5 Solutions to Early Morning Wakings
You’re drained, you’re frustrated, and feeling like, “Is this ever going to work???” “AM I GOING TO WAKE UP AT 4AM FOREVER???!!” “Maybe this is just our new life?!?”
Hang on, we got you. Read on to learn 5 Ways to Remediate Early Morning Wakings. This doesn’t have to be your new life and it DOES work. (Plus a secret 6th one that is for last resort purposes.)
First, let’s get into it and talk about…
What is an early morning waking?
An early morning waking is technically any waking between 4-6am, often times where the child does not go back to sleep.
Understand the Causes of Early Morning Wakings
The cause of early morning wakings is usually a combination of things. First, identifying what those causes might be is the first step to solving them!
First nap is too early
Too much or too little day sleep
Environmental disturbances
Too late or too early bedtime
Lingering Sleep Associations
Hunger
Solution 1:
Balance Sleep Pressure
How To Do It?
1. Examine how much time the child is awake between naps (wake windows) and how much sleep the child is getting during the day.
Begin to log the child’s sleep. There are many ways to do so, including using apps, spreadsheets, or your traditional paper and pen.
Ensure the child’s magic routine includes appropriate wake times - Are parents sticking with that routine consistently?
Add up the amount of time the child has slept during the daytime hours. Does it need to be reduced?
2. Focus on the last wake window of the day.
Ensure the child is not awake too long before bed. In other words, work towards not exceeding the maximum wake window for the child between their last nap wake-up and when you put them in their bed at bedtime.
Ensure the child is getting an adequate awake time before bedtime. In other words, work toward meeting the maximum wake window for the child between their last nap wake-up and when you put them in bed for the night.
3. Focus on the first wake window of the day. Early morning wake-ups can be perpetuated if the first nap of the day is too close to when the child started his/her day in the morning.
Ensure the child is reaching the minimum wake window between when he/she wakes up in the morning and he/she goes down for nap 1.
4. Help the child meet the minimum, but not exceed the maximum, recommended daytime sleep total.
If the child is not meeting the minimum daytime sleep total, you have two options:
Help the child extend their naps.
Offer an additional nap at the end of the day to help get the child to that minimum daytime sleep.
The last nap of the day, regardless of how many naps the child is taking, should be the shortest of the day.
Cap the nap, or wake the child, once he/she has reached the maximum daytime sleep goal.
How Long to Do It?
You never have to stop logging the child’s sleep! Making observations on the child’s sleep patterns can help you in countless ways including, but not limited to, understanding when to transition down to fewer naps and keeping the sleep pressure balanced.
Once you have begun to meet the child’s daytime sleep goals and are staying within the age-appropriate wake windows throughout the day, stay consistent! Give the child 3 - 4 full days before expecting to see an improvement in their early morning wake-ups!
Solution 2:
Finding The Right Bedtime
What's the big deal about bedtime?
Children who are regularly waking up too early in the morning are frequently overtired, or not getting adequate total sleep in a 24-hour period. A good bedtime also goes back to finding a balanced sleep pressure! Most children under the age of 5 years old do best with keeping to an 11 - 12-hour set nighttime, with a consistent bedtime between 6pm - 8pm. If the child's bedtime is too late, that can perpetuate an overtired cycle, as well as the early morning wakings. Finding the child's ideal bedtime is often the key to remediating early morning wakings.
How do I know whether to move up the bedtime or to push out the bedtime first?
If the child's nighttime (bedtime to targeted morning wake time) is less than 11 hours, it is time to move up bedtime. Additionally, if the child is older than 8 weeks and bedtime is later than 8pm, it also may be time to move up the bedtime. Only attempt to improve early morning wakings by moving out the bedtime AFTER you have tried moving the bedtime up for the recommended amount of time.
Move the child’s bedtime up by 15-30 mins
OR
Move the child’s bedtime out by 15-30 mins
How to do it?
Move the child’s typical bedtime up, or earlier, by 15 minutes. For example, if the child’s bedtime is 7:00pm, change the bedtime to 6:45pm.
Stay consistent with your morning wake-up time. For example, keep a consistent time in which you start the child’s day, even if he/she wakes up before that desired time.
Maintain the full wake window before this new bedtime. Cap, or shorten, the child’s last nap to help them have adequate awake time prior to the earlier bedtime.
You do not need to make this change gradually.
2. If the child’s early morning wake-ups have not improved with an earlier bedtime, move the child’s typical bedtime back or later by 15-30 minutes from the original bedtime time. For example, if the child’s bedtime is 7:00 pm, begin to work towards a 7:15-7:30 pm bedtime.
Make this change gradually over one week! Move the bedtime later by just 10 minutes every three days until the new bedtime has reached 30 minutes later than usual.
Days 1 - 3: Add 10 minutes to the original bedtime time.
Example: 7:00pm bedtime now becomes 7:10pm bedtime
Days 4 - 6: Add 20 minutes to the original bedtime time.
Example: 7:00pm bedtime now becomes 7:20pm bedtime
Day 7: Move to a full 30 minutes later bedtime.
Example: 7:00pm bedtime now becomes 7:30pm bedtime
How Long to Do it?
Stay consistent with the change you have made!
If you have moved the child’s bedtime earlier, allow at least 1 week before seeing improvement with the child’s early morning wake-ups.
If you have moved the child’s bedtime later, allow 1 week following Day 7 of making the change before seeing improvement with the child’s early morning wake-ups. In this case, you should not expect to see any remediation until 2 weeks from the time you began to adjust the bedtime later.
How Best to Prepare?
When adjusting a child’s bedtime to find the best bedtime for the child, it takes time and dedicated consistency for it to be successful. During this process of using this solution, it is best to plan your family’s schedule around targeted bedtime. Make that bedtime a non-negotiable for a couple of weeks.
Additionally, it is a great idea to examine your family’s overall nighttime routine. Are there other aspects of your night routine that need to be adjusted? With an earlier or later bedtime, frequently it is best to slightly adjust dinner time as well.
Get this far and already feel too overwhelmed to continue? Just give us a call! Schedule a FREE chat! Click below!
Solution 3:
Remove Environmental Disturbances
Does the environment really matter?
Yes! Outside of bedtime being too late, the other common reason for an early morning waking is the disturbance of sleep! This can be the morning sun peeking into the room, or a neighbor that consistently starts their car at 5 am for work. Making an effort to eliminate this small factor can be one of the easiest things you can do to help with your early morning wakings!
Create a dark environment
Reduce external noise
Check the temp!
How To Do It?
Create a DARK environment.
During the early morning hours, the child’s bedroom should not be any lighter than it is at midnight. Depending on the time of the year and your location, you may be surprised how much light can come into the bedroom during those early morning hours. Why is the dark environment important? Light causes a lowering of the body’s melatonin level, the hormone needed to fall asleep and stay asleep. Naturally, the body’s melatonin levels begin to decrease during the early morning hours. The dark environment greatly helps slow that process down. Light also causes a raising of your body’s cortisol levels, the hormone needed for your body to wake up. We want to ensure that melatonin levels are staying as high as possible and the cortisol levels are staying as low as possible.
Invest in some quality black out curtains or shades.
Use materials around your home to help keep the light out around windows: Tape, black trash bag, cardboard, etc.
2. Reduce external noise.
In the early morning hours, especially if you have some family members who need to get up for the day earlier, noise can contribute to the child’s early morning wakings.
Utilize a white noise, static, and/or rhythmic sound machine to drown out any external noise in the early morning hours.
Having a sound machine on is recommended all night!
Do not use other sounds, such as music or lullabies, to drown out external noise.
3. Examine the bedroom and child’s temperature!
Ideal room temperature for sleep is between 68℉ - 72℉
Naturally, the body’s internal temperature begins to drop just slightly in the early morning hours. If the child is not dressed appropriately, he/she can wake in the early morning hours if he/she is feeling a bit cold. Refer to the How to Dress Baby Reference (see appendix).
Solution 4:
Remove Sleep Associations
What is a sleep association?
A sleep association is anything external that you feel your baby needs to help go to sleep. Examples of standard sleep props are motion (rocking, bouncing, etc.), feeding to sleep, pacifier, patting or touch, or parent presence (yes! sometimes!). Sleep associations are NOT bad! However, where they become a challenge is when the sleep association has become a dependency, if the child cannot fall asleep without that sleep association, if the sleep prop is getting in the way of consolidated sleep, or the sleep association is no longer sustainable for the parent.
