Is your baby waking up early? Why is the baby waking up so early? How do stop the baby from waking up early? Here are some tips to help you deal with an early riser!
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Why is the baby waking up early?
Your baby waking up early might have different reasons behind it. Before taking any action, it’s vital to think about the possible causes.
Is something like the TV coming on or you leave for work, waking up your child? Consider how much sleep your child actually gets as well. They may be getting too much or too little sleep.
Children also have different sleeping patterns. Some need less sleep than others. Some are used to a different sleeping schedule than others. It really varies in every child.
Baby waking up early: How much sleep do they need
Two biological forces primarily control the wake-sleep cycle – the circadian rhythm and the homeostatic sleep drive.
The Homeostatic sleep drive is also called sleep pressure, which increases during awake times and decreases during sleep.
The circadian rhythm typically regulates bedtime by three months, but it doesn’t reach full maturity until about six months. As a result, while older babies and toddlers’ sleep habits are also controlled by their internal clocks, very young babies’ sleep patterns are mostly influenced by sleep pressure.
A 6-month-old, for example, needs 12 to 15 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, or around 10 to 12 hours at night and 3 to 5 hours during the day split into 2 or 3 naps.
Baby waking up too early: Why is my baby waking up so early?
Photo by Ivone De Melo
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Early bedtime schedule
First, we see this in children who follow a regular sleeping pattern but rise early for everything else. If your child, for example, can only sleep for 11 hours at night and bedtime is at 6:00 PM, they will wake up at 5:00 AM. In this situation, wanting to move the wake-up time would require changing the entire schedule to a later hour or more.
Second, we also see that early bedtimes cause issues when the last (or final) nap is too close to bedtime. This leads to insufficient sleep pressure, which may cause less sleep.
On the other hand, sleeping in might also help you wake up early. Being overtired at bedtime is one of the most common reasons why kids wake up early the next morning.
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Hungry baby
When your baby is hungry, falling asleep again is difficult. Baby waking up too early is caused by eating dinner too early or if your child has been weaned but isn’t eating enough during the day. They may then be uncomfortable going without eating during the night.
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Environment
Light exposure is a significant factor in typical situations where the baby is waking up early. It is essential to keep it very dark until the appropriate wake-up hour to prevent the baby from waking up too early. The first light of the day sets our internal clocks.
Kids can also wake up too early due to noises in the house or neighborhood.
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Sleep Associations
Babies who are fed sang or rocked to sleep at bedtime will likely cry out for their parents when they awake.
Since the sleep pressure that existed before going to bed does not exist after they wake up, it might be quite difficult to fall asleep again.
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Developmental leaps and growth spurts
Why is the baby waking up early? Your infant is growing more swiftly than at any other time in their life, both physically and mentally.
Yes, a lot of sleep is required for this, but these developmental leaps may also impact your baby’s sleep. After learning to roll over, there can be a brief sleep relapse.
Although this sleep regression might be startling, especially if you are sleep-training, it is a tremendous accomplishment that should be celebrated!
Moreover, your baby may occasionally wake up suddenly and hungry even after consistently sleeping through the night without requiring a feeding.
They might be going through this because of their rapid growth. Having said that, growth spurts are completely normal, and your kid will soon return to a regular sleep routine. Growth spurts typically last a few days.
How to stop a baby from waking up early?
1. Figure out why your child is waking up too early
It’s important for moms and dads to first figure out why their child is waking up too early. Maybe they’re hearing animals outside, or perhaps someone in your house has an alarm that’s way too loud.
Finding out the reason why your baby wakes up too early is important in helping fix the problem.
2. Change your baby’s bedtime
Surprisingly, if your child sleeps too late, then they might wake up too early in the morning. Try moving your child’s bedtime about 20 minutes earlier, and see if that makes a difference. You can try moving it in 20-minute increments until your child finally stops waking up too early.
You may assist rule out issues with sleep pressure by planning your child’s sleep routine around age-appropriate waking times. Your child’s age must be considered when deciding how often and long to let them sleep.
3. Do sleep training
Photo by Marcin Jozwiak
By the time they are 6 months old, most babies can naturally learn to fall asleep on their own and can sleep through the night without their parents unless they are hungry.
How to stop the baby from waking up early? You can use sleep training to help your child develop independent sleeping habits if they are older than six months and wake up too early.
4. Naps are also a factor
Babies who take short naps, or a lot of naps throughout the day would find it hard to sleep at night, which can subsequently cause them to wake up earlier than usual.
5. Just wait for them to get back to sleep
If your child wakes up too early, and they’re not really crying or doing anything else, you can simply leave them alone in their crib. They’ll usually fall asleep soon after without any problems. It’s also a good way for them to learn how to fall asleep all by themselves.
6. Keep their room dim during sleep time
Studies have shown that young toddlers are particularly vulnerable to high light exposure because light regulates our circadian rhythms. Because bright lights reduce melatonin production, exposing children to strong light in the evening can mess up their overall sleep schedule.
Whether or not your child gets enough sleep, it’s important to keep the room relatively dark in the morning to prevent the early waking cycle. Block sunlight with blackout shades, and leave the lights off until the time you want them to wake up.
7. Use white noise
How do stop the baby from waking up early? An effective way to drown out any household or outdoor noises that might be keeping your child up in the early morning is to have a steady background noise source.
White noise can be used throughout the night to help families with many children or who live in noisy areas.