Early Wakings Driving You Crazy?

But first, what do we mean by early?

The natural biological clock of children will start the day around 6-7 am, although this may sound early for some parents, but this is natural and actually it is a healthy sign that the body is getting the sleep it needs in the natural timings. 

But waking up before that like 4 or 5 am is actually a sign that there is something wrong we need to work on.  

So what are the top reasons for such early wakings and what can we do about them?

1- Overtirdness: 

An overtired child who is not getting the sleep his/her body needs will have a high level of cortisol released, it is a hormone that has a similar effect on the body as adrenaline would. It can cause children to appear hyper. If naps and bedtime are not aligned with the biological needs of the body, so an early waking scenario is possible. So what can we do here?

Revisit the schedule and day sleep of the child, ensure that sleep is sufficient and aligned with the age and biological needs of your child. Also, you will need to introduce temporary extremely early bedtime, because early bedtime helps is eliminating overtiredness. 

2- Reinforced interaction:

Sleep is very light during that time of the night, and if the child is already overtired from what was mentioned in the previous point, so a reinforced interaction from any of the parents might encourage those wakings to continue to happen. This is might be talking with your child or bringing a bottle of milk (as an example).  

In such cases, you need to keep the sleep environment on until 6 am (quiet and dark), and before that, you will need to eliminate those interactions and stay consistent with what you do every day. 

3- Room is not dark enough: 

Depending on where you live and when does the sunrise, and also if you already have artificial light in the room or from the hallway. Again because sleep is light during that part of the night, any minimal light coming in might encourage those early wakings to happen. 

What can you do if this is the case? Simple! MAKE THE ROOM SUPER DARK :) 

A final reminder that any changes in sleep habits will take time and if you are not consistent with the changes you are doing to solve the issue, you won’t see progress, so be patient!

Want to fix this? Let’s fix this together.