How do sleep association dependencies affect early morning wakings?
Being able to fall asleep without any sleep association dependencies, or completely independently, is one of the most successful solutions to early morning wakings. If the child does not yet have independent sleep habits, they may very well be waking in the early morning hours looking for that sleep prop to help them go back to sleep. However, if the child has solid independent sleep habits and routines, you will find that the child can go back to sleep on their own, even if that early morning wake-up occurs.
In this solution, examine if the child has any lingering sleep association dependencies that you can identify and then help remove or wean out.
Look into getting assistance for independent sleep
This is where we, your sleep consultants, come in! If you are struggling with early morning wakings, and if you have not begun to teach the child how to fall asleep and sleep independently, now is the time! Contact us and we will help you begin that process!
Do some detective work!
If the child is able to fall asleep independently, and you are struggling with early morning wakings, put your detective hat on! It is worthwhile to examine your bedtime routine to see if there are any old sleep associations that may still be lingering.
Adjust the order of your bedtime routine steps.
Move the child’s bedtime feed to the BEGINNING of your bedtime routine.
Feeding should conclude 15 - 20 minutes BEFORE actual bedtime.
How Long to Do it?
Once you have successfully removed any sleep association dependencies, allow 1 week before seeing early morning waking improvements.
How Best to Prepare?
Begin to write down the child’s bedtime routine, step-by-step. Writing down everything you do with the child before sleep will help you identify any possible sleep associations.
Solution 5:
Eliminate the Hunger Factor
Can the child still be waking from hunger?
No matter the age of the child, it is important to focus on the child getting consistent, full feedings and meals during the daytime hours. Ensuring that the child is staying awake for all feeding sessions will greatly assist in the child’s ability to have a full feeding. Helping the child consume the majority, or all, of the calories during the daytime hours will help set the child up for a successful night, as well as a manageable morning wake-up time.
Finding a way to troubleshoot this will depend on how the child is getting their calories today…
If the child is breastfed…
If the child is bottle-fed…
If the child already on solids…
Solution 6: The Last Resort
Wake to Sleep
Change Their Sleep Cycles
When should I try this solution?
**Only explore this solution if, and only if, you have attempted all other solution options consistently, for the recommended amount of time, and have not observed any improvement in the child’s early morning wake-up time. This solution should also be done consistently. As sleep consultants, this is always the very last resort we use with our own clients.
In this solution, you will essentially be briefly disrupting the child’s sleep mid-sleep cycle, to help the child fall into a new sleep cycle, which will result in a later wake-up time.
What is a sleep cycle?
A sleep cycle is made up of 4 stages of sleep. These stages include 2 light sleep stages, 1 stage of REM, and 1 stage of deep sleep. You and the child cycle through these sleep stages, and have multiple sleep cycles, through the nighttime hours.
Identify the child’s consistent morning waking
Wake them slightly
Allow them to find their way back to sleep
How To Do It
Go into the child’s bedroom 10 minutes before this early morning wake-up time. Very lightly arouse the child, but do not wake fully.
After completing step 1, quietly leave the room, not saying anything to the child.
Give the child some time to see if he/she falls back into a new sleep cycle. Once the child wakes a second time, and as long as it is 6:00am or later, you may start the day.
If the child then completely wakes up, proceed how you typically handle any nighttime wakings.
How Long to Do it?
When proceeding with this solution, you should wake to sleep, following the above steps, consistently for a full 7 mornings before seeing any success.
How Best to Prepare?
For the week prior to attempting this solution, begin to log the exact time the child is waking in the early morning hours. Observe if the child is waking up at a consistent time each morning. Logging prior to starting this solution is important because you will need to go in as close to 10 minutes before the average early morning waking time.
If you have a partner or spouse, it is a great idea to discuss who will be entering the child’s bedroom to lightly arouse the child. Many parents find it helpful to switch off mornings doing this strategy.
We got you!
Finding the best way to remediate your baby’s early morning waking can be overwhelming. And that’s why we’re here! We will guide you through this process and get you back on track with your sleep training process. We got you. :-) Book a FREE phone consultation to learn more!
Take care,
Jackie, Kaylee, & Nicole
