To think there’s not much you can do about early wakings

[Toooooearly]

DS woke at 530 for a year and it nearly killed me. I tried all the gro clock, treat as a night waking, later bedtime and so on and it didn’t work. He sleeps slightly later now but not much. Now the second one has started. AIBU to think some children just do wake very early 😴

I was always up late and loved my lie-ins as far as I can remember. To my DMs absolute dismay, my twin was running on the opposite time zone! So yeah, could be worse - could be twins from hell! 😁

My son is a late riser like I am, and I'm not sure whether it's nature or nurture. To be fair, my way was the only possible way in our house - I was sleeping with ear-plugs in on a morning and wouldn't budge until my alarm went off, so my DS has never known any other way.

Whilst some of it may be natural, I think some of it is the idea that young children should go to bed at 7. So if you’ve been putting your kids to bed at 7pm for a long time that will be their body clock so even if they sleep later at night they won’t necessarily sleep in longer in the morning. Mine rarely ever wake before 7 and usually are woken up at 7:30, but bedtime has always been around 8:30 in our house. Think you can try moving bedtime later bit by bit but would take a while to see any changes and there is still no guarantee it will make a difference.

But mine doesn’t go to bed at 7.

It makes no difference!

They may just be low sleep need children then! It’s tough.

Mine wake naturally around 10 given chance. They always need to be woken for school. They have never been early birds and I'm glad because I'm not one either. I'd be ill getting up at 5 every day. It also means we can do evening activities as I'm not rushing home for bed.

I think there's definitely a phase, yes and that almost all DC go through it.

I do think though that as they get older, it can be shifted a bit in most cases - how far it can be shifted will depend on the child.

Shifting it though involves a shift in the entire routine. Our children both tend to sleep in. They are woken by us to go to school and on weekends, they'll both sleep in. But our entire routine and lifestyle is geared towards this - we don't eat early dinners, the DC go to bed earlier etc etc. So while a lot of my DD's friends are still eating their dinner by 5:30 - that's just not something we do here. DD eats at 6 at the absolute earliest, but regularly eats later. She goes to bed at 9:30. Even her activities are later - she's out until 6:30-730 3x a week. She's 9.

These days, if we have a day out planned, unless there's a specific reason, we're not leaving the house until at least 10:00, often later. But then, we're totally relaxed if we only get back at 8pm.

I've got 1 of each. Ds didn't sleep past 5am (was an improvement on the year of 3.30am starts...) until he started school last year. Sometimes I get until 6.30 now! It's funny, his little sister (2) prefers to sleep until about 7 SOMETIMES 8 and she's always shushing him in the morning saying it's time for sleep.

And yes - I think its just the way they're wired. None of the tricks worked for ds.

In my experience, early to bed and early risers are early to bed early risers and late to bed sleepers in are nightowls.

You just have to roll with it. As they get a bit older, you can put into place procedures to keep them quiet for a bit but it is hard when they are very young.

Nightowls mean that you don’t get time to yourself of an evening so that’s a problem in itself.

Actually putting them to bed earlier worked with both of mine. I read it in a sleep book. They often wake earlier when they're too tired. An overtired brain is full of adrenalin and raring to go. If you put them to bed earlier their brains become more rested and relaxed and they sleep longer.
Many people think the answer is putting them to bed later but it makes the problem worse!
Worked perfectly with both my son and daughter.

Mine were all early risers (my DS was a regular 4am!) but they all naturally liked to go to bed fairly early as well. We tried missing out naps, staying up later etc. and all that happened was that they woke early but were super grumpy as well 😅Now as pre-teens/teens, they still wake up between 6-8 on the weekend but I'm the same so it's probably genetic anyway haha

My eldest was like this. We had to get up at 530 in the week so that's what time she got up at weekends. Luckily I was a single mum so weekend days were watch crap on YouTube in mummy's bed until 730 came.

Thankfully DD2 loves her bed and I quite often have to wake her up at weekends.

My only advice is do what you need to do to get thru the early mornings and remember it's not just you even when it feels like it x

Yep! Even tried a later bedtime for weeks and it just made him extremely grumpy as he was still waking up early, so not having enough sleep. Although he's almost 4 now and actually sleeps til 6:30-7am now so I'll take that as a win!

All mine were early risers. Only change when hit pre teen years

Yep my eldest woke at 6am no matter what time he went to bed. He was a good sleeper though so I could manage the early mornings! On the weekend, we would bring him into our bed for a cuddle, stick the tv on and doze while he watched cartoons for a bit!

I always refused to get up. I was never getting up or turning on lights ( or the tv) before 6.30am. I treated any early morning wake like a night wake. My kids are excellent sleepers now and were generally , I knew people that used to get up at like 4.30 , NOPE.

I agree; I tried everything with my DD but it was just getting older that changed it so with my DS I just accept it and roll with it. I think sometimes I found it easier to cope with if I was at least trying to address it.

You may as well get used to it or the menopause will kill you.

My lg wakes at anywhere between 7-8. I know that’s very good and there’s no complaints here.
I remember and from my mum’s memory, even from about 3 I slept in till like 10! 😂
maybe it’s in the genes. 🧬
however, to be a realist. My lg goes to bed late, anywhere between 8-9. She’s two for the record. And takes a while to go off.
and I also remember being a child who stayed up late!
so the point is, I think you’re right sometimes you can do anything and everything but it’s just the kids make up. I remember when my lg was under one and hearing all these other mothers talking about how good a sleeper their child was, like they’d done something magical.
xxxx

My daughter has gone through phases of this, but not for a good few years now (she’s 9). Strangely enough, what helped was actually an earlier bedtime, not a later one as you might think. Even now if she’s had particularly late night she’s likely to wake early. It actually makes sense scientifically if you look into it. When your body stays awake longer than it should, the brain releases a ‘stay awake’ hormone/chemical (can’t remember its name) that can actually make falling asleep and staying asleep harder. Have you ever been so tired you can’t sleep? That’s what this is, and that’s what can lead to early waking. So yeah, perhaps try an earlier bedtime.
I now usually have to wake my daughter about 7:45 for school, and she’ll sleep to 8/8:30 on a weekend or holiday 😊

Nope, you can't. Eldest was a total lark and always woke early, 5.30/6am. I thought it was me getting something "wrong".

Then i had second, whom i treat exactly the same and there are days she has to be coaxed from her bed at 7.45. Same routine, except where i struggled to get him to last to a 7pm bedtime, she does fine on it and copes fine if up til 7.30 (he never did).

He's a morning person like me. She's not, like her dad.

I let mine crawl into bed with me and we just fell asleep for another couple of hours. Did it until they grew out of it.

Wellthisisntgreatreally

We tried this Loads. It never worked with eldest.

What time do they go to bed?
my 2 year old sleeps 830/9pm - 730am with a 2 hour nap in the day. 6 year old 930/10 - 730.
Mine have never been early risers but have also never gone to sleep that early.

My 3.5 year old wakes 6:30-7. His 1 year old sister wakes at 8:30 if allowed.