Early Waking
Why is my child waking so early — and how can I fix it?
Early morning waking is one of the most frustrating sleep challenges for parents. This article explores common causes such as overtiredness, light exposure, and sleep timing, along with gentle ways to encourage later wake-ups. Early starts are often a sign of a baby or child’s overall fragile sleep skills.
Early waking can be one of the most tricky sleep problems to tackle, as most little ones are naturally early risers.
It is normal for babies and young children to wake from time to time during the night. Their sleep is naturally light and broken from about 4 am onwards and this makes them more likely to wake up.
But there are things that you can do to help them sleep for longer!
Follow the 7 steps below to help your little one join their final sleep cycles and wake up at a reasonable time.
1 - Prevent over tiredness
One of the main reasons for babies and children waking up too early is over-tiredness.
Why? Because, when little ones become over-tired, they can produce extra cortisol which is an “awake” hormone.
When dawn approaches, there is a natural drop in melatonin [sleep hormone] levels and a rise in cortisol. Then because of the cortisol already in their system when they fall asleep, the process of melatonin/cortisol crossover can happen too soon.
You can help avoid over-tiredness by encouraging longer naps or putting them to bed a bit earlier. This may sound a bit counterintuitive but works for lots of little ones!
2 - Avoid dawn rituals!
♥ Does your baby or child come into your bed at dawn?
♥ Do they have a bottle or breastfeed before getting up for the day?
♥ Are you going and lying next to their bed or cot etc. at dawn?
All of these are rituals and they can even be incentives for them to wake early!
They may even wake earlier in the night wondering if it’s time for their ritual yet!
To avoid these rituals, try the following:
Before getting up, open their curtains and say good morning!
Open your bedroom curtains before bringing them to your bed for their morning milk and cuddle.
Or give their morning milk in the living room.
If they come to you in the dark and you’re lying there trying to sleep, they will think it’s nighttime.
3 - Give the right response when they wake early
♥ Leave them alone if they are not upset. They may just be taking time to transition to their next sleep cycle.
♥ Drifting in and out of sleep early in the morning is normal. There’s lots of REM sleep at this time. REM sleep is light sleep.
♥ It can sometimes take an hour or more to fall back to sleep. As long as they are not upset, haven’t got a dirty nappy and you’re confident that they are safe and well, you can give them as long as they need.
♥ If they’re crying or calling for you, it’s not good to leave them. It is better to go to them before they become upset and let them know that it is still sleep time.
♥ Then you can either remain beside them or keep popping in and out of the room until they go back to sleep or it gets to an acceptable getting up time.
♥ If you give them a feed, cuddle them back to sleep or bring them into your bed etc. it might help in the short term, but it can reinforce the early waking.
♥ When you first start to keep your baby or child in their bed when they wake early, they might not go back to sleep. You will just teach them that when they wake it doesn’t necessarily mean that they get up. When they learn to remain in their bed/cot, they will have a much better chance of going back to sleep.
♥ If they have managed to go back to sleep after an early wake-up, it’s best to gently get them up before 8 am.
4 - Manage their naps
♥ Avoid a very early or long morning nap. Getting into a pattern like this can “secure” or enable early waking to continue
♥ If they need a early first nap, try to keep it short.
♥ When babies are more than a few months old, good napping later in the morning, at midday or in the afternoon encourages better nighttime and early morning sleep.
♥ Younger babies [up to 6-8 months] often need a late afternoon nap. It’s usually a short one to see them through to bedtime without becoming over-tired.
♥ Make sure they’re not napping too much in the day. If your child’s natural sleep requirement is, say, 14 hours in 24, then taking 4 of those hours during the day could mean they have a 10 hour night.
♥ Equally, if your child consistently sleeps for 10 hour every night, putting them to bed at 6 pm might lead to a 4 am start. With a child like this, it is sensible to give them a later bedtime.
♥ Check out the chart below and make sure that your child is getting enough [but not too much] daytime sleep.
…….and here’s a guide to how many hours babies and children usually take. Please note the range as well as the average!
5 - Give them time clues
♥ Little ones need you to provide these time clues to let them know when it’s sleep time and wake time. You can do this by offering them daytime and nighttime signifiers, such as darkness at bedtime and light in the morning.
