Five year old overtired and waking too early

[Coldcomfortjoe]

Have faced early rising issues with DS many times before - as soon as my DS gets overtired he starts to wake early. In past I've just tried to give him extra naps until he's caught up. At the moment it's 5am - he's in bed and asleep by 7 so getting roughly 10 hours but really needs an extra hour to be ok particularly as he started school in Sept. Lack of sleep Is making him over emotional and hard to handle at times and I'm starting to really worry about it affecting his behaviour at school. He tends to get hyper and silly when tired rather than dozy! We're trying to get him to nap at the weekend (in the car is the only way!) to try and catch up a bit but not sure what else to try. Once he wakes he know he has to lie quietly which he mainly does but he's just so washed out and tired I'm worried! Not sure what I'm hoping for in response to this as I know early waking is a tricky one but any advice welcome!!

I have a similar problem with my 3.5year old, especially since the clocks changed, and like you her behaviour is my concern when she's overtired. I wish there was a text book to go with these pesky children... I'll be hopeful that someone has some useful advise for you!

exactly the same here with ds 4.4 he also started

oops! also started school in sept.

he's overtired every day. wakes us all up and makes dd 2 overtired as well.

gro clock doesnt help either and he switches lights on. its exhausting

dh gets up with him most mornings so I can try and keep dd asleep (she's not great either tbh).

just hoping he grows out of it eventually but could take years.

Maybe a few really early nights might help? 6/630pm if that is doable.

That's what I do with dd when she gets overtired and wakes early.

Weird q, but does he go for a wee in the night?

DD1 (4.9) went through a phase of waking early and being very tired. I've been taking her for a wee when I go up to bed for the last week, and her sleep has got better, I had to wake her this morning

It's a good point ScrambledSmegs - he is dashing to the loo when he wakes. Don't think I'd have much joy waking him to wee as once he's asleep he's almost impossible to rouse but less to drink for a couple of hours before bed may help. And tried the earlier night too last night - just 15 mins before and though he woke briefly at 3.45 he did go back to 5.45 - which seems like a big improvement.Nice to know I'm not alone in this as well - most of his classmates seem to be struggling to get out of bed in the morning!!

Ds was like this so we taught him just to stay in bed. We got a big digital clock and told him he wasn't allowed out of bed except for a wee until 7.00. It took a couple of weeks of repetition, but he got it in the end. Sometimes he just lay in the dark, and sometimes he turned the light on and read so we had to add an extra rule of no reading before 6.00. Rarely, he went back to sleep.

It worked as although he wasn't sleeping for those early hours, at least he was resting, and the rest of us weren't woken early either.

He also tends to get more hyper as he gets tired, and finds sitting still a challenge. He's 9 now and is still an early riser, but we still have these rules and at 7am on the dot every morning, you can hear him race downstairs for breakfast and telly. Even when dh gets up very early for work, ds sticks to the rules and the rest of us get up about 7.30am.

You don't need to wake him fully. Half carry, half encourage and you can sit him on the toilet for a wee too. I got the tip from a friend who has 2 boys and one of them had to be carried as he was such a deep sleeper, but it still worked!

Will give that a go then I think. Early to bed seems to be helping a little bit too - who would have thought I'd consider anything after 5.30 wake up a good result?! He's been staying quietly in bed til his sun comes up too. Thanks all!