Is 5AM normal wake up time for toddler?

[user1489844432]

My DC is 15mths old. We put him to bed about 7.30PM and he wakes up 5-5.30AM.

He appears to be sleepy from 7AM onwards and usually has a nap around 8.30-9.

I am wondering if this is to be expected at this age/going go bed 7.30PM or if there is a problem there I need to address? Ideally I would like him to sleep until about 6.30 but dont want to force him if it is more sleep than he needs having said that it doesnt feel 'normal' he gets sleepy about 2hrs after waking up. He doesnt get sleepy so quickly after his afternoon nap.

In terms of his sleeping routing he goes to bed 7.30PM and wakes up 5-5.30AM and during the weekend when he is at home he has 1-1.30hrs nap around 9AM and another nap at 2PM again about 1-1.30hrs. Mon-Fri when he is in the nursery he has only one nap at 1PM about 2-2.30hrs

Unfortunately some kids are just early wakers I think. My kids were the same, 5.30am like clockwork. Nothing I did changed that but it has naturally corrected itself to a more reasonable 6.30 and very occasionally 7am.

I know that's not what you want to hear, the day used to feel endless when it started that early.

I do have a friend with a 15 month old who has followed a very strict sleep schedule since early on and he realisable sleeps 7-7. It wasn't a cry it out thing at all but used to be a 30 minute morning nap, a 90 minute afternoon nap. Not a minute longer. I couldn't be bothered with that but it worked for her.

It is in my house 😭 DS1 is almost 4 and still gets up at 6am, but I’m pretty confident he’d sleep later if DH and the baby didn’t get up so early. DS2 is 18 months and gets up between 5am and 6am. I try to keep him in his cot before 6 but run the risk of him waking the eldest up.

Agree with PP. Some children are just early risers. Mine still are... You just get used to it...

Mine is the same age and sleeps till 8am, sometimes later. He goes to bed later though, probably more like 8pm to be asleep for 8.30-9. I admit the later bedtime is purely selfish because I’m not an early riser and it would kill me to get up before 7 at the earliest. He only has one nap though, about 2pm.

Normal here! 4am wasn’t unusual at that age! 3 yo now sleeps 10-11hrs a day. I can get him to sleep until 6.30 but it means bed at 8.30 and sacrificing my evening

My son was and still is (at times) an early riser.
At that age he would wake and you know he was still tired but would not go back to sleep. Would have a nap a few hours later.
You can't force them back to sleep. Imagine someone trying to force you back to sleep 🙂 although perhaps at this point you would welcome that
I'm afraid you have to grin and bear it. X

My Dd was an early riser. Always woke by 5:30. A gro clock helped a bit, she will play in her room until it goes yellow (at 6am) but she was nearer 2.5 before she got the hang of that.

The last few weeks she's not been waking until 6:45 which is lovely but I'm trying not to get used to it!

Unfortunately I've never come across a way of making them sleep in.

My son is 2 and goes through phases of waking at 5am or 8am. Bank Hol weekend, he was awake by 5.30am, the day DP was back in work (I'm on mat leave) he slept until 8am. All week, it's been about 8.30am. this morning, 5.15am

It may just be his natural cycle. Can you try a later bedtime to see if it helps? Blackout blinds to stop the early light mornings from waking him or encourage him back to sleep?

Mine was never awake before 11am. She wasn’t in bed at 7:30pm though.

15m here too and awake at 5.30 ish every morning, can sometimes be cajoled back to sleep for an hour if he comes into bed for a cuddle. He's never really slept in so think that's it for us.

You can start manipulating their day time naps to move bed time back etc.

I would rather bed 8-8.30 and awake after 6. Make sure their room is dark and alter nap putting down times by 10 mins for a week or so at a time.

It is for some toddlers. My girl slept 8pm till 8am sometimes 9am. She only had one nap at that age sometimes only for 20-30mins. She's now just turned 2 and still sleeps 12 hours but often doesn't have a nap at all 😫

I could have written this exact post a couple of weeks ago - timings and everything! Turns out my DS needs his room like an actual cave at night so we have properly blacked out his windows.

He now sleeps till 7/7.30 which is an absolute dream. I feel like he 'finishes' his sleep now as he doesn't want to nap so soon after waking up - more like 10.30. He also only needs one nap of 1.5hrs and the other is a cat nap.

