Later bedtime = earlier wake up?!?

[countdowntobaby2020]

9 month DS was in a pretty reliable night time routine, would be asleep between 6 and 6.30pm and awake between 6 and 6.30 in the morning. Apart from bad nights with waking up with teeth etc he would sleep all night. Due to a few reasons, we started trying to push his bedtime a bit later

• I'm going back to work in two weeks meaning we won't even all get in the house until 6pm some nights.
• He was starting to take longer to fall asleep and was more interested in standing up in his cot and cruising round it so I thought maybe he's not tired enough and needs a later bedtime now he's getting older.
• I'm fed up of hearing omg why do you put him to bed so early?! 🙄

Anyway pushed it to 6.45 two nights ago. 5.10am he was awake and trying to start the day! Tried again last night and he went down about 7 and then woke up at 5.30am this morning!

Any experienced insights?

(For context because I know it's normally the first question asked, he has two naps in the day - one around 9/9.30 for up to an hour and one around 1/1.30 for up to two hours)

Hi, I'm a sleep consultant - overtiredness (in your case from a later bedtime) does lead to early rising. When little ones come to the end of a sleep cycle in the early hours they find it more difficult to settle back into sleep if they've been overtired and therefore wake fully.

What are his naps like during the day? If he is getting enough sleep in the day and not awake for too long at a time (called a wake window) 6.30/7 shouldn't be late enough to make him overtired xx

My children always woke up earlier if they went to bed later. Although bed time did get later as they got older. Until they were teens, now they would sleep all day!