How to stop your baby waking early
Five easy ways to stop your baby’s early waking
Early waking for a little one under the age of two is a common problem and parents find it the most difficult sleep issue to resolve.
A baby who sleeps through from 7pm to 5am has done a ten hour stretch in slumberland so we can forgive him for being bright eyed and bushy tailed in the early hours of the morning.
More often than not, putting your baby to bed later doesn’t help at all. He may wake even earlier or (more likely) wake at the same time but be irritable due to overtiredness.
Here are five suggestions to improve things quickly.
1 - Firstly, decide on the time of day you’re happy to get up and start the day as a family. 6am isn’t much fun but I set that as a realistic time for us. I never get up before 6am with the children. Any time after this, I’ll start the day. 7am is better but sometimes our little ones have their own ideas!
So if your baby wakes before 6am, treat it as a night time waking. My nine month old baby, Frankie, still wakes at about 5am occasionally. When Frankie wakes I leave him until he cries. Then I go in to him, keep the lights low and tell him it’s sleepytime. For a week or so I had to do this about 4 or 5 times until he went back to sleep. On the rare occasion when he wakes before 6am now, I can tell him “it’s sleepytime”, lay him back down and he’ll go straight back to sleep.
2 - When you do get your baby up (whether he’s gone back to sleep or not) take him straight into daylight. Use fresh air to fully waken your baby by taking him outside. This is really important in establishing your baby’s circadian rhythm - or biological clock.
Our biological clocks are controlled by the action of light on the pineal gland causing chemical reactions in the brain. Getting your baby outside first thing in the morning will help to set your baby’s “wake up” time.
If your baby is having two or three naps a day, move the first nap along a little. So if his first nap is at 9am, push it along by 5 or 10 minutes each day, until it’s at 9:30am. It’s common for babies who wake early to use that first nap of the day as an extension of their night sleep. By lengthening the gap between wake up and nap one, your baby will stop doing this.
This often works to end the early waking. But be careful - if you push things along too quickly, it's possible he will become overtired and this will affect his sleep for the rest of the day. So do it gradually and keep an eye on your baby to make sure he’s coping.
3 - Check the amount of sleep your baby’s having in the day is right for his age. At nine months, most babies move from three naps to two naps a day. This happens again at about 18 months when babies go from two naps to one a day. Your baby may reduce the amount of sleep he needs at night rather than drop the third nap. Adjusting your baby's day time naps gradually should solve things.
4 - Since things are never simple when it comes to baby sleep, it’s also possible the opposite is true and your baby isn’t getting enough day time sleep. An overtired baby may fall asleep quickly at 7pm but then wake up early. This is because an overtired baby’s body can become stressed and produce the hormone cortisol. Cortisol acts as a stimulant and results in restless sleep. So when your baby naturally wakes at 5am, he is too “wired” to put himself back to sleep. Instead, he is fully awake, alert, and ready to go.
If this is the case, then your baby actually needs more sleep in the day, or an earlier bedtime. If your baby's tired in the day and shattered by bedtime, it might seem obvious to put him to bed later or reduce his night sleep but this will probably make things worse. Instead, increase day time sleep by planning for more naps or put your baby to bed earlier.
The environment your baby sleeps in may be causing your his early waking. Too much light, feeling cold or hunger are the obvious culprits. Blackout blinds and sleeping bags will help. A baby under 9 months could have a feed at 10 or 11pm to get him through to morning. You can do this without waking your baby by lifting him out of the cot and feeding him while he’s fast asleep. After nine months, assuming your baby is on 3 solid meals a day, it’s very unlikely he’s waking because he’s hungry.
As always with baby and toddler sleep, your child is an individual and the above are suggestions you can try to stop the early waking. For more information, visit Sleepytot.
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