Early rising or early morning waking is when a little one repeatedly wakes for the day
earlier than 6 a.m it was often around 5 a.m and somewhere between 4 30 and 5 30 being the classic
window for early risers firstly let me say it is not just the way your child is many parents say
my child's just an early riser but no we can get your little one sleeping soundly to at least
6 a.m consistently we just need to figure out the cause and address it the number one reason
for early rising is overtiredness in fact when a parent tells me their child is waking really early
every day i immediately investigate whether or not they're getting enough daytime sleep
if they're awake for too long between sleeps or if bedtime is regularly too late that's going
to cause overtiredness most of the time one or more of those things is the cause behind
the early starts and yet that might sound strange and certainly counterintuitive because you'd think
a tired child would sleep in right nope being overtired actually leads to shorter and less
restful periods of sleep and this is why it catches so many people out the well-meaning
grandparents are the first to offer the idea of wearing the child out or keeping them awake
in the day so that they'll sleep better at night but that's actually the worst thing you can do so
have a look at your child's schedule how much daytime sleep did they ought to be
getting what's the maximum amount of time they should be awake for between sleeps and
are they getting to bed at a consistent and sensible time each night fixing this up could
be the cure to waking and getting them to a better wake-up time just within a week or two
other top tips for helping to reduce early rising include blackout blind sleep weight triggers and
how you respond so stay tuned and i'll go through these with you but i have to ask how old is your
early riser and what time are they starting the day let me know in the comments because
you may be selected to receive a copy of my book but you've got to subscribe to my youtube channel
okay so blackout blinds these are great because it's important to block out all of the natural
light from your little one's room any form of daylight is blue light and that affects
the production of melatonin which is the sleepy hormone in other words it fools us into thinking
it's time to be awake if you or your child need some light in the room go for a very dim
red or amber colored night light but keep the natural light out when it's sleep time
a sleep wake clock or trigger is fantastic for teaching little ones when it's time to be asleep
and when it's okay to wake up for the day from around 20 months of age a child can understand
a simple trigger personally i love the kid sleep clocks which have a little character on them who's
clearly tucked up in bed or up in the daytime having the picture of that character to give the
child a visual cue and that's great it's easier to understand than trying to teach them that certain
colors or shapes actually mean sleep or wake time a simple light timer is okay too
when when the light's off it's sleep time and when the light turns on it's okay to wake up
the last key to managing an early riser is to have a consistent response to each and every waking
in the night and to maintain this response until at least six am when it's okay to wake for the day
if you allow your little one to continually start the day really early this will become
an ingrained habit in their body clock and it'd just be a habit to a wake up we want to show them
that it's still night time and not yet time to be up i'll tell you now when a little one is waking
regularly at around 5am due to overtiredness it is unlikely that he or she will actually go back to
sleep they're usually wired but nevertheless you need to keep going with your nighttime response
until 6am whilst working on the other things to overcome the overtiredness so a quick recap for
you establish where the overtiredness is coming from and begin working on replenishing your little
one sleep tank prepare the room with black up lines and night light if needed and a sleep wake
trigger like a clock or a light on timer and know how you're going to respond consistently
to any wakings that happen before 6 a.m early rising can take a little time to resolve so be
patient and persistent and really consistent with your little one's overall sleep amounts
to overcome this as smoothly as possible if you found this helpful please share it
with a friend who might benefit from it too we want to help as many tired families as possible
so be happy be healthy and i'll see you next time so much for watching if you've
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