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2 year old wakes at 4 30am every day. How do I get him out of this habit and sleeping later?

29 replies

DarkGreen · 09/07/2021 15:29

It is killing me I just feel so tired all the time. He's has done this for over a year every single day. I just don't know how to change his body clock effectively to not think 4am is wake up time??

OP posts:
Sleepingdogs12 · 09/07/2021 22:17

I think if he's getting to watch the ipad each morning he isn't going to want to go back to sleep. Is he a bit chilly or hungry and that's why he is rousing at that time. I think you ve got to bore him into drifting off again or tell him it is quiet time. We had a no TV rule (olden times , no ipads etc) til 8 am as I didn't want to encourage early waking. Probably a rod for my own back but thats what we did.

Stormwhale · 09/07/2021 22:22

My boy is a terrible sleeper. If he wakes before 5am I bring him in with me so he doesn't wake his sister and basically play dead. No interaction, silent, boring. I only interact if he is about to do something dangerous like fling himself off the bed. Sometimes he fidgets until 6am when I get up with him, sometimes he falls back to sleep. I never do anything before 6, even if it doesn't mean I get more sleep, I still make it as boring as possible so there is no real incentive for him to want to keep doing it.

Mattieandmummy · 10/07/2021 07:10

Hey we're in the same boat, our DD wakes up between 5 and 5.30am and has done since about 4 months old. She's 2.5years. A later bedtime made absolutely no difference and she's always asleep between 7 and 7.30pm.

In the end I decided I would rather have an evening and moved my bedtime to 9pm. Friends have told me it really only changed for them once their kids started school.

nc8765 · 10/07/2021 07:24

Cut the nap back to 45min-1hr.

What stimulation and exercise is he getting during the day OP? Run us through a typical day...

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