Parents, does your child always seem to wake up before the rooster crows, ready and raring to start
their day? You, on the other hand, can barely open one eye lid, let alone had your first cup of coffee yet? If this is something you are struggling with, then do I have some good news for you! There are actually common causes of early rising that, given enough consistency and patience, you can change!
Early rising can sometimes have a very simple solution. If too much light is coming into your child’s
room, installing room darkening shades (or even putting black trash bags over the windows….I know,
it’s not pretty, but it’s cheaper!) can help keep your early bird from getting up too early. If it’s noise
from outside that’s waking them up, getting a white noise machine or a fan can be just the trick.
Unfortunately, it’s not always this simple.
Ideally, your child should be waking around 7:00/7:30 each morning. Any waking before 6:00 am is
considered ‘too early’ and can throw off your child’s entire schedule. If your child wakes up at 6:00 or
6:30 and is cheerful and well-rested, then you may have to live with the fact that your day has started. However, if your little one wakes at 6:00 or earlier and is a total wreck an hour later, they are most likely overtired and need help in learning how to go back to sleep until a more desired wake up time.
The following are the 4 common causes of early rising:
1. Going to bed too late-
Children who are 5 years or younger should typically be going to bed by 7-8 pm. Although it
isn’t logical, the more sleep children get, the longer they sleep. Has your child ever gone to bed
really late only to wake up even earlier than normal the next morning?
2. Nap deprivation-
Skipped or short naps will set your child up for disaster at nighttime. Not filling your child’s
sleep tank during the day will create early rising, more night wakenings and a poorer quality of
sleep, resulting in an overtired and fussy child. Well-napped children sleep better at night!
3.Putting your child down too drowsy-
You want to be able to put your child to bed drowsy, but awake. What that would look like is,
on a scale of 1-10 (1 being totally awake and 10 being totally asleep), you want to put your child
down at about a 7. They are drowsy but still aware enough to know that they are in their crib/
bed and are able to fall asleep on their own. If your child falls asleep within 5 minutes, you’ve
put them down too drowsy.
4. Too much time between the end of the afternoon nap and bedtime-
If your child is still napping, you want their wakeful window from the time they wake up from
their last nap to the time they go to bed to be no longer than 4-5 hours. For younger babies, the
window should be even shorter-around 2-3 hours between the last nap and bedtime.
Again, consistency and patience are key in the process of changing early rising challenges. The longer you let early rising continue, the harder it is to change it.
If you are ready to change your child’s early rising pattern or other sleep challenges and would like step-by-step guidance and support, contact Erin Anderson, The Sleepytime Teacher. Erin is a certified Gentle Sleep Coach, trained by Kim West (author of Good Night, Sleep Tight). Her services include providing customized gentle sleep solutions to families with children, ages newborn to 6 years, who are not sleeping well at night and/or at naps. She offers in-home or phone consultations with follow up phone and email support, to families in the surrounding New River Valley area. She is happy to work with out of town clients by phone or by Skype as well.
Contact Erin at www.sleepytimeteacher.com or 540-449-6749 for a FREE 15 minute consultation!
