4 year old waking at 5am every morning wanting to party and start the day, help please!

[Gaskarth]

I know most of you have bigger sleep problems with little ones, but my 4 year old DB wakes at 5am every morning, which means by the time nursery arrives, he's knackered irritable, and often a bit pushy/aggressive.

Would love some advice and guidance please. He goes to bed at 7pm, if he goes earlier, still the same problem.

He knows his numbers, has a digital clock in his room, and I've now resorted to threatening to take away one of his fav animals if he appears before 6am. Also his bedroom is above his 5 year old sister, which means she wakes up too, and then is knackered for year 1!

Not a major problem I know, but from the kids viewpoint, would love some advice. Thx, very tired mum x

What about putting him to bed slightly later - perhaps he just doesn't need that much sleep. I know that if my daughter had gone to bed at 7, it would take her forever to get off to sleep or if she did sleep, she'd wake extremely early.

Another weird idea but one that could potentailly work is set his alarm for the time he wakes at the moment and explain that he can get up when the alarm goes off and then set the alarm later and later a bit at a time each day until he's waking at a more acceptable time. This last idea is completely made up but I reckon it could work and if not, you haven't lost anything!

ps - I'd try with the slightly later bedtime idea first.