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?

No.

DC was always an early riser, all through teens and got irritated with friends who wouldn't meet up early at the weekend.

Now goes to the gym at 6.30 am before work.

Can he play in his room with a gro clock?

We used the gro clock for our early riser with great success. He’s 8 now and still wakes early but has known since we introduced the gro clock at age 3 that he’s not allowed to get out of bed until 7am. Sometimes he goes back to sleep, sometimes he lies in bed listening to his yoto player.

I think the key was that we’re incredibly consistent with it. No exceptions. 7am is wake up time in our house. (Although I think we set it to 6am initially and then moved it 15 minutes later each week until we hit 7am).

Ds 6 used to be up at 4.30am everyday that was a killer. When he started full time school he started to sleep a little later 5.30am and now he's 6 he will sleep until he hears someone move in the house. Last weekend he slept til 8.30 because nobody else in the house moved until then.

Still waiting for my very nearly 15 year old to sleep later.
Thankfully for the past 10 years, he's been capable of sorting himself out in the mornings.

That said, he now often makes pancakes or similar for breakfast for everyone at the weekends.
And leaving the house at 6.50 on Sunday morning wasnt an issue yesterday.

So, whether he starts sleeping later, or just becomes better at self sufficiency you should have some later starts coming your way (until he gets a hobby with early starts.....)

Mother of a 20 year old here!

He used to rise at 5.30am and it was hell on earth.

Sometimes he would sneak downstairs without waking us and then try to make himself breakfast - french bread and brown sauce!

So I came up with a plan. We had thundercats set up on pause on the pc, which he could unpause by clicking the spacebar.

For breakfast, we put 2 weetabix in his bowl on the table and covered it with clingfilm, and a small jug of milk in the front of the fridge. We showed him to grab a chair to stand on, to open the fridge, taught him to pour his milk out and presto!

We would wake at 7am to find a breakfasted happy 3 year old, watching 80s cartoons.

Saved my sanity!

He has developed a love of cooking and baking through this, and his girlfriend is extremely happy as she is well looked after too.

A million mothering points to me

None of mine yet. My oldest is 9 and always up between 5.30 and 6.

It changes ! My ds was an incredible earyl riser - we're talking 5.30am. When he was 7 he was allowed to put tv on downstairs after 6.30. I then got up at 7. He's 18 now and if there's no college or plans he's in bed until at least midday!

Up from 5ish until she turned 13.

Ds is in reception, turns 5 in a few months.

Used to wake at 5, has gradually moved later. Now more like 6.30-6.45 and will sometimes obey the gro clock and read/play/annoy his sister until it changes.

Once - one blessed time - both of them slept past 7 (dd is 7yo).

Sorry to say but since starting school, if he's tired he wants to go to bed early but doesn't sleep later. He's also had a fair bit of testosterone surge/upset from the day/tired and teary, which can impact sleep.

5.30-6 *was" sleeping in for us!

We had a lot of people (as on this thread) telling us it would get better once they started school.

This actually turned out to be the case.
Only it was secondary school, aged 12, with hormones kicking in.

Once they were old enough to get up on their own and sit and watch TV for a bit, we encouraged that, which at least took the pressure off us getting up early too!

Nope. If my son made it to 6am it was a good day! He's 20 now and still gets up very early. Usually goes to the gym before work which means catching the bus just after 7am. Even on weekends he doesn't stay in bed much past 8. Sorry 😬!

We used the gro clock for our early riser with great success.

You've triggered a memory that we tried a grow clock but DS worked out how to change the time and started getting up at 2am or 3am .... But agree it's worth a try!

Ds1 was like this... at around age 10 the hormones kicked in and he slept until all of 7am 😂😂 it's OK though, he is now old enough to feed himself and get on his computer without parents around!

Small update - no change whatsoever after a term of reception, in fact most of the time it's now 5.15 😭 I am resigned to my fate now.

Nope! And now they don't go to bed until 9-10pm either so we never get a moment alone.