Once an early riser, always an early riser?!

[akc74]

I'm talking about a toddler here. He's 15 months old and he still nearly always wakes by 6am. I know people have worse sleeping issues but it just slightly grates (I am rubbish at this time of day!) and even an extra half hour would make such a difference. I am slightly envious of all those Mums I know whose babies regularly sleep till 7am.

He goes to bed about 7-7.15 normally and a different bedtime doesn't seem to make much difference. He usually has a 2 hour nap at lunchtime (occasionally a small nap in the morning as well esp if he's had a particularly early start)

Does anyone have any experience of this improving this late on?! He is just starting to walk so I am hoping once he's cracked it he might knacker himself out sufficiently to just need an extra hour in the morning...??!

[Fuschia]

With mine I am afraid if they were 'larks' as babies then that has persisted

Sorry!

Mind you there does come a point you can bribe them to stay in bed

[Bumpkin]

I sympathise, although there are probably loads of people that would love a 6am wake up rather than the 5.30am that we had at 15 months for a long time.. It does get better eventually I promise! I think once they start walking and running more they get more tired, but also naturally they start sleeping in a bit more and it can be encouraged. Mine was hideously early and often awake a couple of times in the night at that age, but since he turned 3 (yes I know it feels a long way off) he's a 7am mostly. I'd try not to rush in at 6am either, try to encourage playing on his own a bit and he could possibly drop off again. I always rushed straight in, but friends who didn't ended up with children that would amuse themselves until a more sociable hour.

[dollydaydream]

Don't worry when they get to teenagers they don't rise until midday!!

[akc74]

The current routine is screaming on the dot of 5.45am. He has gone through phases of chatting for a while to himself so we haven't needed to go in, but not at the moment! This morning I really tried to resist going in too soon, but I was a bit worried about the neighbours - after about 5-10 minutes it was pretty clear he wasn't going to go back to sleep. I think he is teething at the moment so I should probably be a little more sympathetic!

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[childsleepsolutions]

Hi akc74.

I am a child sleep consultant and this is such a common problem!! You say he wakes at 5.45 am on the dot every day which strongly suggests an habitual waking. Have you tried 'wake-to-sleep'? This can be an unpopular method because it involves setting your alarm an hour earlier than the usual wake up time in your case 4.45am!! You go in and disturb him and disrupt his sleep cycle. To do this you just stroke his face, tickle him gently or give him a little shake if he is a deep sleeper. You are aiming to disturb him enough that he rolls over/briefly opens his eyes/bats your hand away...then falls back to sleep (which don't worry, he will do). This disrupts that sleep cycle and breaks the habit of the early waking. It sound insane but it really does work in the majority of cases, mostly where there is a very regular wake up habit and there are no other obvious causes.

The other thing I would suggest would be that you avoid the morning nap if at all possible, it woiuld be better, if he is really exhausted, to bring the lunchtime nap forward. As he is waking at 5.45 am and probably missing his last sleep cycle of the night, if you put him down early to 'catch up' you are encouraging this last cycle to become fragmented from the rest of his night sleep and exacerbating the habit.

I hope this all makes sense (message me if not) and that is works!!

Good luck, Nicola www.childsleepsolutions.co.uk

[akc74]

Hi Nicola, thank you so much for the suggestions. I have heard about wake-to-sleep but had assumed this was more relevant for a 4 or 5am persistent waking habit - for some reason I had thought it wouldn't work with us, because he is not far off a normal wake up time. But I may give it a go if it the pattern persists. However, do you have experience that would suggest that some children just need 11 hours sleep a night, instead of 12?

I am trying to crack the morning sleep again to see if that helps. I have tried to resist giving him one for a while (as per your suggestion - which is very consistent with the Gina approach) but it's a bit of a vicious circle as it's hard to last through after such an early start. Today he went without, had lunch at 11.30 (not that he ate anything much) and crashed out at 12.

[bumpy]

Here's one opinion on how much sleep is needed - http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/sleep/sleepneeded/

[akc74]

Thanks Bumpy - suggests maybe I should be going for an 8pm bedtime, even though 7pm seems the bedtime of choice!

Maybe I'll try 7.30 for a while and see if it has any bearing (if he can last till then....) - as a one off it doesn't ever seem to affect his wake-up time.

[snowboarder]

I dunno....I think there are a lot of things you can control in terms of baby sleep habits, but the early morning wake has always been something that has challenged us too. We used to have a 6am start time when oldest son was 1ish and had recently started sleeping through - we would try try try to hold out till 6 no matter how loud the shouting. Lately it's more like 6.30 but he invariably wakes earlier and just bangs/sings etc - he very rarely gets upset. Not looking forward to putting him in a bed though....I'm sure we will see more of him then...

[childsleepsolutions]

Hi again, I know what you mean about 11 hours perhaps being sufficient, however, I think the fact that he struggles to last until his lunchtime nap and also that he wakes screaming suggest that he could do with a bit more sleep. Though as previously mentioned, early waking is a tough one to crack and some children are just larks!

I really think you should try wake-to-sleep before you move bedtime back, if he gets overtired that could actually make the early waking worse.

Good luck!

[Jacks50]

my oldest (7) was a terrible sleeper as a baby and toddler, and always woke really early - 5.30 ish I think - but now is much better and wakes around 7, so there's hope!!

[littlemoo]

A word of hope. My son was a terrible sleeper and when he did go through he persistently woke up between 5.30 and 6.30 from 1 year for about 2-3 months. He suddenly just stopped waking up so early ( maybe more active, running about during the day) and he now sleeps until we wake him at 8.15 most days aged nearly 17 months( from a 7/7.15 bedtime... with a two hour daytime nap).

I am aware that it could change again tomorrow, but I am relishing the lie ins while we can!

[Moos]

My elder son was a very early riser as a baby but in his second year gradually started to sleep longer in the morning.