Early Morning Wake Up Solutions Every Parent Needs to Know
It’s not even 9 am and you have been up with your baby before the sun rose and you have already lost track of how many coffees you have reached for. Does this sound familiar? If you’re reading this through sleep-deprived eyes you are not alone, it’s one of the most common headaches that parents face with their little ones and usually the last piece of the puzzle to fall into place regarding your babies sleep.
Early morning wake-ups and starting your day before 6 am as you know can be tough going, it can also really set the tone for the rest of your day. But before you resign your self to starting your day before the sun rises let’s see how we can help with these early morning starts.
Firstly it’s good to define what an early morning wake up is? We can class 4 am as still night time, 5- 6 am we would class an early morning wake up, 6-6.30 am is more of an age appropriate wake-up time. Setting a reasonable start to your day and then ensuring that your actions are consistent with this will demonstrate to your baby when your family day starts.
We also have to have realistic expectations as well, if your baby is going to bed at 6 pm we can’t expect them to sleep until 7.30 am as that would be 13.5 hours of sleep, around 12 hours is a great night sleep for your little ones. When we look at your baby’s sleep we always need to look at all the different elements that could be contributing to this early morning start. There are some key common factors but by making some changes and following the steps below you will begin to see you baby waking later and later and sleeping for longer.
Bedtime
What time is bedtime? We really need to look for an age appropriate bedtime for your little ones. An ideal bedtime for a 6-18 month-year-old is around 6.30 pm and we would aim for a 7 pm bedtime as the baby moves towards the 18-month mark. Anything later and your baby will be overtired. Babies around this age require around 12 hours of sleep overnight to ensure optimal mental and physical development. Don’t fall into the trap of equating an early bedtime with an unnecessarily early-morning wake-up. An over-tired baby that is put to bed late, is much more likely to wake in the early hours of the morning.
This can become tricky with parents’ work schedules that involve long hours and late finishes but most workplaces are usually flexible with adjusting start and finish times so that you can get home to spend time with your little one before bedtime. We need to look at sleep as we would food, we wouldn’t delay our baby from eating or skipping a meal and we need to look at the same with sleep.
First nap of the day is too early
Starting your day before the sunrise can be rough, what you may see is your little one struggling to stay awake until their first nap of the day. If we look to offer a nap before 9 am we can end up in a vicious cycle of your baby continually waking earlier and earlier, this can also cause and can completely throw out your day. Simply because if you baby feel their first nap of the day is around i.e. 7.30 am they will continue to wake early i.e. 5.30 am in order to be tired enough to take their first nap of the day.
Instead, we can look to push this first nap of the day out until around 9 am (age appropriate) the first couple of days they might struggle to stay awake but keeping up this consistency you will begin to see you little one waking later and later as their body adjusts to being tired enough to take this nap around 9 am.
Nap times
Ensuring that your baby is getting some great daytime sleep will also help with their early morning starts and can reduce them being overtired. If they are struggling with this we can look to encourage your baby to nap in their natural sleep windows for the age-appropriate durations. An asleep window is a time of day when their bodies naturally adjust the hormone levels and their body temperature in preparation for sleep, this begins to develop when they are around 4 months and is governed by their internal biological rhythms.
These occur between 9-10 am and 12-2 pm and 6-7 pm, Babies who sleep during these times generally have more restorative sleep, so if we look to adjust naps to fit inside these nap windows this will encourage them to sleep longer during the day. Also keeping an eye on their age-appropriate awake windows to ensure that they are not going to bed overtired and aren’t kept awake for too long which can result in an early morning start as well.
Temperature bedroom
As the seasons change we need to look for your baby to be dress appropriately for overnight sleep, making sure that they aren’t too hot or too cold. Having a thermometer in their room is a great way to see what the temperature is and then to dress them accordingly.
Sleeping bags are great to use as not only ensuring that they won’t kick off the covers and get cold but a fantastic sleep association and will tell them that its time for sleep. The type and number of layers will depend on the temperature of their room (18 -20 degrees is the ideal) and the tog rating of the sleeping bag.
With the coldest part of the night being 3-5 am with this change in night temperature this can lead to an early morning start. Using a sleeping bag is a great way to keep them warm and ensuring that they can’t kick off the covers overnight to cause them to get cold and to wake themselves up and start their day early.
Darkroom
It’s important to create a pleasant sleep environment for your little ones and to ensure that the room that they sleep in is pitch black dark. Melatonin, the sleepy hormone, can only be produced in darkness and so in order for your baby to settle and resettle after one sleep cycle, it will be really beneficial for their room to be dark as possible. Even a small amount of light can at times be enough to tell the brain it’s time to wake up. I liken this to us as adults trying to sleep on the couch in the sunlight, chances are it would take us longer to get to sleep, and we wouldn’t sleep as long as we might if we had closed the blinds. This can be as simple as pinning up a dark sheet, or you can buy some blackout blinds. Now when the sun rises your baby won’t know as they will be sleeping in a pitch-black room making them sleep for longer and waking later.
Reinforcing early wakeups
When a baby wakes early how do we respond? At this early hour in the morning parents will look to do anything it takes to get your little one to sleep for a little longer. However this can be inadvertently reinforcing these early morning wake-ups, the most common reinforcing behaviours are letting your baby co-sleep, offering a feed, getting yourself up for the day, etc
In time this habit can become ingrained within your baby and they will begin to think that their day does indeed start at 5 am. However, we can look to keep interaction to a minimum, ensuring to resettle your little ones when they wake rather than starting your day and just being consistent. It may involve some patience and resettling, but by doing this you will begin to see some great results and a successful outcome.
Early morning wake-ups can be frustrating and can hard at times, they can be brought on by many things as discussed but by making some of the above changes and adjustments whilst keeping consistent you will begin to see them gradually reduce and fade.
Aprilla is a certified baby and infant sleep consultant for Bubba Bedtime who has worked with families in Australia and abroad to give their children the gift of sleep.