Early wakes - help me brainstorm

[IDontLikeMondays88]

My little one is 5 - has always been an early riser but particularly so in summer. At the moment he is up between 5 and 6 am

If he was bright as a button then I would just accept this is our life but he is often grumpy on wake up, then flags during the day. At the weekend he might nap in car as so tired (can’t nap at nursery).

By the time we get to bedtime he is an absolute mess and we often get pretty horrible behaviour at bedtime because of how tired he is.

How do I fix this? He is starting school this year and I’m concerned he will be going to school overtired.

We’ve tried:

• blackout blinds - we have three different blinds on his window and his room is really very dark although perhaps not pitch black.
• constant white noise
• gro clock - he understand it but ignores
• encouraging him to go back to room/bed - which he will, but put the light on and play
• trying to make early wake ups not fun ie not a lot of interaction, no tv etc - doesn’t make any difference
• moving bedtime later - still up at 5.30
• earlier bedtime - this causes him to be on better overall form as more sleep but still up at 5.30
• trying to get him to come into bed with us and go back to sleep - he maybe lies for a bit but can’t get back to sleep (although our room is too bright - total blackout solution blinds have been ordered for our room and are awaited)

It is definitely to do with day light / circadian rhythms as he did sleep in longer in the autumn/ winter.

Bedtime is 7.30 pm although recently I’ve been putting him to bed earlier as he is just so tired. For example last night he went to bed at 6.40 - he was asleep before I even finished one story so clearly very very tired. But was still up at 5.30 this morning.

As I said I would just accept he’s an earlier riser but I do feel he often looks very tired and it has a big impact on behaviour.

Any suggestions gratefully received 🙏🏻

If you have genuinely tried everything then you need to accept it and let him have the sleep he needs. He sounds tortured by lack of sleep, so put him to bed earlier. You’re on to a winner if he accepts that the clock means he has to stay in his room and play quietly. At his age I’d leave him to play for another hour on his own. My nearly 4 year old does this if he ever wakes earlier than the rest of us want to get up- plays quietly, looks at books, listens to his Yoto player.

Yeah the issue is that when working I don’t get home till 6pm - that means it is very very difficult to get dinner and bed done by for example 6.30 - we do try though

Could have written this myself as my DS5 is exactly the same. Up around 5.30am every day, we've tried everything and if he goes to bed later he still wakes up early.

We've kind of just accepted it for now as nothings making a difference and talking to friends with kids same age a lot are similar.

Urgh @elb1504 it is so tough

I feel like we are all just knackered all summer then it gets slightly better when the clocks change.

I had the exact same problem but was quite consistent with the gro clock. Bought a different one though with a bigger moon/sun picture.
The one thing that made a difference? Him starting school. Out by 7.30, up at 6.30/7!