♥. Change your voice to a low and soothing tone when you want them to sleep and a brighter tone when it’s wake time.
♥. In the morning, do a reverse bedtime routine! Open the curtains, and if it’s still dark outside, put the light on. Turn white noise off before you get them out of the cot. These things will give them prompts/signifiers that it is now getting up time.
♥. If you do this every morning, they will soon come to realise that when the curtains are closed, white noise is on etc. it means that it is sleep time.
♥. Make closing the curtains at the beginning of the night, before they go into the cot part of the settling routine.
♥ Over twos can be helped to recognise when it’s getting up time by the use of sleep training clocks/lights.
Sleep Clocks
Choose one that has a red or orange glow. Some sleep training clocks have a blue back light, which interferes with melatonin production.
Set the clock to “wake up” at a time just a few minutes after your child’s natural wake-up time, even if this is very early.
Then gradually move the time forward as your child understands the principle of waiting in their bed. If they learn to wait in their bed, they have the opportunity to fall back to sleep.
With a very young child, there is no need to explain the principle of how the clock works. They will learn it by experience.
You must obey the clock if you expect your child to! It’s no good setting it for 7 am and then getting your child up before then, while the clock is in sleep mode. If you do this, they will learn that waiting for the clock to wake up is optional.
Don’t let your child play with the clock! They may alter the wake-up time – which defeats the object!
Always praise your child for waiting for the clock to wake up.
6 - Get their sleep space right
♥. Keep your child’s sleep space as dark as possible. This helps them to keep producing sleep hormones. If you need a night light, use a red one, as this is more melatonin-friendly.
♥. White noise also helps to create a continuous sleep association. It also blanks out any background noise.
♥. During sleep, the body temperature drops, slightly. This is a natural part of sleep. If a baby or child is kept too hot at sleep time, they will not sleep as well. It is also important from a safety point of view that their room is kept at a cool 16 – 20 degrees centigrade.
Below is a guide to help you keep your little one cool and comfortable:
7 - Build up your child's general sleep skills
♥ If your child is an early waker and is also struggling with settling at bedtime and waking during the night, you need to work on building better skills overall. You can do this by helping them fall asleep as independently as possible at bedtime. At this time, they’re full of sleep hormones and they have a lovely build-up of sleep pressure.
♥ Often, the key to solving early waking lies in how a child falls asleep at bedtime.
♥ Sleep cycles get lighter and more broken as morning approaches. Unless a baby or child has well-practised and secure sleeping skills, they can struggle to join these lighter sleep cycles.
If they wake up too early and can’t resettle, they miss the final one or two sleep cycles of the night. This isn’t because they’ve had enough sleep but because they don’t know how to get themselves back to sleep.
♥ If you rock, nurse or sit with them as they go to sleep at bedtime, you may be preventing them from learning these essential sleep skills.
What if they only need 10 hours of nighttime sleep?
Not every baby or child needs 12+ hours of sleep per night. If your baby only ever does a 10-hour night, and they’re thriving, you might just need to put them to bed later.
I know that it’s a bit of a contradiction to the advice I’ve been giving about earlier bedtimes and not letting them get overtired!
However, if your child falls asleep at bedtime easily and independently, and then wakes up calm and happy after an uninterrupted 10-hour night, then this could be their natural pattern.
If this is the case, then you might be better off accepting it and giving them a later bedtime. This could be better than trying to push them into a conventional 12-hour night.
If you have experimented with earlier bedtimes and found that your child wakes up even earlier, then it makes sense to put them to bed later. For some but not all children, it is a sensible thing to do.
You can give an older baby a couple of safe toys to play with in their cot and encourage toddlers to remain in bed until “getting up time” by using sleep training clocks or lights.
Take heart in the fact that your baby or child’s sleep needs are not set in stone and whilst they may only be doing a 10-hour night now, that can quickly change as they mature.
Your own sleep matters!
Early waking in babies and young children is a phase that most of them go through and it will pass.
Whilst it’s happening, you need to go to bed as early as possible. If you’re in a couple, share the early starts.
You need sleep so that you’ve got the energy to deal with this phase and also to protect your own mental and physical health.
Further help
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