Help 6yr waking in the night and waking early 5am every morning

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So as the title says I have a 6yr ds he’s always been an early riser (anytime from 4am) but he has started sleeping through and to 5:45-6am which was great. Since about the middle of the summer holidays the sleep has just got worse.

He goes to bed fine but is waking in the middle of night and will call out. I go in and he will mostly turn over and go back to sleep straight away. It’s like he just needs reassurance that we are still there.

The last week or so he’s also been asking for me to lay with him while he goes to sleep.

When we camped he slept all night till about 7am (but was having late nights and loads to do). We stayed overnight in a hotel at a theme park and again he slept through and had to be woken up. It seems he just won’t do this at home.

We are back to having the landing light on and a night light in his room. He has a grow clock and knows he’s not suppose to get up till 6am.

If I was to sleep with him or him in our bed then he would sleep fine bit obviously this isn’t workable long term. DH doesn’t do well on broken sleep and is now mega grumpy which I understand but it then affects the whole day and causes a bad atmosphere also anything going wrong will be blamed on Ds because he waking in the night.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get Ds to sleep regularly through the night?

Is it linked to him returning to school? I have a six year old DS and I’ve found that when he is a bit worried or nervous about something this first thing that happens is he sleeps less.

Sounds like my dd. Always up early. Often up in the night. Any health issues? My dd just turned 7 and wanted me to sleep in her bed last night. I don't. She needs to be so exhausted to sleep properly its annoying! Make sure you wear him out, I also use lavender. Have a plan for when he wakes that diesnt involve you- if wide awake torch and read, dont get out of bed until gro clock sunshine up. No calling out. Special cuddly work?
For us alot is food related as dd has an allergy but shes always been an early waker. Good luck

@Useruseruserusee that’s what I thought and I of a mind to just ignore it in a way and hope that the sleep goes back to normal within a week or so.

I don’t know whether give in and sleep in the spare room with him if he wakes for a bit and see it helps but Dh will disagree and say it’s making it worse 🤷‍♀️

I just hope it gets sorted soon.

I know myself that if a noise outside wakes me a couple of times that will establish a new sleeping pattern.

The next night I will wake up at that time even if no noise.

Lately it’s been a guy coming home from night shift in a noisy car. He’s on day shift this week so I shouldn’t be waking now but I am! It will pass but it’s annoyingly.

If you could sleep in the room with your child for say thee nights that could be enough to retrain his subconscious that it’s ok you don’t need to wake early, everything’s fine.
You could close the window over to prevent noise if you usually have it open. If you find the source of any noise try and fix it.

Then you sleep back in your own bed. No excuses.

If you have a star chart you could try and introduce stickers (or marbles, pasta in a jar or whatever you use for him to save up for treats) when he sleeps the night without disturbing you until his clock says he can get up

Following for ideas!

My DS is the same sort of age, and has been finding it very hard to fall asleep, then waking at 4am and not being able to go back to sleep.

There is a lot going on right now - return to school and a new baby due any minute - so I am really hoping it is just a phase but truthfully he has always been a bad sleeper. Feeling a bit depressed about it; he gets so grouchy and tearful on the days he is exhausted - It makes life so much harder for everyone, particularly him!

Star charts etc don’t work for him (on any issue) but I am really hoping someone can suggest something else that might!

It sounds like the problem is your DH, not your son. He cant have it both ways. If he wants an unbroken sleep then you will have to sleep with DS.
There is no magic formula to make him sleep well. You know this, your DH has to accept it too.
It's not fair to blame DS for anything that goes wrong, he's not doing it on purpose.
My DS (age 8) wakes up anytime after 4am too and I leave a snack and drink on the table downstairs and he goes down and quietly watches TV or draws until 6am. We started this when he was about 4.
As for the night wakings, it's not something to train them out of, they just need to feel secure. I dont really see how being woken once in the night is so awful for your DH. What did he do during the baby years?
I'd say your DH needs to accept that he's a parent and go to bed earlier or find another way to deal with parenthood.

Two thoughts - you need to let him go to bed later, kids need different amounts of sleep, my dd needed 9 hours at that age. If that doesn't work, they are old enough to entertain themselves

We have a bit of a similar pattern at the moment with our ds of similar age. It might take him an hour to hour an a half to fall asleep if left on his own (probably 40 min or so if one of us stays in the room). He would wake up between 1 and 3 am, and if comes to us, will fall asleep immediately, but if stays in his room will wake up fully and it will take more than an hour (sometimes two) to fall asleep again. He will need to sleep in later in the morning which is not possible now with the school starting. Bedtime routine is solid, tried calming baths, etc with no effect at all. Nothing we tried so far seemed to affect nighttime waking. No drama at sleep time either, just can't fully relax and fall asleep.