3 reasons your little one might be rising with the sun - The Bite-Size Blog Series
Getting a wake-up call before 6 am is something I’m sure we’d all rather do without. Unfortunately, “early morning wakes” are extremely common for parents with children under 2.
An “early morning wake” is anything before 6 am. 6 am is early yes, but it’s classed as daytime and it is actually quite normal for younger babies who are still on 2+ naps to wake between 6 am-7 am for the day and not because there’s a problem, more so to allow them to have enough time across the day to have adequate awake time and time for each of their naps.
Having an early riser can be tough and many parents want to learn what to do to help shift their little ones’ body clock to a 6am+ wake time. Thankfully, you can look at a few things to see if it’s part of the cause of their early rise. You don’t just have to accept the 5 am human alarm clock each day.
Here I’ll share the 3 reasons for early wakes that I most commonly see when supporting families. You really have to look at your full day end to end when tackling any sleep issue, however, these are some really good places to look first and the why behind how they may be resulting in your little one waking so early.
Something is off in their routine.
Write down their daily routine and see if anything jumps out to you; include their wake time, their nap times/durations, what they’re doing when awake (i.e. are they active enough or spending a lot of time on their pram, etc.), what time is bedtime. +4 months old, you really need to manage the balance between day and night sleep, if you’re to avoid early mornings regularly. Understand how much sleep your little one actually needs for their age over 24hrs. If they’re taking too much day sleep and have an early bed (any time before 7 am), they could be taking all of the sleep they need and waking because they’re genuinely no longer tired.
Something has woken them.
Think about the mornings when they’ve woken super early (before 6 am). Had they soaked through their nappy? Was there light coming in through their window/door frame that woke them? Were they too warm/cold? Were they woken by a noise/someone going to work early/letting the dog out etc? All of these things you have a degree of control in helping prevent. Change their nappies (bigger size/more absorbable etc.), get a better blackout blind, change their clothing/bedding, be more mindful of the household noise in the early am.
Their first nap is too early/long in the day.
Your little one has woken at 5 am and by 6:30 am you’ve got them back down in their cot for a snooze as they look “knackered”. I see this a lot. It’s important to understand that for those little ones who take early/long naps after waking very early, their body clocks start to view these naps as extended night sleep. So basically, their body (if it could talk), would be like “Let’s get up now, even though it’s too early, because I’m going to get another snooze really soon”. Cue consistent early morning waking. Ensure your little one is having a full, age-appropriate, wake window after they wake and before you put them down for their first nap. This is a great way to safely shift their body clock to a more reasonable waking time.
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