How early did your child wake up this morning? If it's anytime before 6am, we've got an early waking on hands! 🤮 BUT that doesn't mean it has to be this way forever! In this blog I walk you through the main 4 reasons your child is waking early and how you can fix them and teach your child to sleep until a more reasonable time.

What is considered an Early Waking for Babies and Toddlers?

Any waking between 4am and 6am is considered an early waking. Unfortunately, if your baby wakes at 6:15am, it may feel early but it's actually a natural biological time for them. We'd all love it if our babies slept until 8am but it's not something to expect. Your baby's internal clock naturally falls to a 7-8pm bedtime and 6-7am wake up time. Let's go over some of the major reasons why your baby might be waking earlier than 6am. You may find that several of these reasons are coming into play or even just one.

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Reason #1 Your baby is not motivated to keep sleeping.

Everyone's sleep cycles are shorter and lighter between 4 and 6 am. Our brains spend more time in REM sleep which is naturally lighter, making it easier to be woken up. Each sleep cycle gets shorter and shorter as well which means there are just more chances your baby will wake as they transition multiple times between sleep cycles. If you're baby is not an independent sleeper (meaning they don't know how to fall asleep without help), they will not be able to fall back asleep without intervention at these frequent, early wakings.

Even if your baby or toddler is an independent sleeper, they are not as motivated as adults who tend to work for every last drop of sleep in the morning. When we, as adults, wake briefly we are motivated to fall back asleep because we recognize that it's not yet time to wake up. Your baby doesn't realize that and they REALLY won't realize that if you start your day at whatever time they wake. The biggest thing you can do to motivate your sleeper to keep sleeping in the morning is to give them the gift of independent sleep. 

Reason #2 Light and YOU are signaling to your baby's brain that it's time to get up!

We've got to make sure that no signals are being sent to your baby that it's time to wake up. If any bit of light is creeping into your baby's room, it's sending a direct signal to your baby's brain that it's morning. Get that bedroom DARK. Go in at 5/6am and see how dark the room is. If you can see your hand in front of your face, it's not dark enough.

I like to use a scale of 1-10 with 1 being light and bright and 10 being pitch black. Your baby's room should fall at an 8-10 on that scale. This takes some maneuvering but is oftentimes a simple fix for sleep problems.

Also, make sure YOU aren't sending your baby signals that it's okay to be awake. If you get them up right away when they wake early, you are telling their internal clock that it's an okay time to wake for the morning. If you don't have one, set a designated wake time (DWT) for your baby and stick to it. It should be about 11-12 hours after bedtime.

If your DWT is 6:30am, then you should not get your child out of their dark room until that time. When they wake early, use your sleep coaching method until DWT. The least interaction and stimulation you can give during this time, the better.

Reason #3 Bedtime is too late.

A bedtime that is too late can actually cause your baby to wake too early. This truth goes against common sense and what you may hear given as advice, but it's true. Your child's natural biological clock is wired to go down between 7 and 8pm.

If bedtime is later than that and you are experiencing early wake ups, try shifting bedtime earlier by 15-30 minutes. You should aim for your baby or toddler to be getting 11-12 hours of sleep overnight and for them to have between 12 and 13 hours from wake up to bedtime. It's a myth that keeping your child up later will help them to sleep in in the morning.

Reason #4 Entire schedule is shifted too early.

I get it, your child wakes at 5am so their first nap has to be early because they are a tired mess by 7am. However, this causes all the other naps to occur early as well. This then leads to either a super early bedtime or an extra, crappy nap before a late bedtime. Neither are helpful to your baby's schedule. In fact, this just perpetuates the problem, leading to an tired baby and a vicious cycle of early wakings!

The best way to keep this from happening is to make the shift with nap 1. Hold it off until later, even if your baby is a tired mess. Use your DWT (yes, you MUST have one of these) to determine when nap 1 should occur. Do NOT use the actual time your baby is waking. This will take work and it won't be easy to keep a tired baby awake until their nap time but it's WORTH it!

If your baby is fussy, get creative. Sing songs, dance, play in the tub, go crawl around outside in the grass together! Like all things with sleep, the hard work will be worth it and that slight schedule shift might be just the what your baby needs to sleep until a decent time in the morning.

Got a toddler? 

Be sure to check out the Mella sleep trainer toddler clock (save 10% with code: allthesleeps10) and the Kidstible sleep lamp. These are both great tools to help your toddler understand when it's an acceptable time to wake up for the day. Like any other sleep tool, you'll need to put in work on the front end to enforce the clock but once your toddler catches on, it's a great visual!

Last piece of advice:

Early wake ups can take TIME to be resolved. You need to consistently stick to your plan for 2 weeks before you might see results. Because of this time commitment, some parents are quick to give up and resign themselves that their baby is just an "early riser." In most cases, this is not true!
 
If your child is waking early and is unhappy, obviously cranky, and a tired mess by the end of the day, these are all signs that they are not simply an "early riser." They do NEED that sleep they just don't know how to get it.