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 🥴

Was quite normal in our household tbh. She used to just play in her room or when a bit older come down and get breakfast.

It' been useful as 7.30 would be far too late to get to school for 8 and has given us an easier morning than those who get up at the last minute.

We had this issue when my son was around 4 so we bought a clock to "teach the time" and told him daytime was 7am... he's never once left his room before that time since and is now 6. He now regularly sleeps til 8:30 on weekends (obviously we wake him in the week if he decides to have a lie in!)

He goes to bed very early so 6am wake up is understandable. He’s old enough to stay in his room for an hour whilst you sleep though.

This is exactly our DS. He is 6 next week. He goes to bed/ sleep about 18.30 /19.30 every night and is awake, like clockwork at 06.00 every morning.
OP like yours, our DS reads in bed, plays in his room quietly until his sun clock comes up at 07.00.

It really doesn't matter long we kept him up later in the hope he slept longer, he just doesnt, he is just an early riser by nature.

I do have phases were i worry or hoped he slept longer, but his routine is pretty set and hes a good boy with it, so we just count ourselves lucky hes not in waking us up.

So sorry no advice, just so you know you are not alone

We also look at it as a bonus so we are not waking him up rushing getting ready for school, its a nice calm morning....most of the time

I was the same and my 3.5 yo has always been an early riser too.

Sounds like a very early bedtime. Try 9 pm?

I don't think 7:30 is an early bedtime for a 6 year old..

I don't think 7.30 is early. My kids were in bed by 7 at that age.

If he's awake but not being a pain in the neck I can't see the problem!

My dd used to be like that. Now she’s 12 and if I don’t wake her up, she’d sleep until lunchtime!

I think that’s pretty normal to be honest. Out of all the kids in my son’s nursery class all bar one are awake before 6.30am, they’re all 4. We have to be up and out of the house by 7.15 anyway most days so it’s fine for us. Going to bed later just makes it worse in our experience.

I wouldn’t expect a young child to understand a ‘lie in’. We have a gro clock for our son which we set at 7.15am on weekends and he just chats to himself in his room until it goes off. Then he comes in our bed for half an hour and watches tv while we pull ourselves together. So we’re rarely downstairs before 8 on a weekend.

We just go to bed early mainly!

Also DS is asleep for 7.30pm, this is also normal. Quite frankly, I’d much rather have 3 hours of time to myself on an evening that entertain a child until 9pm.

There is nothing wrong with him.

Some people including children are naturally early risers, and to be fair 6am isn't early.

He's also causing you no problems in the morning as he is entertaining himself quietly.

My kids have gradually slept in longer as they’ve got older. They were 6am kids too. My eldest is 13 now and still doesn’t lay in for long but it’s no longer 6am wake ups thankfully. It’s painful though I know.

I don't think you need to worry about him not getting enough sleep. He sounds like he's just a naturally early riser. My DS is the same; he's just turned 18 and is normally up by 5:30 every morning. In bed by 9pm. He has always much preferred it this way to have plenty of time in the morning to do his own thing before having to go to school.

Our 6 year old used to wake up at this time. We taught him how to make breakfast and allowed him to put the TV on in the living room/play with toys. The mess in the kitchen was well worth the extra hour or so in bed!

Seems very reasonable and normal. Don’t move his bed time. 8 is too late for 6 year olds. Some people just wake earlier than others. One of mine didn’t stay asleep later than 6 for a single day until she was nearly 13, regardless of bedtime.

Indigo - keeping 6 year olds up till 9 is torture for everyone imo. Overtired kids and no time for the adults to have an evening!

Sounds like he's getting plenty of sleep, that's why he's waking up early. If you want him to wake up later, you're going to have to move bedtime consistently later.

I recently read an article about everyone having a natural wake up time, an unbuilt biological alarm clock as it were, that changes over a lifetime. The article was in the context of modern working life in the West being at odds with many of our natural set points and this putting strain on our bodies over decades. It was arguing that our health would be better if we could work flexibly (where possible) so that if you naturally wake for 6am your working day beginning at 8am is fine, but if you naturally wake at 8am then a 10am start puts less strain on your body.

So maybe your kid currently needs to wake at six.