8 year old wakes up at 3 or 4 am, help!

[LukeSkywalkerBoots]

He has always been a lousy sleeper, waking up at 5 am usually. We leave the kindle in his room with a snack to keep him entertained until 7. He also has a gro clock which hasn’t worked.

He now wakes up at 3 or 4 am every day. Can’t seem to go back to sleep. I don’t know what to do. Help!

He goes to bed at 7 by which time he is shattered and he falls asleep in 5 seconds.

For info he is a v anxious boy and gets worried about going to bed, it being dark etc. We have a bedtime routine and lots of cuddles etc but it doesn’t seem to help the morning wake up time.

7pm is a bit early for an 8yr old. Try putting him to bed with lights out at 8pm and see if that helps.

A child that age needs 9 to 11hrs sleep. He may just need 9hrs and that is what he gets if he goes to bed at 7 and wakes up at 4am. He just needs to go to bed later so his wake up time is more in tune with the rest of you.

I have a similar 8 year old, he goes to bed around 8pm. We have a rule of no electronics until 6am that does mean he often gets into my bed and disturbs me but the alternative was he wanted to get up at 3 and 4am to play on the Xbox and whilst I got more sleep, I was encouraging the early wake ups by allowing Xbox time !

I have a similar early waking 9 year old, tho we do have the advantage of having to be out of the house at 6.30 (dh) and 6.50 (school run), so everyone is up early!
Anyway, rules here are:
Before 5am, lie in bed and rest.
At 5am, the clock switches on a low light. From this time he can read until the alarm goes off at 5.45.

Although I could count on one hand the number of times he has been sleeping when the alarm goes, he loves it, and actually asked for an alarm clock one birthday, so we set it on school days. Weekends, the same times apply, but no audiable alarm.

He's up shortly after 5, and goes to sleep about 8.30.
So I'd work, slowly, to pushing bedtime later - maybe even to 9pm, and hope that pushes the waking later.

Agree 7pm is too early. He wakes up because his body is telling him he has had enough sleep - you need to re set his body clock and put back his bed time to at least 8pm. Do it gradually 15 mins later every day. I wouldn't have electronic devices in his room either - a book would be better.

He’s not normally actually settled and asleep til half 7 but I take your point, he may just have had enough sleep. I’ll try making bedtime later.

Is he getting cold around that time?
I know I wake up in the early hours if I'm chilly.

7 seems really early. Mine does 8-6 usually.
Is he cold? That's a classic time to get cold in the night.
Is he hungry? If he goes to bed at 7, he must eat really early! Someone once told me you can't explain child to sleep later than 12 hours after their last meal. No idea if it has any merit, but maybe worth considering?

DD is 8 and goes to bed at 8.30, aiming to be asleep by 9, but mostly is asleep before then. She needs waking at 7 for school, and wakes naturally about 7.30 at weekends.

I'd definitely give a later bedtime a try. Can you maybe start on Friday night and plan something on Friday and Saturday evenings to keep him awake later?

Also, is there anything happening at that time, noise-wise? Heating coming on, delivery to local shop etc? Otherwise, I'd also consider hunger and cold.

Like others have suggested, he needs a later bedtime. Plus at that age you can simply tell them to go back to bed, if it's too early to get up then I tell my 6 year old that and he goes back to bed, he's often dropped back off to sleep by the time I get up.