Sleep is extremely important. Children who sleep well, end up being healthier. When they are healthier, they can focus more when they are awake. When they are healthier and more focused, they are happier. And, to complete the cycle, happy kids sleep better at night! Babies waking up early is a problem for many mothers.
As a baby grows, he ends up napping less during the day and sleeping more at night, which is why night sleep assumes a lot of importance. And that is why it is imperative that our kids learn good sleeping habits.
In This Article
- Why Is My Child Not Sleeping Well?
- Why Does My Child Wake Up Early?
- Reasons A Child Wakes Up Early
- 8 Tips To Ensure Your Child Does Not Wake Up Early
- FAQs
Why Is My Child Not Sleeping Well?
A baby who has disruptive sleep will also be cranky and pushy and will pass his days in agony. Sometimes the reason your baby is not getting enough sleep can be ascertained easily and require a bit of tweaking in the routine. Some common reasons can be:
- You change the routine frequently or do not follow one
- You spend too much time helping your child to sleep, which makes him wake up when you move aside
- Your child does not eat well before he sleeps and so wakes up due to hunger
- The child’s sleep environment is not conducive to good sleep – it is either too hot, too cold, or has a lot of noise from outside
- Your child tosses and turns the entire night because he is wet or uncomfortable
As a parent, you need to figure out why your child is not sleeping properly. Most babies can sleep for 9 hours a night by the time they are 6 months of age. And no, this is not a miracle, though all babies are different, most babies can give you a good night’s sleep when they hit their half-birthday. Close attention, some help, and a little bit of love should be enough to help a child who is not sleeping well.
Why Does My Child Wake Up Early?
Now, if your child is not sleeping well and waking up early, that is a vicious cycle too. They remain tired, cranky, and drowsy during the day. They take longer daytime naps and as a consequence, they sleep late at night. And ironically, that leads to early waking up again.
Thankfully, this problem can be solved with some effort. Before we spill out the tips to ensure your child does not wake up early, let us first see the reasons behind early waking.
Reasons A Child Wakes Up Early
Following are a few reasons a child wakes up early
- Your child is sleeping late: If you are assuming that a late sleep time would mean a late wake-up time, you are wrong. When your child goes to bed late, they are exhausted. When they are exhausted, they take a longer time to settle down. They also do not get quality sleep. The result – they wake up early!
- Your child is not napping enough during the day: If you are assuming that if your child does not nap during the day, they will sleep better at night, you are again wrong. Research shows that children with shorter nap times have trouble sleeping at the night.
- Your child is awake for a long time: If there is a long window of “wakefulness” when your child is awake and active between his day nap time and sleep time, then he might not sleep well at night and as a result, wake up early. Doctors suggest that there should only be 4 hours of wakefulness between nap and sleep times.
8 Tips To Ensure Your Child Does Not Wake Up Early
You would have got the basic idea by now – if your child is exhausted or over-tired when he goes to sleep, he will not get quality sleep and he will wake up early. So that is the thing to be avoided! Here are eight tips to ensure your child sleeps better and does not wake up early:
1. Treat Early Waking The Same As Night Waking
If your child wakes up at 5:00 am every day (or earlier), and you let him be up, then it will only reinforce 5:00 am as the routine wake-up time. Instead, do what you would if your child had woken up in the night, that is, try to resettle him back to sleep with some pats, kisses, and reassurances.
2. Maintain A Proper Bedtime
As we mentioned above, going to bed too late or even too early can result in low-quality sleep. 7-8 pm is a very good time to put your child to sleep, so that they get 12 hours of sleep, and wake up fresh by 7-8 am. Do not allow yourself the liberty of changing your child’s bedtime at your convenience.
3. Sleep In A Dark Room
Most parents leave a light on so that kids do not get scared when they wake up. Ironically, this will lead to early waking and kids becoming alert the moment they open their eyes. Try to encourage your child to sleep in a dark room with thick curtains. At the max, you could leave a small, dim lamp on – just enough light so if the child wakes up in the middle, he can be comforted and drifts back to sleep.
4. No Hunger Pangs
Another reason for early waking which we did not mention earlier is hunger. This is especially true for smaller kids who might have had an early night feed. If you think this is the case, try to squeeze in an 11 pm “discrete” feed while ensuring the baby does not wake up or become alert during the feed.
5. Teach Them To Resettle Themselves
Slowly train your child to settle themselves if they wake up before time. The first step to this is laying them to sleep when they are still drowsy, not asleep. This way, when they wake up suddenly, they recognize the mattress, quilt, bedsheet etc., and tend to go back to sleep without any help.
6. Rule Out Any Medical Conditions
Any kind of breathing disorder, including the common cold, can make it hard for your child to breathe leading them to be restless in their sleep and hence wake up early. Even other events, like teething, growth sprouts, growing pains, and any change in life (even as small as a change of bed!) can lead to early waking. Find the root cause and address it.
7. Ensure Your Child Gets Enough Nap Time
As we said before, no napping does not equate to better sleeping at night. Quite the opposite, in fact. Ensure your child gets a nap time in the day, as per his age. Do not put off naps thinking that this way the child will sleep better at the night.
8. Time The Nap Correctly
As important as having a nap time, is to time it right. Early morning nap times lead to long wakefulness for your child, which in turn leads to troubled sleeping. Make sure the nap time is after lunch so that there are only 4-5 hours of wakefulness between nap time and sleep time.
FAQs
1. Is It Normal For Kids To Wake Up At 5 am?
People often think that if kids go to bed later, they will sleep in later in the morning. However, the most common reason why kids wake up early is that they stayed up too late the night before.
2. Why Does Overtiredness Cause Early Waking?
When a newborn becomes overtired, their body produces cortisol, a stress hormone akin to adrenaline or caffeine. Increased cortisol levels indicate that your baby’s sleep will be more disturbed. This results in increased night waking and early morning waking.
3. What Time Should Children Go To Bed?
Because children’s melatonin levels increase sooner in the evening than teens’ and adults’, the natural time for school-age children to go to sleep is between 7 and 8 p.m. It’s also critical to establish excellent sleep hygiene early on since sleep is necessary for development, immunity, and personality.
