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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.
So Why Does My Child Wake up Early?
Your child may wake up early for various reasons. Some of these are easily solvable, here are some of the most common reasons:
1. Do you know how much sleep does your child need?
Having too much sleep during the day, especially during nap time, may be the reason your child doesn’t need as much sleep at night as you were hoping for, hence your child wakes up early in the morning simply because they had all their sleep. Here is a chart of how much sleep your child needs.
2. Is their bedtime the right time?
If, as above, they only need a set number of hours of sleep, then if their bedtime is not right, they could already be getting all the sleep they need, and that is why they are waking up early.
3. Old habits are hard to crack.
If your child had adjusted their body clocks to wake up at a certain time, then it may have become natural to them. With a little patience though, these habits can be broken.
4. Check your child’s environment, is there something that makes your child wake up early?
Check if there is something else that happens at the same time as your child wakes up. Maybe the heating comes on at that time, and the radiator makes a noise, or maybe it’s the time light comes streaming in. Checking for things in your child’s environment means you can rule another possible cause out.
5. Is your child still comfortable?
Is your child waking up early due to a full nappy or hunger? It may be what is waking them up if they have had too much to drink or too little to eat before bed. Make sure your child is comfortable to encourage better sleep.
6. Did your child have a good day?
Your child may wake up unsettled by something that happened during the day that may have upset or frustrated them. Ensuring a positive and calm environment during the day can contribute to better sleep at night.
7. Are genetics the problem for your child to wake up early?
Wondering why your child wakes up early? It’s not just about bedtime or habits; genetics might be at play too. A recent study by Desana Kocevska and team found that being a morning person could run in the family. So, if your little one seems naturally inclined to rise early, it could be influenced by their genes. This study highlights how genetic factors can affect a child’s sleep patterns from an early age. Remember, children’s sleep habits change, and with a bit of patience, you can navigate through those early mornings when your child needs to wake up early.
8. Is it possible that my child wake up early because they are just early risers?
“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.”
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.
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.
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