Parents of early risers - did they ever start sleeping in?

[JumalanTerve]

My DS4 has always been an early riser, it's varied over time but hardly ever after 6.30 - I could count on two hands the times he's ever slept beyond that- and it's been a solid 5.30-6am for about a year now. (He's reliably asleep between 7.30 and 8pm, and thankfully sleeps through the night).

It's manageable but obviously not ideal - does anyone have experience of a child changing sleeping patterns after this stage? He starts school in September so I'm thinking the extra effort might wear him out a bit, but from threads here that's not a given. Will it change before he's a teenager, when I'll have to dig him out of bed?

Luckily mine wasn't but one of my nephews was. He has just turned 13 and didn't really stop getting up early until recently. However once he was about 8 he was allowed to get up on his own and make breakfast, watch TV etc so it was easier on his parents then.

Mine did! He was up soooo early as a toddler, usually before 6.
In fact his sleeping pattern completely changed when he started elementary school (which you do aged 6 in my country). I had to wake him up, unheard of before.
Now he is ten and quite often sleeps longer than 9 o'clock. But since he was about 8, it hasn't mattered so much anymore because he doesn't wake us up. Usually just stayed in bed and listened to something on his Alexa.

My eldest (now 29!) was one of those. Years of him waking before 5 and expecting the household (well, me) to wake with him. By the time he was 7-ish it didn't matter so much as he was old enough to understand that he needed to allow the grown ups some extra sleep - not to mention he could slip downstairs and amuse himself safely for an hour or so.

And he evolved into a very typical teenager, needing to be prised out of bed with a crowbar on school days.

Both of mine were up before 6 am for years. The elder finally started sleeping longer around 17 and the younger is still awake early, usually before 6 am at 19.

It was great in that I never needed to wake them for school but I still remember how wonderful it was when they got to an age where they could be left to go downstairs and get their breakfast without me!

Thanks for the replies! Looks like a complete lottery then. Never mind. I suppose it's nice he wants to play with me in the mornings, that's not going to last forever.

Aged about 15 yes…

It’s easier once they can get up by themselves though. We did have to set certain rules so for example he could watch tv quietly but not play computer games (as computer games often resulted in shouting)

Following with interest.
DD is also 4, wakes 5.30- 6.30 and always has done. Asleep 8-8.30. Sometimes it's 5 in the summer months. She dropped all naps at 18 months too. Never seems tired.
We use a gro clock but at 6.30, which is the absolute latest she will stay quiet,
she is hollering for us and breakfast.

No. He’s well in to his 20’s now and is still up before everyone!

You get your own back when they are in their teens

Secondary school for DS ( needed to be up at 6:30 and nearly always needed to be woken). He is nearly 20 and usually gets up between 9 and 10am when je is at home.

Dd6 seems to have started to sleep in a bit later recently. Now in bed til 7am apprx where as before was about 6ish. Fingers crossed it stays like this and I haven't jinxed myself with this post!

And DS12 loves his bed now but was always an early riser. This happened in the last year or so.

Thanks for all the replies! I wonder if it's genetic somewhat, as I was always up pretty early even before I became a parent (before 8 at the weekend)

I have one early riser who's still OK even at 14.5 getting up at 7am for school

The other is a big sleep fan and I am dreading her teenage days as it's hard rousing her already 🙈

It is
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11763988/#:~:text=The%20total%20heritability%2D%2Dthe,47%25%20for%20the%20older%20generation.

DS was a crazy early riser - had a 4:30 phase as a toddler.

At around 6, he did move to 7 and now that he is 7 he sometimes sleeps till 8.

Well I think so anyway - we have gro clocks set to 6:15 and sometimes at least I suspect he is wakes earlier and just gets into a book

Mine didn’t really. As a baby was always 5am, now any time since 5, always before 6 (he is nearly 11). Since the age of 5 I put an easy breakfast somewhere he could reach andhe was allowed to watch something and eat until I got up at 6.30 ish. Now he is totally self sufficient in the morning and when I come down he is usually dressed, bag packed, breakfast eaten, on the playstation

ime of him and his brother you can fix a lot of sleep issues but early rising is stubborn and you are better off just getting up with them, putting a dvd on and lying on the sofa dozing. Try not to fix it as you start the day in a rage

About 14. From then on it was a struggle to get him out of bed.

A year into school my solid 5:30am every day started to sleep in until 7/7:30am

@PinkMildred I really agree. You can manage it - both of ours stay in their rooms until the gro clock tells them and entertain themselves but if you have a hard wired early riser it's not possible to get them to go back to sleep.

And we sleep trained both of ours for getting to sleep and wake ups, early rising is just different somehow

Yes. School helped but not immediately.

I did try groclocks etc for a while but in the end gave up because he seemed unhappy and tbh it was harder work trying to keep him in his room than just waking up. Might have been different if I'd had another.

He is now (at 20) notorious among his friends for sleeping anywhere and everywhere. But he's still good at getting up and always has been. I only had to wake him for school twice in my life. He is always on time. As a total dormouse myself I marvel at it, presumably it's his dad's side.

Thanks! I'm not actively trying to fix it (although we have a rule that he stays in his room playing until 6 if he's up before that) as luckily I've been able to stay quite calm generally - probably because it suits my natural pattern anyway

Just came on to say exactly the same as @PinkMildred, early risers are impossible to sleep train.

To answer your question, dc1&3 both started their days from 4-4.30 onwards, yes they did get much better.

We bought a couple of those portable dvd players (as refused to put tv in their rooms) so they could watch something quietly, along with a tub of dried cereal and sports bottle of water to at least get to 6.30-7am which worked well.

Once old enough we left a juice, brioche, berries in a pot, yogurt etc on a tray and they were under instructions to not come into us until the clock showed a certain time (7.30 weekdays / 8 at weekends) and they could watch a movie on their DVD players.

As teenagers they are nocturnal so mornings they literally need a rocket to get them going.

I never grew out if it either. I remember sleepovers as a teenager, being awake for hours and hours before anyone else. No phones so having to read any old book I could find in the house! I still wake up at 6 even at weekends