Today’s tip is inspired by Erica on my Facebook Page. She writes:
“I saw you in a group session in Sept. and you changed our lives for the better since! But lately my 7mos old is waking in the 6am hour. He was getting up around 7am since 3mos old. How do I get him back to 7am?”
Hello wonderful Erica! Thank you for the update!
This is a TOUGH one. You can set bed times and nap times but unfortunately, in my experience you can’t set wake up times after 6 am. If they are waking prior to 6 am, yes, you can change that. Please see my early wakes guide if that ever happens in the future. Early Wakings
It is normal for babies and children to wake up sometime between 6 am and 7 am.
Over the years, I have noticed the same with my own two test subjects. They are now 4 years old and 6 years old. There will be weeks and even months where they will wake up closer to 6 and others closer or even after 7 am. They now know that I am a really happy Mom when it is number 7 on the clock when they crawl into my bed for snuggles in the morning!
In general, what can you do to help promote a later wake up time in the morning?
- DARK DARK DARK bedroom – can’t stress this enough
- Better sleep by day – the more they sleep, the more they sleep! (Until somewhere between age 2 & 4
- Earlier bedtime – I sure did notice (especially as babies and toddlers) the closer to 8 pm I got, the EARLIER my kids would wake up
- Take a look at her average night time sleep duration. If for example, she is ALWAYS 11 hours, then you will want an 8 pm bedtime so that she can last to 7 am. Now having said that, you don’t want to jump from 7 pm to 8 pm in one night. Gradually move her bedtime by 15 minutes later every 3 nights and then give it a good month for her little system to adjust to the change. If she starts waking even earlier on less sleep, then dial back her bedtime.