19-month-old waking at 5am and cutting naps, any advice?

[Cupofteandtoast]

My 19 month old used to be a good sleeper but in the last week or so has been waking up at 5 am. He’s also halved the legnth of his lunchtime nap and looks exhausted so I’m not sure if it’s a regression or he just doesn’t need as much sleep??

Anyway everything I’ve read online said to keep the room dark, talk in low voices, no fun activities etc but my LO will scream until I turn the lights on and it’s disturbing the rest of my house which I can’t have. Does anyone have any advice please?

What time is bedtime?

how many hours of sleep per 24h period is he taking?

My oldest had a 2.5 hour nap and slept 7-7 until he was 3.5yo. My youngest dropped all naps at 17 months. He could well be ready to drop the nap.

Bedtime is 6.30 and he is current napping about 1.5 hours so overall about 12 hours. Up until a week ago he was doing 3 hour naps and sleeping for 12+ hours at night so seems an awful lot to drop so quickly !

Neither of mine cut naps down, they just stopped happening. It was a shock!

@Pugglywuggly noooooo!! Honestly so not ready for the lunchtime nap to go lol.

it’s a pretty good length of sleep, even when waking at 5.
you need to play round and see if,
later bed time (19:00/19:30)
cut nap (move bed time later as he gets used to it)

whatever you do you need to do for atleast afew days more seeing any changes.

A 12 hour sleep budget for a 19 month old sounds very normal - unfortunately their sleep needs do drop! This sounds like a sleep pressure issue, although that is a big change!

if you want a 6:30am wake time I would make bedtime no earlier than 7:30pm and cap the nap at 1 hour. If after a few days you’re waking him from every sleep, add 15 mins to his nap and see what happens. Stop adding in sleep when you get an early rise.

Im speaking as the parent of an extremely low sleep needs child, he never slept more than 11.75h per day total since he was 4 months old, barring illness. Once I accepted that bedtime was 8pm, wake time 6:15am and only 1.5 hours of daytime sleep my life improved immeasurably because we no longer had split nights or early rises.

Well before DD was 2 she stopped having a nap - she had pretty much only ever had one nap over lunchtime anyway. On the plus side she went to bed around 6-6.30 until she was about 6 and slept until 6 so we at least had uninterrupted nights. She’s now 15 and can sleep for England!

They sound over tired. Sleep breed sleep

do they often scream when don’t get own way ?

You may need a few days of waking all of house to sort out the early wakings but a means to an end

nap time can still be quiet time. In cot. With books to look at so has relax time and you have an hour

tho 630 is early to bed so likely to wake earlier

Sleep does not breed sleep. Total myth. If you aren’t tired, you won’t sleep.

Thanks everyone! I think I’ll try and shorten his nap and see if that makes a difference. I reallr don’t want to change bedtime as I like to have an evening and we are always up at 6am anyway but 5am is just too early !

12 hours is totally average - you need to cut the nap down. 6.30pm is far too early bedtime, my is 19 months and usually goes to bed between 7.30-8, then sleeps til at least 6, with a 1 hour nap. Sleep definitely does not breed sleep, each child only needs a certain amount of sleep in 24 hours; and it decreases constantly as they grow

@CupofteandtoastAs much as you enjoy your evenings I’d far rather change the bed time, to get a nicer wake up time.
I do think 18:30 is early, this will naturally start pushing later anyway

My 19 month old is going through a 5am phase too. So did my other ds. Only changed for him when he dropped the nap completely (around 2.5) I think it's really normal for them to wake early. Especially in summer when it's light outside. I'll get shot down for this but I'm a stick cbeebies on of it's before 6 and chill on the sofa. 5am is no time to be parenting 🤣