Tips for kids to sleep longer on morning please?

[Itsalljustapuzzle]

Hello

Any ideas how to get a 4 year old to sleep longer than 5am in the morning? Might be a phase? Is he too old for one of those green/red clocks? Room is dark, warm, says he’s not hungry/thirsty, everyone else is asleep, just wakes and starts bounding about! He’s shattered though.

Thank you

What time does he go to bed? My 3.5 year old has always woken up at 5 no matter what I've tried to push it to 6😭

Use the clock. He’s not too old for it. Set it for 5:15 to start off with then give him loads of praise for staying in bed until it’s green, then after a few days make it 5:30, then 5:45 and so on and on until you reach whatever time you actually want him up.

@Devilsmommy8, he’s absolutely knackered by then. Any earlier, he’d be up at 4, weirdly any later, he’d be up at 4. He doesn’t want to wake up that early though 😫 (and he doesn’t really bother me too much, so it’s him asking to try sleep longer!)

@Bitzeegreat idea on the time increments, wouldn’t have thought of that. Thank you!

Do you play white noise or music through a speaker? That really helped mine. One of my friends discovered that her ds was woken/alerted by the noise of the radiators clicking on in the morning.

No he isn't too old for the clock. The main thing with the clock is you have to enforce it otherwise they will just ignore the clock. We just had a rule that they had to stay in their bedroom until the bunny was awake. Their room didn't have any toys in it, just books so nothing too exciting to get out of bed for. We had great success with it. Lent it to a friend who said it was rubbish but she didn't return her child back to their room if they got out of bed earlier than the clock setting.

It could possibly be something outside waking him early, someone going to work so a car starting. What happens when he wakes up? Does he get tv or a tablet to play with? I would aim to keep it low key, no going downstairs etc until a certain time, then there is no benefit to him bounding out of bed early.

Would he listen to music or a story on a Yoto/Toniebox/similar? One of mine sometimes wakes before she's really ready to get up, and she'll put something on the Yoto and snuggle in bed listening. Sometimes she does fall back asleep, sometimes it's just resting and listening, but both seem to help.

I looked into this a lot with my eldest and I’m not sure there is much you can do if they are waking up at this kind of time. However later bedtimes isn’t usually the answer in my understanding. I have a friend who is a sleep coach and has worked with most of our kids. One of the main things she does with all age kids is usually to suggest an earlier bedtime. Mine didn’t seem over tired at all but the earlier bedtime made a huge difference - this was more about sleeping through the night but you never know.

FWIW I have always used a lumie sunrise alarm clock rather than a gro clock. I think it’s easier as it just turns on at the right time. Mine have had them from age 2 and totally get it (I wouldn’t say it stops my 2 year old calling for us but he does understand that it’s not morning yet and we have to wait to go downstairs)!

you sleep train exactly as you would at the start of the night and just put back to bed....though it may correspond with eg, toiletting , being hungry etc so you may need to do some specific interventions around these.(ps. and check hes not too warm ,as our body temperatures naturally start to rise when we are prepping to wake up)

@ThatAzureCatthank you, it’s really not him messing about he genuinely can’t sleep and wants to be asleep. I will check his temp though on the morning, it’s great to get new ideas.

@user405927yep white noise on. I wondered if it was dad going to work that’s waking him but he seems to wake before he goes.

@TrudiBelievesI think I’ll try the clock then if you don’t think he’s too old. He doesn’t bother me - he knows it’s way too early and I’m always knackered, so he just does his own thing (lines up his animals in various places upstairs quietly), it probably sounds awful but I don’t even entertain that he’s up. We don’t watch much tv really which is working ok at the moment so he isn’t waking for that. Sometimes I wish he would just sit and chill and watch it though 🤦🏻‍♀️ Once he’s up, he’s on the go all the time and always thinking. He’s actually really good at keeping himself to himself and tries not to wake me. When little brother wakes up, that’s when the noise begins 😂 I did consider the cars outside maybe, or dad going to work. Maybe I should try a different background noise to see if it masks any better.

@skkyelarkoh yes the Yoto, thank goodness for that! Keeps them really occupied when we need to
slow down. I wonder if putting a story on instead of the noise when he wakes is a good idea like you say, it’s a reason to stay in bed and snuggle down.

@Janefx40I will try the clock, thank you. Maybe I try earlier bedtime again while it’s still dark on an evening and try to get it back by an hour and see what it does.

Thank you everyone - loads of great ideas here to try!

@Itsalljustapuzzle we used that light up clock in hotel rooms and on holidays before the children had phones so they knew when they could make noise so I think at that point they were late primary/early secondary. So it can come in handy at other times.

Maybe try white noise or pink or whatever else might work. I always said if I had my time again I would use white noise to help block out sounds.

If you've got a Yoto, you could set the 'okay to wake' time on that instead of getting a separate clock.

@skkyelarkthank you! I had no idea and it’s saved buying one 😃