Early rising - but how long should the night be?

[dycey]

Bit of a funny title - to explain: DS goes to bed at 8pm and used to sleep 10 hours and get up any time after 6am.... he would wake and cry at 5am but always go back to sleep. Recently (perhaps because of teething) he has not gone back to sleep and now gets up every day at 5.20am (clock work).

I realise I may have to live with this and do not mind that much because he now sleeps at night (realise how lucky I am there!). But I am worried because he is not getting a very long night.

I used to put him to bed at 7pm but he would wake at 5am - so moved it to 8pm so that he slept til 6am....... he only ever wanted 10 hours.

I fear putting him to bed earlier than 8pm will make him get up before 5am......

He naps once for about 1.5 hours from 11am altho these early starts have messed that up and he wants two naps again.... early am and late afternoon.

Sorry for ramble. Does anyone know what I should do? He surely needs more sleep than 11 hours in 24?

Forgot to say DS is 12 months and two weeks! And always manages well on little sleep. Not grumpy except on waking. He is doing fine on these relatively few hours but think he could do with a few more!

That does sound a bit on the low side, but who knows with these crazy babies!

You could try putting bedtime earlier by just 10 or 15 mins each day to see if the wake up will stay the same but he gets a bit more sleep overall. Or you could try the wake to sleep thingy, since the 5:20 wake up is such clockwork? I.e. you set your alarm for 4:20 and rouse him slightly, hoping to mess up his sleep cycles so he sleeps past the 5:20. There are lots of threads on here about it.

If he's fine, he's fine though! It may be that the tiredness will build and he'll want a longer nap or earlier bedtime every few days or something to catch up.

We get way lower sleep overall when my DS is teething and then it goes back up when the teeth come through.

Thanks MumorMum - I tried an earlier bedtime last night but our neighbours all night party meant I sought refuge in DS's room - woke him at 4am and he got hysterically awake - massively overtired but stimulated and unable to relax - til 5.30 -when a bottle of milk knocked him out for another hour. So no knowing if ealrier bedtime worked! Will try again.

You are right, his tiredness is creeping up. A long, long nap right now.

That is reassuring about teething - he will probably get over it in time and sleep longer. Funny how it makes them all round wakeful, isn't it?

I am v fearful of wake to sleep after last night's accidental awakening disaster - last resort, methinks.

THank you for your reply.