Child Waking up Early!

I would try black out shades. Also cut sugar and artificial things from his diet if he eats those now. He could be sensitive to something.

When my son starts getting up early, paradoxically, we start putting him to bed even earlier. Can't even remember who told me the "sleep begets sleep" thing, when my son was 2ish and started doing the up and down, or up reeeeeaaally early thing.

Now, my son's bedtime is 9pm... and if he's doing his ordinary thing, that means he'll wake up at 8-9am. If he starts getting up at 6 or 7, we bump his bedtime back an hour for each hour he's up early, which can bring it as early as 7pm. And then, low and behold... he'll sleep to 9-10am for a few days, and then it's back on his regular cycle. Lord knows what brought it on, growth spurt/stress/overamped/fighting off a cold what-have-you...but invariably... if he's up early it's because his system is triggered for SOMETHING.

Kids TYPICALLY need 11-12 hours of sleep. A common problem, is that when they're undersleeping, they get an adrenalin rush which makes them sleep even less. It's really hard for parents who have their kids in school to allow their children to get 11-12 hours of sleep, because then they'd only see them maybe 2 hours a day. Out of school at 4 and in bed by 6/7 DOES seem pretty preposterous. So most don't, and it's obviously not the end of the world. It's typically not until puberty that the sleep cycle does that huge reset (:P)... but until then, while most kids need a lot of sleep, what ever works for your family, is what works.

Also...

Light is good (ahem, the dark, rather)
As is music

On the waking up for every conceivable reason known to man:

I also give my son half an hour of being up after he wakes up. AKA, he can re-do the portion of his bedtime routine (reading, or building quietly, or working on schoolwork etc) that he does on his own. He doesn't always take it, sometimes he just stumbles downstairs to the bathroom and stumbles back to bed... but sometimes if he just "woke up", he can set the timer for half an hour to play/read/work quietly in his room and then crawl back in bed.

I only get about 4-5 hours of sleep a night, so I'm invariably up when he wakes up, but a) I'm working/studying , & b) I wanted to give him the tools to be able to get his system back in sleep mode. Took about a month of helping him "remember", until now, that he does it on his own.

Is it 100%? Of course not. And nightmares are a free-pass into mum's magic bed. And there are always hugs & kisses offered. BUT I was sooooo done with putting him back to bed 10,000 times... that we needed to be able to come up with a more grown up way of self soothing. For the past year or so that it's been in effect, it's worked fairly well.

Hi C.,

here is a great article on sleep called 33 secrets to a good night's sleep. I know it won't all apply to your son, but maybe you will find something in it that helps. I feel for him because I have trouble sleeping too, and have ever ever since my son was born 16 years ago. So I know the frustration and hopefully it will be something he grows out of and doesn't plague him the rest of his life. but here is the link.
http://www.mercola.com/article/sleep.htm

I highly recommend getting a black out curtain from Fred Meyer or Walmart and cutting and sewing the panels together so they fit the window opening exactly, then velcroing them to the window sill or opening. It sure helps me, even when I spend summers in Alaska and the sun is only down a few hours a day. Good luck and good health to you.

It sounds like you are trying my suggestion, putting up something to block the light from the windows. I am constantly amazed that parents don't do this from day 1 with kids, then wonder why they wake up early! We have denim curtains in my daughters room and they keep it quite dark all day. This has also helped with longer naps (usually 2.5-3 hours).

Ear nose and throat dr

Hi C.,

I know this may sound way off, but have you looked into acid reflux? Also I have read a bit about red food dye, it can affect energy levels, behavior and sleep.

Maybe check it out?

K. M.

Hi C.,
I used to have a hard time sleeping and staying asleep too. I can remember being a kid and not being able to fall asleep for hours. About 6 years ago I went to acupuncture and they fixed it. It took about 3 months of going twice a week, but it was worth it. I know that there are some people who do work on kids (and dogs), so you might want to give that a try. I have gone to Acupuncture for the People in NE and they seem to be really good and inexpensive but I don't know if they do kids. It might be worth looking into. Good Luck! I hope you find help because he will have a hard time if he can't sleep and staying awake without naps doesn't work, I know!
--M.

He's a light sleeper. It's his make-up. So, get the blackout shades. You can go online and probably be very successful in finding them at a department store in Alaska. My brother lives on the Kenai, and I had a very difficult time going to sleep as long as the sun was up and woke up easily after I went to bed (out of exhaustion)because of the light outside my window. He then showed me the blinds to pull down, made all the difference.

Keep his room as quiet as possible. He might be getting up early because he's has to go to the bathroom a lot during the night. Be thankful he's waking up to go. Ask him, you may want to limit how much he drinks late in the evening.

