, gone to sleep whilst frustrated or upset or is experiencing some kind of transition in their life, then anxiety could be causing early wake-ups. By this, we don’t mean your child is having a panic attack at 4 am but more that they’ve been upset by something and are feeling unsettled.
- Genetic – How do you and your partner sleep? Some studies show that waking early can actually be an inherited factor! However, that doesn’t mean we can’t support more healthy sleep behaviours.
From reading the above list you may instantly be able to name a couple of contributing factors to your child’s early rising. Don’t worry, we’ll go through coping mechanisms over the rest of the guide.
6 Tips on What to Do When Your Child Wake Up Early
1. Is your child up when the sun is up?
With a little investigation at the right times, you can check how much light is coming into your child’s room and where it is landing. Light equals daytime which to a child equals playtime so keep it out of your room until you are ready and consider a blackout blind if needed.
2. Did you check for environmental noises that might be the reason why your child wake up early?
It may take you getting up a little bit before your child’s usual wake-up time to spot it but it will be worth it to hear those noisy radiators that come alive when the heating comes on. By doing this it may be obvious exactly what it waking your child up and you have a problem to be fixed. A white noise machine might help disguise any environmental noises and prevent them from becoming an alarm clock for your child.
3. Are you keeping the mornings calm and steady?
If as soon as your child wakes up they have a full-on morning of their favourite things, then there is no wonder your child wants to jump right out of bed and start their day. Having a calm morning routine, making sure they get dressed and ready for the day and then doing relaxing and none strenuous activities like colouring, reading or simple puzzles are less likely to encourage your child to rush out of bed unlike ‘rewarding’ them with watching TV at 5 am.
4. Does your child wake up early because of hunger?
Then later or fuller evening meals may help. This may mean you have to decrease snacks to try and encourage them to eat more substantial food in the evening. Here are some sleepy foods you should introduce in their evening meals.
5. Have you assessed your child’s sleep routines?
Too early to bed may mean that they have already had all the sleep they need by the time they get up at silly o’clock in the morning. Adding an extra hour to their bedtime might get you that extra hour you crave in the morning. You can check your child’s sleep needs here.
Maybe it’s the opposite and your child is too late to bed. Being overtired means your child is not getting a good night’s sleep, and it is more likely to be restless rather than fall into the deep sleep they need.
Creating a relaxing environment for your child to chill and get in the right frame of mind ready for bed is going to promote a much less stressful situation. Activities like colouring or reading are perfect because they avoid screens and don’t over-excite your child into having an additional burst of energy just before you want them to drift off to sleep.
6. While we are on the subject of sleep patterns, does your child still need a nap for that long?
Or even a nap at all. If your child only needs 10 hours of sleep and they are already having 2 during the day, then maybe they only need 8 at night time, and that’s why they are waking up earlier than you would like. This may take a bit of trial and error, but hopefully, as you attempt new sleep patterns, it shouldn’t take long to see a difference one way or another and for you to know that this could be the problem.
Don’t get into a bad cycle of needing early naps because they have woken up early and then needing an early bedtime because that is going to create bad habits and suck you into a terrible cycle. If you’re navigating these challenges, be mindful of avoiding the early nap trap and work towards establishing a more suitable sleep routine for your child who may wake up early.
“However, before you resign your life to seeing more sunrises than you’d like, below are some of the things you can do to help with the child who wake up early.”
How To Stop Your Child Wake up Early?
This blog provides valuable insights into analysing your baby, toddler, or child’s sleep behaviours to pinpoint the cause of early waking and effectively support them to sleep until a more reasonable hour.
To learn more about recognising the best methods and solutions to prevent your child from waking up early based on their individual behaviors and sleep patterns, explore our comprehensive sleep resources. From tailored sleep support and personalised sleep plans to a variety of sleep guides and audiobooks, we have the tools to help your child sleep later in the mornings.
