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

mazinmouse

What time does your heating come on? My cousin's child used to wake up when the boiler fired up!

kymbo82

I too have an early riser, hes coming up 3 and has been waking at 5.15-30am for about a year, we have tried all the same, later nights, earlier nights, cutting down on day naps, blackout blinds, changing the heating time (used to be 5.30am- i think thats what started it)
Its a nightmare
All I can suggest is take it in turns with OH to get up with him, and get that extra hr or so. Or like someone else said..go up to bed prepared with a drink, snack and a dvd..

ailuro2

I read recently that kids who did loads of physical stuff during the day had been found to sleep longer. Not immediately before bedtime, obviously, but take him out and get him to walk, play football, jump on trampolines, whatever you can find to make him worn out. Then have his usual bedtime routine (a ten minute bath allegedly is the perfect timing to make the most of the body temperature change) then a milky drink and into bed with one bedtime story.

It sounds like you're doing everything right, but thought the article I read was interesting and worth a mention, as it sounds like 0500 isn't your usual time of wakening;).

Our DD was always an early riser, which we didn't mind, and as she used to walk for miles some days with her (carless) childminder we knew she was getting all her energy used up, so I'm inclined to think it might just be an early riser you've got.

fwiw now DD is 11 she gets up after 06:30a.m. most days now.:)

jcr16

i know it doesn't help but my son is always up at 5am. he goes to bed at 6.30pm sleeps all night and wakes at 5. tried putting him to bed later but still up at 5. however he will wake up and is happy reading, drawing or playing. i usually get up half 5 , 6 ish.
i just go to bed a bit earlier now to make up for it.

retro_bluebell

Im afraid to say that it is just sometimes the way they are- my eldest will be up at 7 or earlier everyday no matter what time he goes to bed (hes 12 now and I'm waiting, no scrap that, Im longing, for the day when I have to kick him out of bed!). I wake early too so I don't mind but to me anything prior to 6am is still night time! lol

My daughter just turned 4 and we had a period of her waking very early. We got her a clock that has a night light in it....its a bit hard to explain but you can set the clock to a certain time in the morning and the night will stay on until that time...so she knows that its not officially time to get up until the light goes out. She still gets up before this but will sit and read in bed and stay in her room so thats good enough for us.

this is the one we got DD though Im sure you can get other characters as your son may not be keen on Peppa pig lol

http://www.pricerighthome.com/images/uploads/peppa_pig_go_glow_time.jpg

pukkamum

Ignore him!!!!!
I have always put a baby gate on the doorway and told them they can play but quietly til we get up, more often than not they would play for a bit then go back to sleep.
If they shout for you just ignore them!!!!!
They'll soon get the message!!!!!

michelefauk

My daughter who is now 5 has always been an early riser, although she is an excellent sleeper and never wakes in the night, at the moment she is waking about 6 am but she did go through a phase of getting up at 4.30 to 5.00 am a while back, this lasted about 3 months and I was demented! Not much you can do at that time of the morning without waking the rest of the house up, so I used to come down with her and stick on Cbeebies and just lie on the sofa until I was fully conscious!

Now she is 5, my other half would be happy to let her come downstairs on her own as she knows how to put the tv on now, but I wouldnt be happy to let her be alone downstairs so I end up getting up with her most of the time. She has got a DS which she sometimes will play on for a while in her room, but still comes in to me to show me what game she is playing!

She wakes up really happy so she is obviously getting enough sleep, her room is pitch black as she has a blackout up and nothing we have done has encouraged her to sleep any later, the only thing that makes her wake EARLIER is, bizarrely, going to bed later! Her normal bedtime is 7.30, but if she goes to bed much later, she will wake even earlier than normal and instead of being happy and smiley, she is a grump! I dont mind the early starts so much in the summer, but in the winter when it is still pitch black and freezing at 6 am, you feel like you are the only people in the world who are up!
My other 2 who are now 18 and 16 were exactly the same and now are the opposite and would sleep all day if they could, so it does get better but not for a little while!

Gingham_Ribbon

I never found a magic cure, but I think I can offer a bit of hope!

My 2 were early risers and neither slept through the night for a LONG time. They're 6 and 3 now and they've been known to sleep till 9.30am on occasion! Neither gets up before 7 any more.

One of the things I eventually did was allow them to climb into bed with us and watch a DVD on our tv quietly. It meant that we could doze and we knew they were safe.

vaio

No real solutions, some kids (and adults) just do wake early.

DS was an early riser at that age but so is OH so not much of a problem (for me at least ).

When she was away I used to run him ragged during the day and try and keep him awake late, sometimes it didn’t work but on average I think it did.

Bitsy_Beans

Hate to depress you but mine did it for a year eek! Just pray that it's a short phase as I very little made any difference to the time that they woke.

You have my sympathies.