Help! My 3 year old is waking at 5am. How can I get him to sleep longer?

confusedmummy

Argh. I am so tired. My little one is waking up at 5am most mornings and I am shattered. He goes to bed between 7pm and 7.30 most nights.

We have tried putting him to bed later, he has blackout blinds on his windows, he goes to the toilet before bed and is well fed before bed.

I just don't know what to do. He quite often wakes in the night too. It is turning me and my husband into zombies. He doesn't really nap during the day anymore and this doesn't make any difference to his nighttime sleep patterns anyway.

Has anyone else got an early riser and did you find anything that helped them to sleep a little bit longer?

pickle

I have the same problem - it'll be daylight savings soon so that means it'll be 6am soon!

Triggles

My DS is 3 and he is an early riser as well, always has been. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING has altered it at all. My DD was the same way. Even if they go to bed later, it's still an early morning, regardless.

Sorry. Some people are just early risers, and it may be something you'll just have to live with, as unhelpful as that may sound.

With our DS, we made sure his room was child-proofed and have a child-gate on his doorway. When he gets up, we can check on him, turn his light on, put his music cd on (his routine that he likes) and then let him play on his own with his toys in his room for about an hour. We still have a monitor, so if he needs us or the toilet, he can call to us and we go take care of it.

gill_hc

My DD aged almost 4 wakes really early as well (usually around 5) - we have moved our TV and DVD player in her room and quietly give her the snack we brought upstairs the night before and stick a dvd on. She lies in bed happily watching it for ages (usually till the film has finished) but that extra hour or so makes all the difference to us. She doesn't really watch tv during the day so I don't feel too guilty about it. We tried everything to get her to sleep longer for months and months but absolutely nothing worked and when I fell asleep in the car while stopped at traffic lights with her in the back I got such a fright we had to do something. Seems to be just a body clock thing.

Indie_Kid

Is he drinking enough during the day?

gratefulforhelp_2

There are things you can do, if you're not already, like not giving him lots of attention when he wakes in the night. How do you get him back to sleep?

Krystaltips

My eldest DD is now 6 and still needs a lot less sleep than is recommended for a child of her age... I did the same as other posters when she was younger, I made sure her room was a safe place for her to play and just let her get on with it as much as she would... She did tend to hassle me a fair bit so it was more dozing than an extra hours kip... If she was really bothering me I would put the TV on in my bedroom for me but I've never felt the need to put a TV in her room... Now she's a bit older she just takes herself off downstairs and puts the TV on, and for some reason I've started all over again!

moggitymog

we went through this with our dd (now age 7) when she was that age, nothing made any difference, it lasted for approx 4 months but then she just stopped hope you get some decent sleep soon x

City_Girl_2

Our twin boys, 3 in May, are up far too early too:( they are in the same room, I don't want to seperate them, their room is child friendly but with two of them the noise of playing and singing is not good for us, let alone the neighbours.

Our boys are in bed for 7pm each night but we have tried the later bed time but to no avail either.

Guess I just need to start going to bed at 7pm with them and then we will all be up and fresh at 5am having had enough sleep.

Only saving grace for me is that from 7pm to 5am our boys are sound asleep, which as my DH works nights benefits me.

When I opened this thread I was expecting a miracle reply to the OP's post to benefit me too:(
CITY

Kaz2904

My DH jokes that we could put DS to bed at 5.30 in the morning and he'd still get up at 6. It's just the way it is. Now he's 6 it's easier cause he gets up and comes downstairs to watch telly. He sometimes gets his own breakfast but not often.

daska

DS2 appears to have a 15/9 cycle depending on whether he's going through a growth spurt. When growing he sleeps 15 hours, when not growing he's awake for 15 hours. At the moment he's not growing...:wall: