How to stop 5.30am wake ups?

[ToddlerMama89]

22 month old used to wake 5-5.30am for months but we found cutting his nap to 1 hour and stretching his wake window before bed to 5.5 or 5.75 hours helped achieve a 6-6.30am wake up. But now the 5.30am wake ups are back! He sleeps through mostly or wakes once (apart from when he’s poorly and then he can wake 14 times!). He wakes up chatting, so I feel like he’s probably not tired enough but bedtime is already late by the time he falls asleep and I already feel like I don’t have much of an evening so I don’t know what to do! He definitely doesn’t seem ready to drop his nap. His current schedule is:

5:30am wake up (used to be 6-6.30am)
1pm: nap for 1 hour (won’t go down earlier unless he’s had a ridiculously active morning)
7.30-7.45pm: bedtime (takes about 30-45 mins to fall asleep currently)

He’s currently only getting about 9-9.5 hours sleep overnight.

Do I just need to move bedtime even later? Do I cap his nap more?

I would love to know the answer. I wrongly thought that it would be solved when my son stopped napping Altogether. Nope. He's 3.5 now, not napped in the day for a good 6months and still regularly up at 5.15-5.30.

Tried (multiple layers) of blackout
White noise
Later bed times
Socks on in bed to prevent cold
Snack before bed

In my personal experience nothing has helped.

What has helped is accepting it.

I don't say this to be miserable or negative. I just say to try all the tricks and then just accept it

No nap and a ridiculously early bedtime if necessary! The earlier mine went to bed the longer they stayed asleep! When mine all stopped napping around this age they went to bed as early as 5.30pm and didn’t get up until 7! If you don’t want to cut the nap out completely then just let them have 20/30 minutes for the next few weeks

@Matilda1981 when yours stopped napping, did you gradually cut the nap down or you just stopped offering? Or did they fight the nap?

I would agree with the above. Nothing we have done has made a difference. Wake ups here range from 4.50-5.50 with bedtime 6/6.30 and no nap. Later bedtime/earlier/ nap or not makes not the slightest difference.
if anything later bed makes it worse

Sounds like mine: low sleep need. Jealous of my brother, his LO would sleep 12 hours given the chance. They actually have to wake her up for nursery. 😮

My 20mo wakes up at 5, has 1 nap at 9/9:30 for 1 hour max then goes to bed at 5:30 and sleeps through till 5 again. Giving a later nap or bedtime changed nothing, I've accepted it now because it's sooo much better than the awful sleep he had in the first year😂 as a pp said, sometimes going to bed earlier seems to make them sleep better

My two were the same, always early risers. Nothing made a difference apart from time, I remember when they finally started waking at 6 and thinking that was great.
They didn't nap much either.
They did however go down at 7 and sleep all night which I was grateful for. I would make the most of having an evening and of getting things done early in the morning.
One day They will be teenagers and you'll be dragging them out of bed!

My DCs age 9 and 11 still wake at 530. They always have. I'm a lark, so I blame myself. They are both asleep by 730 though (and it was 630 until relatively recently). No naps since 2nd birthday (and even before then we were lucky to get half an hour).

Honestly, having had two early risers, I think it’s a waste of energy and stress trying to change it. They will get incrementally better as they age. Better to manage your own response to it - so going to bed earlier, accepting that you just don’t get much of an evening at this age (yes, it’s shit!), balancing bedtimes and wake up duties with the other parent if there is one. I found it helpful to put out an activity last thing at night, so that in the morning when we came downstairs they could get stuck in and I could half snooze on the sofa.

Also teach them to use the remote control, when mine were 4 or 5 they'd take themselves downstairs and put Nickelodeon on.

Yup, they're all different. I have 3; one like your brother's, one who needs barely any sleep and is regularly up at 5 and another who keeps us guessing by doing a bit of both. Acceptance is the key!

@PurBal I think my boy must be low sleep needs too. Can I ask what your little ones sleep routine is like?