4 year old getting up at 5am

[warmmfeet]

He goes to bed at 7:30 - 8ish which I don't think is unreasonable. He gets loads of fresh air and exercise, for example yesterday we went to gymnastics in the morning and scooted to the park in the afternoon.

He's always been an early riser but this week it's gone more severe again and I don't know what to do. 5am is too early! He's a mess by 4pm. He absolutely won't nap (that's for babies).

I ask him to play quietly in his room but that doesn't last long. Right now he's downstairs 'playing' on his Dads guitar. 5am. Not even 5:30?!

I don't think 5am is all that unusual for a 4 yr old to be honest. You could try a later bedtime.

1. Push bedtime back by another hour and observe what happens
2. Gro Clock and a set of rewards for adhering to gro clock
3. Gro Clock and a set of appropriate sanctions/consequences for not adhering to gro clock
4. restricting access to downstairs and making life more boring
5. Rewards chart for each morning spent getting up at suitable time. 10 stickers on the chart earn him something good. 20 stickers somethjng better. by 30 stickers he hopefully forgets.

Not unusual for this age, especially with lighter mornings at this time of year. Have you tried blackout blinds/curtain linings?

My 4 year old gets up earlier the later he goes to bed! You could try a 7 o clock bed time and see if that helps 🤷‍♀️

My kids have been getting up earlier than usual this week too. They both have substantial curtains idk why either. It's hard

8 yo doing the same here and wakes the whole family. I've banned TV until she stops doing it, no food until 7am so everyone's stomachs dont start getting in a habit of wanting food at 5am and I've got her a bed mask. I think it's mainly the light mornings.

Block the light getting into his room. I have a blackout curtain and blind but they must not be fitted properly as loads of light comes through the top still. I currently have 5 year old in bed with me 🤦‍♀️. It's defo the lighter mornings doing it. Apparently perfect fit blinds are the way to go they exactly fit the window and slide down in a guided bit at the sides so no gap. I may splurge this year (say that every year).

My DD did this, it progressively got earlier each week too.
After exhausting all other methods we were suggested the only thing that worked was the following.
Set an alarm clock for 5 minutes earlier then when they normally wake up. Do this for a couple of days then move the alarm time forward 5 minutes do this for a couple of days and so on. Tedious and draining but worth it as eventually you can get to 6 or even 7am as they will become accustomed to waking to the alarm. When they are in the habit of waking at a reasonable time you can remove the alarm.

5am really isn't that early for their age. You can try moving bedtime but with mine it never made a difference.

My ds also did this and it looks like my ds will be the same. It didn’t make a difference what time he went to bed, that was when he woke. I know my mum said I also did this, so I wasn’t surprised. I didn’t find any of the techniques worked, so I just went to bed earlier and got stuff done in the morning (but appreciate that’s not possible for everyone). As in your op, you said it’s got earlier again, I would try the blackout blind. We did also say to play in his room until a certain time and make that a strict rule, which gave extra time for us dressing etc.

I have some experience of this with my child (who is older (9) and under assessment for asd if relevant). In this situation I would ensure he had a few early nights as it sounds like over tiredness possibly.
I find my child doesn't sleep in when tired so it's a really tricky balance identifying if they are over tired or under tired but I've found that whenever the early waking is really extreme it's caused by over tiredness.
From what you've said about lots of physical exercise and being a mess by 4pm it sounds like you need early nights rather than later.

Thanks everyone. I know it's not unusual because he's always been like it but had recently been more of a 5:45 or even 6am type of guy which feels a lot different to 5 and earlier.

We have got the special black out blinds that fit into a frame around the window, they are amazing and it's pitch black in there?! They're called Bloc Blinds.

I think I just needed to vent. This is who he is and he's just excited to get up and get on with life 🥴 His brother is the opposite way, takes longer to settle and sleep at night but will sleep til 6:30-7.

The alarm clock thing sounds interesting!

@FrogOfFrogHall I was thinking he's a bit over tired actually - will try to go earlier for a couple of nights.