Getting Your Child to Sleep in Later in the Morning??

I agree with the response below about telling them it's rest time until the first number is 7. My kids are early too, but this works for us (before they were creeping earlier and earlier- it got to be common that they were ready for their day at 4:30!). We tell them they can come out to use the potty, but other than that they need to stay quietly in their rooms. It works great for us. They don't always sleep later, but they do leave us alone and it stops being a battle because they know it isn't going to get them anywhere to come out earlier- it took about a week or two the when we started of reminding them and putting them back (I think it helps that I'm not very fun that early in the morning so their rooms seem better than me until I have a chance to wake up and get myself up). Good luck

My experience, with both my kids, is that their biological clocks were set from the beginning, and there was very little I could do to adjust them. My kids have always gone to bed early and gotten up early. Until they started school, they ALWAYS woke between 4am and 5:30am and once they were up, they were AWAKE, no matter how hard I tried to convince them that it was time to rest. I gave up when my older one was 3 and taught him to use the remote control. He would get up, go watch TV, eat the snack we left for him, and wait patiently for me to emerge.

Because they always got up early - no matter what time I put them to bed - I make sure they go to bed early. The only way I can ensure they get enough sleep is to put them to bed early. They are now 11 and 8, and they still get up between 5am and 6am, and they still go to bed early (by 8pm, always).

I will probably get hammered for sharing this... but here goes! My daughter is 26 months old and for whatever reason (I'm really good about keeping her schedule) during the past year was waking up at 5am +/-. Brutal as far as I was concerned!

I'm not game to let her cry it out in the am (though am fine with it during night time hours, i.e. 4:30 am or before). So I grab her, bring her into my bed, turn on the dvr and let her watch sesame street while i go back to sleep. She actually LOVED Barney, so I started with that until I couldn't stand it anymore.

I'm not recommending this as a solution! It's just how I dealt with it. The past month she has started sleeping in to 6 and 6:30...woo hoo! Btw, when she started waking at 5ish am +/- I moved her bedtime from 7:30pm to 8pm. It never made a difference and I never moved her back to 7:30 (for fear she'd wake up even earlier).

The common wisdom is sleep begets sleep BUT here is what i do to get them sleep a little more after time changes for instance. First day in the morning they wake up as usual. Then during the day I forgoe the nap. At night time, I put them to bed about 1- 1 and a half hr earlier than usual. An dthen the next morning they generally wake up pretty late. If not, I skip th enap again, and put them to bed again extra early. Once they start waking uup a little later in the morning, I return to the regular nap/sleep schedule.

Most of our circadian rhythms (biological clocks) are pretty set. You could try keeping her up a little later, but chances are, if she's an early bird, she's an early bird.

How many naps does she take during the day, and for how long? We have one kid who's an early bird and another who's not at all. It's just their different biologies (our early bitd is also a HORRIBLE sleeper)

Check out this book from your library: HEALTHY SLEEP HABITS, HAPPY CHILD

Keeping her up later, will have the opposite effect. It will not make her sleep in later.

Kids, have their own timing as to when they wake. My friends kids are the same way. My kids, they always wake up between 6:30-7:00am. Since birth. It has nothing to do with what time they go to bed at night. But my kids, also nap everyday. Kids need to nap... getting rid of naps, will NOT make a kid sleep in later in the morning. It only makes them over-tired.
Over-tired kids actually do not sleep well and wake more at night.

When she wakes at 5:00 or so... just stay in bed... have her stay with you and explain you are still resting. Keep the lights OFF... do not turn anything on. And she may remain settled down. Tell her its still early... but its "quiet" time still. Not play time. That is what I did on the few occasions my kids woke early. And they usually dozed off to sleep again. When my kids woke early... I did NOT engage in talking or playing. I just STAYED in bed... period. And explained to them me/we are still sleeping. Or, I told them they could stay IN OUR ROOM (for safety), but that Mommy/Daddy is still "sleeping." And it is QUIET time, until the "family" is ready for the day. Your child is 3.5 years old... so you can try that. She is able to understand.

All the best,
Susan

HI L.,
We have two sets of family friends with the same issue as you and they tried it all, too. They finally realized that no matter what, the kids were going to wake early. So they made sure they (the kids) went to bed early, as well, and one of the parents would have to get up with the kids in the early morning. I don't think you can do much with a biological clock, unfortunately.

L.!

I just sent this response to another mom, regarding the Good Nite Lite, which helps with sleep training:

http://www.goodnitelite.com/index.php

"We got for our son just before he was 3 yr. old. (He now will be 4 in a few months.) Also, wasn't the miracle we were hoping it would be! But still might recommend looking into it and may be getting another one for my daughter. Especially, for kids who sleep through the night, just wake at the crack of dawn, or sooner!! :-)) But my son's sleeping issue (who was a great crib sleeper) was getting up to get us multiple times a night. He knew (and still knows) what the rule was: Blue Moon = Stay in bed, Yellow Sun = Allowed to get out of bed. Although, we have spent the last 14 mo. trying to keep from waking us up during the middle of the night, the light DOES keep him in bed until 7am (when we set it to wake.) And just a few nights ago I started to give him timeouts when he would come in and wake us. Last night he did not come in to wake us!!! Hoping this is the trick, and it continues!!!

Again, I would still recommend considering it."

NOTE: We did have some problems with the first one and had to have a new one sent, No Charge! (then sent the old one back)

Some others to consider maybe:

http://www.americaninnovative.com/products/oktowake.php

http://www.leapsandbounds.com/catalog/product.jsp?product...
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I once read that you should put some books in the crib. I tried that with my daughter and she would look at them until I went in to get her -- eventually we got to 7 am. I think I read it on babycenter.com

I can see others already recommended the Good Nite Lite. My son wakes between 5 and 5;30 EVERY MORNING and it is his biological clock. Doesn't matter when he goes to bed or anything. He is wide awake and ready to play- we're not. The Good Nite lite has helped us make it to 6:20am. I think he still wakes earlier but he knows we won't get him up until "the sun turns yellow" (the nite lite is blue and I set the time for it turn yellow at 6:20am). Now, each morning, I hear, "Mommy, the sun is yellow!" and when I look at the clock it is 6:20am which is when I set it. So, I go get him up then. It took a few days of teaching him we won't go into his room until it is yellow, but now he understands. We are hoping to set the clock later and later, but I am glad for how much more sleep we are getting already. Good luck- it was definitely worth the money!

The other responses are pretty interesting to me. My son was waking up really early and I told him that it was still resting time since the sun was not up yet. I had dark curtains put up on his windows so less light was let in, put a small music player near his bed and a digital clock. I told him when the first number was a "7" he could get up. If it was anything else he needed to stay in bed - he could look at books or turn on his music, but that it was still resting time. When he wakes up, he turns on his music and goes back to sleep now. It's worked for all three of my kids so far, so I'm surprised when everyone else has said that biological clocks are set and can't be changed. I guess it's all about your own personal experience. Good luck.

Hey L....

I too had issues with this and my son waking multiple times a night. We were putting him down at 6:30pm (he just coming up on 2 years old) and he would wake as many times a 8 times a night and then be up between 5 and 6. I decided to go against the grain and start putting him down later. Much like yourself he was still trying to get up early... I would go in and nurse or just pat him on the back and tell him it wasn't time to get up yet. Sometimes he'll cry a little bit, but for the most part he goes right back to sleep. Now he will wake at about 5 and then go back to sleep until 8. The trick for me was to let him fuss or even cry a little bit at 5... and he went back to sleep once he realized he wasn't goign to be able to get up and play.