Baby Wakes Up Too Early
If you put them to bed later…..
they sleep in the next morning….right?
Hi, I’m Lauren, founder of Sleep + the City, I’m so glad you’re here! If your baby is waking up too early for the day, you’re in the right place. After serving families worldwide for over 5+ years, early rising, or “waking up too early” is one of the most common things that can affect a young child for a variety of reasons. Maybe the schedule is off, maybe there has been a big change in the family….maybe baby is waking up too early because they refused to take a nap? These and SO many more factors, sometimes 2-3 factors at once, can play into why your baby is refusing to sleep in, and wakes up too early for the day, on the daily. Ready to narrow them down?
Jamie Jones Photography
TOP Reasons your Baby Wakes Up too Early for the Day
1. It's BRIGHT. You need a nearly pitch-black room in the morning as the sun begins to rise, and a dark room is a must for nap time. Wood blinds and/or blackout shades often aren't enough, so I suggest window covers to achieve this (see example on my website under Sleep Must Haves.) In my daughter's case, the MINUTE I put up this shade, she slept in an entire hour LATER. In her case, the morning sun was her “signal” that it was time to wake up for the day, which she could no longer see once the blackout shade was up. For some children however, this may only be a temporary fix, so buy it, and then keep reading.
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2. The last "Wake window" of your child's day is too long. A wake window is the time spent awake between sleeps. For Newborns, this could be 45-90 minutes. Knowing what your min and max wake window is by age is extremely important to time your naps, so baby doesn’t become overtired, and they change nearly every 3-6 months of childhood. For help with schedules ages 0-4, take this FREE & fun quiz to get a schedule you can download straight to your computer or phone.
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3. Bedtime is TOO EARLY or TOO LATE. On average, children under 5 are capable of sleeping about 11-12 hours per night, give or take depending on how many hours of naps they take during the day. A bedtime before 7pm could cause even the best sleeping baby to wake up too early (like 5am!) depending on those nap lengths. On the flip side, pushing back their bedtime in hopes that "they might sleep in" often backfires or results in night wakings, and children will typically continue to wake up early regardless, unless bedtime is consistently pushed back along with the rest of the day’s normal routines and activities, what’s known as “Schedule Shifting”. To schedule shift, this is best done by booking an appointment to chat about your ideal wakeup time, and ideal bedtime, so we can form a perfect plan for you!
4. Poor Napping. If your baby is under 6 months, you’ll be wanting at LEAST 3-4 hours per day of napping, if not more for the younger ones. Between 6-18 months, your child needs at least 2-3 hours of napping. Over 18 months, at least 1.5 total hours of napping. Not meeting these minimums? You’ll want to look into some nap lengthening techniques if your baby or tot is sleeping pretty well at night. If your child is still waking more than 2x a night or, unable to sleep longer than 4+ hours straight, you’ll want to look into the Baby Sleep Academy training class or this Toddler Sleep Guide which are packed with sleep shaping techniques that are science-backed, #momlife approved, and already trusted by families worldwide! If baby is currently going through the 3-4M regression, which can start as early as 13 weeks old, you’ll want to grab the regression class, only $49 here with this link!
5. You tried cry-it-out, pop-ins, or a Ferber method to sleep train. Ok, before you throw tomatoes at me, hear me out: babies that are taught cry-it-out, Ferber, or other popular “pop-in” methods as a response to being unable to fall asleep at bedtime and night wakings, almost always wake up too early for the day, because they are extremely overtired due to the amounts of sleep lost with these methods. With my programs, we work backwards from nights to naps, so baby’s “sleep tank” is full while learning to fall asleep independently. Get your hands my modern sleep training techniques here, to encourage baby to sleep train in a way that feels natural, so you can stress less, and sleep more.
Jamie Jones Photography
Now that you’ve possibly identified a few reasons why your baby is waking up too early, you may need a few solutions (sleep is not usually one, quick fix!)
Tip #1: Create & maintain a sleep log. Why is this important? In order to understand how many hours your child needs to sleep in a 24-hour period, you're going to need to calculate that average over 3-4 weekdays (weekends are usually so busy that it can be difficult to gauge an average). Depending on your child's age, they need anywhere from 10 to 18 hours of sleep per day, so it's important to know where they fall in that range. It’s also a good way to keep track of what you did the day prior, what time you put your child down vs. the time they fell asleep, to time those naps and bedtime correctly.
Tip #2: Invest in some blackout shades and white noise. These are two of the TOP ITEMS I suggest to all my clients. Black outs block out unwanted light which can accidentally signal the body's internal clock that it's "daytime", and white noise blocks out unsolicited noise (garbage trucks, Dad leaving for work, the dog barking, Mom tripping over the baby gate while I'm sneaking downstairs for coffee). This custom black out shade is under $50 and can easily be taken off during the day, and it's much more affordable than those pricey black out curtains that don’t even seem to help. The white noise we are currently using here in our home is from Hatch, called The Rest, which is a 3-in-1 machine that not only creates the perfect white noise, but doubles as a night light and Ok-to-Wake clock which is vital for healthy toddler sleep habits, and turns a different color when it’s “time to wake up for the day”, which can be set by a timer/alarm from your smart device.
Tip #3: Create or tweak your schedule. Missing naps, short naps, bedtimes too late, bedtimes too early, or having unrealistic expectations ALL cause early wakings. If your 2-year old is going to bed at 6pm (this age group sleeps 10-12 hours on average at night) and is waking at 5am- that's 11 hours i.e pretty textbook!! If this is you, your bedtime needs to move back, every day, and physical activity levels may need to increase. When it comes to missing sleep (vacation, overstimulation, poor napping), which causes children to be overtired, they can often experience a harder time going to sleep AND staying asleep, and thus this causes early rising. Also understanding what wake windows are appropriate for the age of your child will help you time those naps correctly, often resulting in longer nap lengths.
Tip #4: Sleep shape using the Wink-a-Sleep Method for babes under 18 months, or the BRB Method for tots 18 months and up. Baby sleep is HARD, ya’ll. And it doesn’t get easier, and it’s most likely NOT a phase. You’re not doing it wrong, but it doesn’t have to be like this forever. Can you imagine how different your life would be if your baby was sleeping 10, 11, 12 hours at night, on the nightly? My modern methods, found in my sleep class, can take you there. These methods aren’t too good to be true, but it is really good. Get started now by choosing your age below:
Tip #5: Have realistic expectations, stay calm/consistent and have some grace for your baby.
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Help! My baby still wakes up too early for the day— can you just tell me exactly what I’m missing to help my child sleep in?
Yes!!
If you’re not a DIY-kinda gal, let me put the pieces of your baby or toddler’s sleep puzzle together for you. In under one hour, for less than a visit to your pediatrician, I can outline a plan for you that feels comfortable, gentle, where baby feels supported (and not abandoned). Click the button below and give me a brief idea of what’s going on with your baby, and what sleep goals you’d love to see in a perfect world (b/c they don’t call me the Sleep Fairy for nothin’).