How to get my 18 month old to sleep till 7

[genesis92]

I know many will laugh when they read the title.

There may well be nothing I can do, but just wondered if anyone has any miraculous advice.

My DS goes to bed at 7. He's really tired by then and goes straight to sleep. We had a 5.30 wake up today, as well as many previous days. It would be life changing if I could just get us to sleep till 7. How do I do it? Or is it just the way it is? I assumed that now the mornings are darker for longer he would sleep for longer. I couldn't haven't been more wrong

For reference he has 2 naps a day if he wakes up stupidly early like 5. If he wakes up a bit later he usually has one long nap of about 2 hours after lunch

Probably not want you want to hear but DS just grew out of it. Although still does have the occasional 5am wake up.
At 18 months I would expect most to be on one nap. That may help. You need to be consistent with a one nap for a couple of weeks before it makes any difference to night sleep. I used to put DS down for the nap from 11-1 if he woke at 5.

It might improve when he drops naps. But if he sleeping through for 10.5 hours thats pretty good.

DS did this until he dropped his nap at around 2 and 7 months (I remember because I had another baby then!)

Now said other baby has started doing it so I’m just waiting another eighteen months for her to drop the nap …

Grow clocks! We started saying the clock isn’t yellow so we can’t get out of bed yet. I wouldn’t start at 7, make it 6 so it’s close to their wake up time then slowly change it to 7.

We had friends who took their kids downstairs and played, personally I think this is bad as the kids never learn and it’s fun to wake up. They still wake up early and they are all in school.

18 months isn’t too early to start introducing it, just make sure what ever you do it’s not that much fun or lots of interaction. Quiet voices as it’s still night time and maybe tv in bed while you snooze. Then you can go check when the sun is yellow, make a big deal and get louder, open your curtains etc play / sing.

Fully reco them for the summer months so they know when to wake up otherwise it can be super early

The day naps sound a lot, I'd be reducing them.

Our little one has a grow clock set for 7.10am and she waits for the green if she wakes earlier, but often gets a book and goes back to bed 🥰

She's currently still sleeping though today 😁

Honestly nothing worked for mine. They got in a phase where they would come in to us at 5:30 and maybe doze a little bit but we were still all up pre 7. School changed it for both of them as they moved to later waking and by that time they don't need you up with them as much. However by then my routine is now pretty established at waking at 6 / 6:30 anyway so they may be sleeping but I unfortunately am not.

Main thing is not to make it fun/access to screens etc. stating it's still sleep/rest time.
With ours they have to go back to their rooms and keep themselves quiet with books etc. Maybe a story tape or quiet music.
Be consistent. Keep reinforcing staying in their room.

I'm a big advocate of grow clocks, but think 18 months is a bit early. My DD was ready at around 22 months. You could give it a go, but I'd be surprised if they could actually comprehend the concept at only 18 months. Definitely something to have in the bag for the future though, and ignore anyone who says they don't work - they do if you enforce them, like any 'rule'. Agree with the PP, start waking the clock much earlier than you'd like to start with and work up from there, also make a big deal of it being morning when the clock does change so they start understanding the link.

Before then, you just have to ride it out unfortunately. My DD spent 5 months waking at 5am at a similar age and my 14 month DS has just started doing the same thing. It's horrendous, but it does pass. It's easier the second time around as I actually believe that - it is only a phase and in a few months your DC will have the comprehension to understand that no, the day does not start at 5am!!!! Before then, when they wake that early just keep things dark and subdued while you drink coffee (and have a little cry)

they do if you enforce them like any rule

I think that’s true of children who can entertain themselves for a while but I think expecting a child under about two and a half to lie quietly in the dark for about an hour and a half is unrealistic. My DS is four in a couple of months and would probably wait happily for an hour or so with his tonie box but I couldn’t take the piss with two hours!

You need to drop a nap. It might be rough while they adjust, but it will help. Otherwise you will be stuck in this vicious cycle!

I have a 18 month old who generally sleeps from 8pm until 7/7.30am.
I do think that babies all have their own little temperament which probably affects their sleep and it may not be anything you're doing, but there are things that I think have helped us.
If it helps, here's my sons routine - he has 1 day nap at around the same time no matter what time he wakes up in the morning, his nap is 12 until about 2 (If he not awake by 3ish I wake him up). He might drop off in the car for 5 minutes in the car prior to nap. He has his dinner about half 6, we shut all the curtains to make it dark at 7pm and read books, then bath, breastfeed and then he's usually asleep by 8pm. I put him down sleepy and he likes me to stand next to his cot for 5 minutes whilst he falls asleep.

Even with sticking to the same routine - there are times when he goes through phases of waking once or twice in the night or waking at 5, which I think is linked with stages of development, but generally it settles back after a couple of weeks. He's just learnt to walk so at the moment there's lots of night walking 😂 If he wakes, We never take him out of his room, the lights are kept off unless he needs a nappy change, and I quietly whisper "sleepy time" which sometimes works really well and he just lays down and tries to sleep, other times I'm back and forth a lot.

I hope it's helpful to know our routine - but it may not suit you or others, it's just the one that seems to work for us. I really do sympathise, when my son went through several months of 5am wakes I felt awful, but it didn't last forever and you're doing a great job. I hope he starts sleeping a bit later for you both

Dts are 13 and still awake before 7. Obviously I don't have to get up now but some people are just built that way. Sorry!

Echo others posts about dropping the nap. When DS went down to one nap it completely changed my life.

It's the hardest transition though. Especially when they are up early.

Not much better advice for you sorry.

Sleeping 7-7 plus a 2 hour nap would add up to 14 hours of sleep in 24 hours which is right at the top end of typical sleep needs for this age (11-14 hours in 24 hours).

To get a 7am wake-up you may need to very gradually push bedtime back by 15 mins or so at a time, maybe back to 8pm or so ultimately.

Or you could try to shorten the daytime nap a little, to maybe 1-1.5 hours. Any change should be done gradually and if it does make a difference to nighttime sleep it may take up to a couple of weeks to see the change.

Having said that, some children do just seem to naturally wake up around 6am or so and it's quite difficult to do anything about it. Good luck!

I could tell you teen years.

But my just come through the teens ds still gets up at 4am to swim 5 days a week.

I think some people are just naturally early risers. 😩

Thanks so much, that's really handy to know. I'm going to try and push his bedtime back a bit and stick to 1 nap no matter how tired I am

Thanks everyone. There's some really helpful advice on here that I'm going to give a go

12 sleep hours in 24, and 10-11 overnight, is about average. Sounds like he's doing pretty well!

I would either trim the nap a little or slowly shift the bedtime to 7.30. The total sleep per day is unlikely to change dramatically, I'd guess.

I agree with trying to swap to one nap and maybe also a later bedtime. My 26 month old goes to bed at 8-8:30 and usually gets up at 7 with a 1.5-2hr nap in the middle of the day. We have been on this routine since well before 18 months. We used to do the lunch nap at around 11:30 but it’s crept a bit later now and we are needing to cap it otherwise bedtime is ending up 9pm or later.

Initially it was hard to keep her awake until an early lunch and 11:30 nap when we first swapped to one nap so had to avoid the pram or car late morning.