I cannot get my 6 year old to sleep past 6am

[CrystalQueen87]

No matter what we try, dark room black out curtains bed on time the night before my 6 year old still wakes up every day at 6am.
It's like clockwork. Weekends school holidays and school days.
My friend said the other day she has to wake her 6 year old up for school at 7.30am and it made me wonder which is the most normal routine for a child this age?
I just wish he would sleep in longer in the mornings, even if we say if you wake up go back to sleep he tries but can't once he's awake he's awake,
He goes to bed 7-7.30pm. Even if he has a late night wake up Is still 6am regardless 🥴

Following as my 5 year old is the same and is so knackered by then end of that day as he could really do with an extra 30 mins to 1 hour sleeping! Sorry I don’t have any advice.

Move his bedtime to 8:30-9pm

Of course the odd late night won’t have him sleeping later. That’s not how our bodies work.

My son is 6 and wakes at 0530 everyday. He goes to bed at 1930 as he's shattered!

Mine is EXACTLY the same! No matter what time he’s gone to bed, even if we’re on holiday and he’s had consistently late nights for a week. He’s got a groclock, blinds, the works. Nope, still 6am (although it used to be 5am so I suppose it’s small mercies)

I’ve just decided to go with it. He’s allowed to get up quietly and go down and watch TV and get himself some breakfast but he normally waits for us to come down and make it for him on a weekday we’re up for 6.30 anyway but at weekends it might be a bit later

Is the problem he's waking and then feeling tired all day or is it that hes waking you in the process? If the latter that's far easier to sort out. Give him a list of things he can do before 7:30 and make it clear that the one thing he cant do is wake you up.

6am seems reasonable given his early bed time.

So this is the thing, he's actually really good as he will lay in bed and read or play with his toys until the sun comes up on the gro clock so doesn't disturb us but I just hate to think he's not getting enough sleep waking up that early.

My daughter always woke that early. Sleep experts say don't make the mistake of thinking a later bed time will mean they wake later but you just have to try what you can - and don't worry, or pass on your worry to them or sleep will become an anxiety inducing thing. D is 16 now and sleeps till about 7 but never any later. I woke early as a child - I loved having time to myself before everyone else woke up.Everyone has their own body clock!

My 9 yr old granddaughter very rarely sleeps beyond 6am regardless of bedtime. Even if they travel the 100 miles to my house for the weekend and don’t arrive till 10pm she’ll still be up at 6am. She seems to have an internal alarm clock that goes off at 6am. Blackout blinds, dark winter mornings etc make no difference.

All of mine have been like that. I am also an early riser so don't mind too much.

I wouldn’t worry about it. Different folk have different body clocks and children are no different.

My DS2 was like this at the same age. He's now 13yo and he sleeps later (maybe 7.30 or 8 rather than 6) but nothing like all the other "lie in bed till midday" teenagers!

My son is 13, and I don't think that (apart from when very sick) he's ever slept past 6am in his life. Late nights have no affect, he prefers a dark room, but it doesn't help him sleep in.

I've just made my peace with it, and trained him to make his own breakfast quite early and get up quietly.

DS2 isn't quite such an early riser, but also doesn't do lie-ins.

TBH I'll take that over having to bully them out of their pit to get ready for school.

Could some noise from outside be waking him up? At our last house the chap across from us would walk his dog every day and leave the house at 6.30 on both weekdays and weekends. Now to be fair to him he was quiet doing it but even so any noise on a silent morning was enough to make me stir in my sleep. You could have a white noise thing playing in his room to block out sound from elsewhere and see if that helps him.

Ds1 who is 20 uses an app to calculate when to go to sleep so that his alarm doesn't wake him in his deepest sleep. Maybe something like that would help you work out your son's current sleep pattern and how to move it that may result in a later waking. Either one worth a try at least.

Ds has always been an early riser. If we've been doing a lot or he's had a series of late nights I'm stricter about enforcing an on time bedtime but he's fine with it. Honestly if he's happy reading and isn't bothering you let him crack on there is nothing you can do to change it. We were on a similar schedule to you when he was that age and he always got enough sleep and wasn't grumpy/tired when he's had less (maybe a fraction more emotional).

It because he’s going to bed so early. Move his bedtime back if you want him to wake later. It’ll take a week or two to adjust he won’t instantly wake later the next day.

My nearly 12 years old is the same. She's never grown out of it. No matter how late she goes to bed it makes no difference.

6 isn't particularly early

A six year old needs 9 to 11 hrs sleep a night and your child is getting that so there is no reason to worry

Also he’s getting 11 hours sleep, that’s plenty for a 6 year old. He’s waking up at 6 because he’s slept enough. My 5 year old wakes at 730 but goes to sleep about 830/9.

I have 4 children and no matter what time they go to bed, they're up early. We tried later bed times, black out blinds, gro clock, you name it, we tried it. We found the later the bedtime, the worse they were the next day, so we eventually just accepted it and put them to bed at 7ish and got up with them at 6ish. They all sleep really well through the night and are happy and healthy. The more we tried to get a later wake up time, the more miserable we all were. Now the older 2 are over 8, they do stay up much later as it's the summer holidays, and they do wake more like 8ish, but the 2 little ones are happy with 7ish until 6ish and we just get on with it. My husband and I are usually in bed by 10pm so we get 8 hrs sleep. I find it's actually helpful on school days as we have plenty of time to get everyone ready for school and out the door without rushing so our mornings are really relaxed.

I don't think this is particularly unusual? It's not even particularly early for most working adults I wouldn't think. He's only 6, and he's in bed by 7.30, that's 10.5 hours sleep! As long as he's not struggling in school then I'd say he's having plenty sleep!

My 5 year old wakes at 5.50 every day. Like clockwork! Yes she is tired at bedtime but I'm tired at my bedtime too, because it's bedtime!

Sounds a pretty reasonable time to me - perhaps not ideal but certainly not unreasonable. You just have to go with these sort of times until (a) they start sleeping later (b) they get old enough to occupy themselves. Anything before 5.30am and it's worth trying to get them to go back to sleep but 6am is morning with kids. Hopefully when the clocks change it'll get a little better.

He sounds like my DH :) He loves getting up 5.30am and going out for a walk or a cycle before anyone else is on the go. It's great during summer...not so good in winter.

He's getting near enough 11 hours. How long do you think he should be sleeping for?!?!?!

You can't have it both ways. You either get a morning lie in or an evening to yourselves.

I thought this was quiet normal? My 8 year old is still up at this time every day. It won't last, I can't get my 12 year old out of bed these days!