Early rising is up there as one of the most common concerns parents ask me about so here are my top tips!
A really important starting place when thinking about early rising is our biological chronotype; Owl (eveningness) or Lark (morningness). Pretty self explanatory but owls tend to have more energy later in the day, go to bed later and want to wake up later. Larks have a strong burst of energy in the morning and naturally feel tired for an earlier bedtime.
Many babies and young infants are naturally larks but not all parents are...I definitely fall further into the owl tendency and have had my own struggles adjusting to this. I talk about this because sometimes a parent struggling with what they feel to be early rising is actually just a battle between two different chronotypes.
Anything past 6AM (sorry all) is not considered early rising for a little one even if for you as a parent that feels a touch early.
TOP TIP - For any parent who is an owl, try edging your own bedtime earlier every few nights by 15 minute increments. Making a huge jump to an earlier bedtime won't sit well with your body clock, but a slow and steady adjustment could result in an early enough bedtime that your child's wake-up time is less problematic.
Treating early rising
To treat early rising it's about shifting factors that are influencing your little one's body clock to rise so early.
Bedtime - This one can be a little trial and error as both a too early bedtime and a too late bedtime can both be causes of early rising. If bedtime is too early then they may simply be getting the amount of sleep they need by that early rise. If bedtime is too late and baby is getting overtired then this can early rising. I find undertiredness to be far more common in early rising than overtiredness and a lot of this comes downs to two mainstream sleep messages; sleep begets sleep and the 12 hour night. While some little one's will do 12 (or more) hours over night, the average is in fact 10-11. Many parents find themselves doing a 6-7PM bedtime and then finding themselves with an early rise a a result. We cannot make a little one sleep more than they need.
Keep is dark - A technique you could try is that when your little one wakes, instead of accepting it and getting up for the day, keep it dark and quiet in their room with you in there supporting them. Do this for about half an hour and then pop the lights on, open the curtains and announce it's daytime. Keep pushing this time on until you hit the optimal 6AM. This is to teach your little one that wake up is because of environmental cues like daylight.
Daylight - Expose little one to as much daylight during daytime hours as possible. This helps solidify their body clock and circadian rhythm. During the winter months keep lights bright.
Naps - Finding your little one's individual sleep needs is key. Understanding that their amount of daytime sleep might not be the same as the generic charts out there is important to avoid going for far more or less sleep than they need. If their daytime sleep fluctuates, you could try doing a little diary for a week to see if a certain amount of daytime sleep seems to result in earlier rising than a differing amount.
A nap that is too early in the day can consolidate the early wake up by bringing the whole day forward, so while we don't want to push a little one to be too tired, I would avoid bringing naps too early.
Meal times - Our circadian rhythm is affected by our regular meal times. Allowing an extremely early breakfast following an early wake may solidify that early wake in place. Try slowly edging their breakfast later until it is at a suitable time.
A tip for slightly older children - If your child is in a bed and able to get up, you can leave some safe and quiet toys out for them in their room to entertain themselves until a reasonable hour. This won't work for children who would find it too exciting and wake up specifically to play but for some little ones it can be that extra half an hour or so that makes a big difference to you.
Your little one's biological chronotype as a lark is not something you can change. However, focusing on these external factors can really aid setting their circadian rhythm into a workable and appropriate routine.
A LITTLE SIDE NOTE ON WAKE CLOCKS
There are various different clocks you can buy that show when a little one should be awake or asleep. While there is absolutely no harm in trying one of these, they simply won't work for many.
Firstly, they can't make a little one sleep more hours than they need so if the issue is undertiredness you would still need to make some timing shifts.
Secondly they need to understand it. There is no set age at which point this may happen as every child is so different, but I would be surprised if they were effective for any under 2 years+.
Thirdly, if they are being used a prompt as to when a child can get out of bed or not, some little people simply won't care! This is extremely temperament based. My eldest for example simply ignored it and I know this is the case for many. But for some reassurance; my big boy is nearly 6 now and when he wakes early he listens to his YOTO and draws until around 6:45/7AM! There is hope!
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