Hate to say it, I've posted many times about 5am wake ups and nothing seems to change the same up for the day time. We just have early risers. I now make sure I'm asleep by 10 latest.

Mine is the same age and sleeps till 8am, sometimes later. He goes to bed later though, probably more like 8pm to be asleep for 8.30-9

@RaptorWhiskers- same here, but I can do worse than that. I am also a selfish late riser- 10.30 this morn as 16 month old failed to wake me. . He's in bed for 9.30 and up for 9.30 most days. He takes about 30 mins to settle to sleep and normally chatters or rolls around with his bunny.

He's teething at the mo though so took him a bit longer last night and he did cry a couple of times and went back to sleep. Hence the late wake up today. He naps from 3.30 until 5.30. I return from work 5pm cup of tea and then get to spend time with him after work.

@MoreSlidingDoors What time was her bedtime? 11pm? You're worse than me. We always get comments if out at the shop at 8pm- people serving say shouldn't you be in bed to my toddler- even though he has no idea what they're saying.

It's not as though he has to get up for school

My ds was always an early riser.
As a toddler he was regularly up and ready for the day around 4.30/5am .

Hes now 7 and is still an early bird except now he wakes anytime from 6am. I'm trying to encourage him to stay in bed/asleep until 7am but I'm not hopeful!

Unfortunately some kids just wake early.

I would say yes, unfortunately, that can be very normal. My 15 month old has only just started sleeping until 6am. He goes to bed about 8:30pm (earliest we can get him to bed due to our older one and how late we get home from work). He has a nap around 9am ish and around noon, about 1.5 hours total each day. But yes, they go through these early waking phases and there’s not much you can usually do about it. I have recently night weaned him, but I’m not so sure that has much to do with why he’s sleeping longer.

Every child is different.

My dd (15months) goes to sleep at 6:30pm and wakes up at 7:30.

If she wakes up before 7, i give her her morning bottle and she goes back to sleep

Early rising toddler here too- and it infuriates me when people suggest a later bed time. No she still gets up early only I’ve had no sodding evening and she’s had less sleep.
I will say this though, whether a growth spurt or teething the 4.30 wake ups where a small phase- now adays (21month) anything after 6am is fine (she’s in bed 7-7.30pm)

OnlyFoolsnMothers I think people suggest a later bedtime because in their experience that’s how it works - for example my toddler isn’t asleep until 8.30 at best, is currently still awake now and that’s not unusual. He will sleep until at least 7 and it was 8 this morning (he does still wake overnight though so I’m not having it that easy!). He clearly doesn’t need more than 10 to 11 hours so if by some miracle I got him to sleep at 7 he’d almost certainly be up before 6.
The flip side of that is that he doesn’t go to sleep before 8, so I actually do understand that it’s not easy to change a child’s natural rhythm. We have total blackout blinds (fit into a frame) and given that we have (just about) adjusted to the clock change I suspect that if we changed our whole daily routine we could shift his sleep earlier if we really wanted to, it would have to be a very gradual few minutes at a time thing and also involve moving mealtimes, naps and bathtime. I assume that would basically be possible for anyone who manages the clock change if they were able to move the whole day routine, that’s probably the difficult but if you have work/nursery/school run etc to deal with.
My best suggestion to the OP would be complete blackout blinds if you think they aren’t really finished sleeping. They are expensive but worth every penny. We live in northern Scotland and get about 3 or 4 hours of darkness in midsummer and have been amazing for me as well as the DC.

I have always treated anything before 6.30am as night time, dealt with any waking as a night waking, and definitely didn't get up/out of the bedroom.

At 15 months mine would go to bed 7/7.30pm and wake around 6.30/7am.
One nap a day, after lunch.

Last night she stayed up quite late 9pm- up at 6.05...doesn’t work for us, wish it did

OnlyFoolsnMothers fair enough! I think a fair amount of it is genetic. It would take a cosh (or a lot of messing with the whole day as discussed above) to get him to sleep before 8-8.30. I am up now messing about on MN despite the fact that I haven’t had more than about 3 hours straight sleep since DD was born 6 months ago and am totally exhausted, I’m just a night owl, so is DH. I’m hoping DD is the same.

My DS gets up 6:30 on the dot every morning even if I don't put him to bed until midnight (not that I've ever put him to bed at midnight lol).