Do you have an early riser? Have you tried everything to get them to stay in their beds until a normal wake time but nothing is working?
There could be a few reasons why your child is waking up so early and let’s be honest waking everyone else as well. Some children are naturally early risers waking between 5:30 – 6:30am but more often than not it is a habit that has formed due to several reasons.
- Your child’s body clock (circadian rhythm) is trigger by something in their environment
- Your child’s bedtime was too late
- Large wake window before bed
- Not enough daytime sleep
- Placed in their bed drowsy
Your child’s body clock (circadian rhythm) is triggered by something in their environment. The circadian rhythm is affected by several physical factors, heat, light and food.
- A common issue that triggers an infant or toddler to wake, maybe caused by their room getting warmer. This is a problem with homes that have a thermostat set to come on early to heat the house before everyone gets up. This rise in heat signals to their body that it is time to rise and shine. It’s important to keep your childs room at a constant temperature or close to as possible.
- Light seems like an obvious one, but it is greatly underestimated how dark the room should be to prevent unwanted wakings. Any amount of light coming in will signal to your child it is time to rise. When we talk about dark we talk about cave dark conditions. I recommend cellular shades and blackout curtains.
- Food sets our circadian rhythms, have you ever travelled to different time zones and were told to eat the meal times at your destination rather than wait for when you are hungry? Yes, our digestive system also sets our circadian rhythm. It creates a habit where your body now expects food at a certain time as your digestive system kicks in. Feeding your child at breakfast time and not before will help avoid early morning wake up.
The good news is, these are easily adjusted with a few tweaks you can rule out any physical factors that may be causing the early wakings.
Let’s take a look at some common schedule mistakes
Your child’s bedtime was too late
“keep them up later that will help them sleep in ” this is the poster child of the worst piece of advice I see given. For infants and toddlers keeping them up later will backfire. Overtired infants and toddlers wake more during the night and wake earlier.
Large wake window before bed
This is often recommended to ‘make the last wake window the longest to build sleep pressure’. Yes your child does need to build sleep pressure for a good night of sleep. Keep in mind that they are building this throughout the day, with nap periods. Naps are not 100% restorative, they bridge the gap to the next sleep time. Pressure is building all the time with naps. If the wake window is too long before bed, your infant or toddler will become overtired. This results in false starts, more frequent wakings and early mornings
Not enough daytime sleep
Infants especially need long periods of sleep during the day. A nap under an hour is not considered restorative sleep. Meaning it hasn’t made a significant change in the rest of your child’s needs. This causes sleep pressure to build without restorative sleep to reduce it. Creating an infant or toddler that is now overtired and bedtime is still a long way off.
Placed in their bed drowsy
When babies are placed in their beds drowsy, they have had some assistance to get them to that stage of sleep. At bedtime your child will have the largest amount of sleep pressure built up and they should fall asleep easily. However, later in the morning when there is less and less sleep pressure and going back to sleep becomes more difficult, it is hard for your child to begin the process of putting themselves to sleep. The more practice your child has putting themselves to sleep when it’s easy (at the beginning of the night) the more success they will have later in the morning.
If you have tried everything and need some help, let me help you. Sometimes it is as simple as making a few small tweaks to greatly improve sleep. Other times more (but gentle) support may be required and we will be here to guide you every step of the way. I have a range of programs to suit every family and can help you get sleep on track quickly. Email me at liz@littlesleepcoach.com