18 month old suddenly waking 2 hours early

[damo2525]

Our DD was sleeping perfectly from 7.30pm to 7am every night.
For the last week she's started waking at 5am!
I've read about nightmares but wonder if perhaps she just needs less sleep now?
What time do your 18 month olds go to sleep and wake?

Hello damo, didn't want to leave your post unanswered but can't offer good news so I hope you don't wish I hadn't bothered!

Our DD started doing this at about 16/17 months. She was never a great sleeper like yours, but she did - finally, at 15 months - start sleeping through... Only to start waking horribly early. She's nearly 22 months now and she's still up between 5 and 5.30am most mornings, though we did get a 6.30/6.10/6.00 hat trick this week, which was brilliant (back to 5.30 this morning again though).

Anyway, just to say - I feel your pain. Hopefully it will just be a blip, as I'm sure is the case with many DCs. I expect people will be along soon to suggest cutting down (or out) her afternoon nap - it didn't work for us, but maybe worth trying? If she does continue in this vein (for your sake I hope not), I found that accepting it was the easiest way for me to deal with it. For the first few weeks I got frustrated and upset every morning, but now I just go to bed earlier and try to remain very 'zen' when she wakes (not always easy!).

HTH a little bit, at least.

Our DD started to do this at 18 mths also and now at 25 mths is not much different, and altho the days when she doesnt have a nap make all the difference, we have to put up with a stroppy, whiney child all evening!
If its a phase its a bloody long one!

Could be the 18 month sleep regression (which is very common). See here and here and here.

Could also be overtiredness due to insufficient daytime sleep?

Not tired due to not needing so much daytime sleep?

Or it could simply be the morning wee, waking her up. My 2.5 yr old has been waking at 5 / 5.30 for a while, using the potty and getting back into bed / into bed with us. Have you introduced the idea of a potty to her yet? I know she's only 18 months...

A friend said her son started doing this and they discovered he was waking up cold. They set the heating to come on sooner and he slept through again. Might be worth a try.

I'm so reassured as my DD did exactly the same thing a few months ago when she was 18 months old. Awake 5.30 every day. I thought it was the light so blacked everything out but still no luck. She is now sleeping through again 7.30pm/8.00pm - 6.30/7.30am. I have no idea what did this except I do remember that when I went in to her at 5.30am she was very tired still. We tired remembering the advice from books about doing controlled crying until it was time to get up but just did this until 6am which was the earliest I was going to get up - she could yell all she liked before this time. Also, I do notice now that she does wake up at 6am but then 99.9% of the time can now settle back to sleep.

I like the advice on sleep regression and also we also started to go to bed at 9pm so getting up at 5am wasn't too bad. It made me feel less resentful anyway! It will pass - remember that :)