Waking up Early

A

AnpanBaby

Registered User
I have a 17-mth old who is waking up earlier than usual since the beginning of the month. Instead of waking up at his usual time of 7-ish in the morning, he wakes up at 6-ish or sometimes 5-ish. Obviously, he is still sleepy as he's crying/grumpy when he wakes up.

After observing for quite a few weeks, i have ruled out hunger and uncomfortable room temperature as the reasons. I am wondering whether it's the light that sneaked in through my curtains that's bothering him (as summer's approaching, the day starts earlier). Another possible reason is that he just wants to play "as early as possible" as I read that toddlers do not want to waste any of their time not playing (as he often points to the door to ask me to let him out of the room once he's awake).

Any advice?

AnpanBaby
 
Our baby has been getting up around 6.00-6.30 all the time and he is ready to play immediately he will ask us to put his shoes on and he runs to the door to play with his toys. We tried putting him to sleep later at night hoping that he gets up late but he still gets up at the same time so we gave up and let him sleep between 7-8 at night.

Advice i guess go with the flow and let him play. our son does take an afternoon nap between 11.30-12.00 to 2.00 -2.30

Best of luck
 
Our 2yr old started sleeping less when he turned about 18months. He used to go to bed around 7.30pm and wake up around 6.30am with a 2 hr nap in the afternoon.
With sleeping less, he would be wide awake at around 5.30-6am in the mornings and with an older child and no helper, I found his new waking up time, too early for me, so I decided to change his routine slightly to see what happened.
I tried just giving him a nap for only one and a half hours during the afternoon. He didn't seemed to be cranky at all and it worked, he started waking up at 6.30-7am again.

Two months later, he started waking up early again! So instead of cutting more time from his nap, I put him to bed slightly later at around 7.45-8pm. He now wakes up between 7-7.30am. (ok ,feel a be guilty now, as I kind of did it so I could have that extra 30mins in bed as well :) )

You will find that all babies differ and that some babies don't need to nap as much during the day and be just as happy.
As long as my son gets about 9-10 hrs sleep at night and an hour and a half during the day, he is happy.
It could be that your son doesn't need as much sleep as before and you could try cutting down on his nap to see what happens.
 
My 11 month old started getting up at 6.30 too but he was also grumpy when he woke up and clearly needed more sleep. I blacked out part of his window and it reduced the amount of light coming in and he's back to waking at a better time for everyone, 7.

Light is the enemy of sleep and sleep makes for happy families :haha:
 
Thanks all for the sharing!!!

Perhaps I shall try blocking all the light first. Since he behaved as if he needed more sleep when he woke up, I'll adjust his nap time if the blocking of the light doesn't work!!

AnpanBaby
 
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