A cooler room makes it easier for many to sleep longer and sounder.

You don't mention how long you expect him to sleep at night. Bedtime at 7:30-8 pm with an expectation of sleeping until 7 am in the morning is a stretch, coupled with day time naps. Ten hours at 5 years of age is more the norm, and little kids' body clocks get them up earlier. This will change as they get older. Teenagers stay up later and get up later, much later. Bed by 11 pm, wake up at 7 am. Many get by on 6 hours of sleep. So as they grown, their body clocks set and reset.

Sweet dreams!

melatonin helps sometimes.

Try a "room darkening" window shade (you can get at Smith and Nobel) and maybe an air purifier on low for some white noise. Just a few suggestions that seem to work for my daughter.

OUr daughter (4) is a terrible sleeper. She requires little sleep and is awake by 6:30 am every single day! We have velvet cutains in her room that keep it really dark and we have a little Einstein lullaby CD that plays all night. This seems to help, but she still is an early riser. She is getting old enough now that she will play quietly in her room until mommy and daddy are ready to get up...around 7:30 if we are lucky to sleep that long. :) It also doesnt matter if she had a nap or not, or what time we put her to bed. If we are out late (rare, but it does happen) and she doesnt go to bed till say 10pm, she still wakes up at the same time...sometimes (at Grammy's) she wont get to sleep until around 11pm, then she usually wakes up even earlier! Sucks! So, I guess I dont really have any advice, more sympathy...try the music idea, it might help keep him asleep...other than that, remember that most genius minds require very little sleep! Bill Gates sleeps about 4 hours per night, Albert Einstein was the same way! :)

Get black out curtians or black out blinds(Lowes, Home Depot, Bed, Bath & Beyond). I had to do this for the bedrooms on the south side of my house & then suprisingly on the north side too because in the summer the sun rises on the NE corner of my house completely rotates around the south side during the day & ends up on the NW corner at night.

On another note a little different but maybe related. What size of bed & how good of mattress is he sleeping on? I had my daughter in a toddler bed until a little before her 6th birthday. I couldn't understand why she was having a hard time staying asleep the last few months. Turns out even though it looked like to me she had plenty of room she felt cramped & a toddler mattress just isn't comfortalbe after 45 pounds. Needles to say after I bought her a really nice queen mattress she sleeps through the night no matter how hard she fights it at the begining.

There is a book at the Library "The goodnight sleep solution" it covers more problems that may effect sleeping, like TV, too brite of lights at night, diet, when to stop liquids & white noise.
What Michelle D said melatonin helps sometimes, is very true.
Hope this helps.

Hi, I don't have advice for the waking up early thing but I do have advice for the waking up in the night. My daughter used to do the exact same thing until my friend told me to buy the Marpac White Noise Machine Sleep Mate Sound Screen 980A it was ridiculously expensive 50.00 but really really really worth it! Since I bought the machien and put it in her room my 2 year old rarely wakes up in the night. I regret not having bought this earlier. However I have found that NO MATTER WHAT TIME I put my 2 year old to bed she always always wakes up between 6-7. I have tried putting her to bed late every night for 3 weeks straight but she still gets up early so I decided that I will just put her to bed early every night between 6-7pm so at least Iwill get a little downtime (she refuses naps so by 6pm she is falling to pieces and is ready for bed). If you find any tricks for helping child sleep in let me know. By the way I have bought black out shades (cheap at home depot) and on top of those I have expensive pottery barn kids black out curtains and it doesn't help much (I think blankets on windows worked better at blocking out light) either way she still wakes up early.

My kids both have a radio in their room most of the time set to the local classical music station. Its set low and it plays all night. They do sleep longer because of it. We usually wake them up about an hour and a half before they have to leave for school. This gives time for whatever needs to be done with a little time to play before hand. We have a rule of ready by 8a.m for the most part that way they don't have to rush and they also have a responsibility to play with the dogs outdoors now for at least 10 minutes in the a.m. We figure it gets them started in a good mood because its something they and the dogs enjoy. of course you have to have a dog, and a yard for this. Get a good routine. Even if the times change the routine of getting ready for bed after certain other things happen doesn't really change. (Here we do a routine of 1 hour of tv after school and snack/homework/play outside/supper/dessert/bed preparation (clothes change, teeth brushed, story picked/

We usually set a time depending on what time supper is served. They are usually told bed by 8:30pm-10pm depending on what's going on. And we say no more than a half hour to eat as my daughter tends to drag her feet. So, get a good routine and make sure its consistant with his sleep clock. Keep the room dark, the extra noise may help. Cars might be waking him up..dogs barking or whatever.

By 5 children physically have outgrown the need for a daytime nap.