Toddler suddenly waking very early. So miserable.

[ibajlp]

18 month old suddenly waking at 5:55 without fail. Used to sleep until gone 7. I’ve tried everything in the last two weeks and nothing is changing it! Slightly earlier bedtime, slightly later, more exercise, more food, less food, more drink and less drink etc. The room is pitch black so it’s not a light issue. I’m a lone parent and this feels like the worst thing as it’s making my days seems even longer. Please help

The nap seems short but I thought that was a pretty normal time for a wake up? When we went through our super early wake up time it was 4.45-5am. We’re back to 5.45-6 now.

My experience hasn't found this to be true. My DD usually sleeps 11.5-12 hours a night, waking at 6:30-7. She has always been an awful napper, before dropping to one nap she only ever did 30-40 minute naps (I tried absolutely everything to elongate them) she regularly does 1 hour naps now. She recently did a very random 2 hour nap in the day, that night she slept until 5:15am.
My point being, and I've read up a lot about this, while some children do need longer naps, other children actually are happy with the bare minimum.

OP, my DD is 18 mo and her night sleep schedule has always been solid, since 12 weeks old. Down at 7am, up at 7am. She's cutting her back molars at the moment and that seems to be waking her a bit earlier, plus I feel the light in her bedroom is triggering earlier rises also (despite black out blinds). I agree with people on here saying it's a phase. Like most of the other phases just wait it out. If LO is happy leave them, even if it's only 10 minutes, it will teach them that you don't come instantly and that should stop it becoming a habit because you always go in.

It sounds like the dreaded 18m sleep regression maybe the clocks changing also helped.
If he's babbling leave him until he really cries he might settle again. If you going in is the signal to wake then avoid it and don't feel guilty as long as he's safe he's ok. You'll know when he's not.
The only thing that worked for mine was to bring him in the bed and resettle. It had to be before 6am, if it was a minute past it wouldn't work
Good luck. It's so difficult when you get switched up like this. Have faith that it'll pass, and hopefully it will.

Maybe just a phase but the majority of toddlers wake up about 6

You've been lucky to get 7am until now tbh. My eldest is 7 and I've only just about started to ever get to sleep in past 7am.

Ds went through a phase of waking for the day at 4am, it was a killer. Tried all we could think of, but kids just wake early and that's how it is, you can only really go to bed earlier yourself to adapt. Six is fairly average for young children.

tbh it seems very normal yet doesn’t make it feel less hard.

if the one hour nap is what he needs then it’s perfectly adequate - it may be that he just needs less sleep overall as he’s getting older, but still needs that nap to get through the day.
no two children and their naps will ever be the same.

if you have Instagram search for Secondstartotheright_sleep
her business is sleep and honestly she is a wonder for normalising baby and toddler sleep - but also giving advice to help optimise it - though tbh I think what you’ve described is very normal.

I personally think unless he’s crying just leave him to babble away, it sounds like he’s going over what he’s been learning the days before and is just waking up happy

6am isnt early with a toddler. You need to start going to bed earlier. My 9 year old is often up at 6am.

My now 19 month old did exactly the same a few weeks ago at 18 months, she had slept consistently 8-8 for months and nothing had changed, then she started waking up at 5. It lasted about 2 weeks then went back to normal. I just kept putting her to bed at the same time but the over tired whingey evenings were hard work! Good luck and I hope it’s just a blip for you too, 5am is hard! X

How can you got to bed earlier if you are working till 1am for example? As my daughter and son in law often do.

I'm with you OP, 6am is too early. I think that nap is too short, at 18 months my little girl was doing between 1.5 and 3 hours every day. It's possible your little one is overtired. Could you push their nap a bit later to get a longer nap out of them?

6am isn't early! I thought you were going to say early hours? Surely you've had to get up at this time before, for work etc?

Op is it a noise that's going off at the same time every morning?...recently this happened to me. 5.20 ish every day I'm awake. I won't bore you with the story but it was the neighbour slamming a shared door on our apartment floor! Maybe your baby moniter records, can you check footage to see what the trigger is just before little one wakes. Sorry if I'm stretching the issue with such an obsessed response 😂

These threads always turn into such predictable martyrdom and competition ‘well SIX isn’t early, I thought you were going to say FOUR. By six I’ve baked six loaves of bread, done three loads of washing and completed 6 spreadsheets. Have you never had to get up early to work?’ yawn yawn.

Yes, I have had to get early on the days I work and it’s actually most helpful if my toddler does not wake up at the same time to give me half a chance of actually being able to shower/wee/get dressed/pack lunches or perhaps throw back a coffee in peace. To me, six is early, I generally encourage him to be in bed until 7, I do not wish to get up at 6 on the weekends either. We have the odd early wake up and a horrid phase of 5am starts but generally he lasts until 7 or just after. Stop patronising people by implying they should leap from their beds in joy at 6am because their toddler decrees it.

These threads always turn into such predictable martyrdom and competition ‘well SIX isn’t early, I thought you were going to say FOUR. By six I’ve baked six loaves of bread, done three loads of washing and completed 6 spreadsheets. Have you never had to get up early to work?’ yawn yawn.

God, exactly. It's so tiresome.

And yes, 6am is bloody early if you don't need to be up at that time!

It’s probably a phase - it always was with my DD. Can you co-sleep at all? We co-slept for a long time, as she would wake at 5:30/6am in her own room, but 7:30am if in bed with me.

I do get that, but I think the majority of people are just trying to reassure that 6am is actually quite a normal time for a toddler to wake up, it's not the middle of the night. A lot of kids do just wake early at that age and there isn't much you can do about it so instead of fighting it I'd accept 6am is a reasonable time at 18 months old.

Sleep begets sleep at that age. That nap is too short

To be "so miserable" because a young child sleeps through the night and wakes up at the perfectly normal time of 6am is dramatic. OP needs, kindly, to get a grip.

Ha I would kill for 6am here! 5am is the norm for my toddler. We reduced his nap and for a bit he woke later and now back to 5am, sometimes 4.30am. Sorry don’t have helpful advice!

Something can be normal and frustrating/miserable at the same time, though.

I used to do that, we'd cuddle up and he'd go back to sleep. It was a phase, after that he could sleep for England.

5.55 really isn’t very early tbh. My 5 year old often wakes between 5 and 5.30, but what can you do. I tried everything, early bedtimes, late bedtimes, no nap, longer nap etc, he still woke/wakes early. Nowadays he mostly keeps himself entertained till 6.30ish when he wants breakfast. My 4 year old has always been a better sleeper but even she still wakes at 6 most mornings. My advice is to go to bed earlier yourself.

Same! 🥲

Some people would be happy with that. Assuming he doesn’t wake at all during the night, there are others that are much worse sleepers. Though I agree with the other comments about looking at his naps.

This