Whether your early-riser is a wee babe or a great big toddler, one thing is certain: early waking is rough! The timing of your baby or toddler’s morning wake-up sets the tone for the rest of the day, AND it sets the pace for the day’s sleep and feeding schedule. That means a way-too-early wake-up call can wreak havoc on what could have otherwise been a perfectly fine day.
Clearly, early rising is a problem that needs fixing!
What Is “Waking Up Too Early”, Anyway?
Now, remember that ‘early’ is a relative term – for some parents, a 5:00 wake-up time is ideal, while for others, anything before 8:30 is considered “way too early!” That’s why it’s a good idea to establish an objective “waking too early” standard against which you can judge your situation.
As a rule of thumb, if your child’s wake-up time is after 6 a.m. and he or she is waking up fairly happy and refreshed, then you likely don’t have an early waking problem on your hands. Take a good, hard look at your child’s wake-up time – is it after 6 a.m.? Also, think about how your child wakes up – is she happy and energized? If your child is waking at or after 6 a.m. and seems refreshed and ready to tackle the day, then (as much as it may pain you to hear this!) you probably don’t have an early rising problem. A wake-up time of 6:00 or later is reasonable and developmentally appropriate for most babies and toddlers, provided they are getting adequate nighttime and nap time sleep.
That said, if your child is waking before 6 a.m., and/or seems cranky and tired first thing in the morning, then you likely do have an early-rising issue on your hands.
Why Your Baby Is Waking Up Too Early
Occasional early waking can be caused by a variety of factors, including….
- ….illness.
- ….teething.
- ….traveling (and sleeping in an unfamiliar setting).
- ….sleep regressions.
- ….potty training (for toddlers).
Honestly, occasional and intermittent early waking is nothing to worry much about; if you can trace the cause to something temporary, then simply work on getting back on track as soon as you can.
However, if your baby regularly rises before the sun, then it’s likely you have a scheduling problem to solve.
Two Common Causes of Waking Up Too Early (And What To Do About It)
- Nap Timing: It may be that either the timing of your child’s naps are off, or the length of the naps themselves is off. If your child’s nap schedule builds in too much awake-time during the day, for instance, then your child may be overtired at bedtime and is more likely to sleep poorly and wake too early. What’s more, if your child’s naps are too short, then that can also cause overtiredness.
- Bedtime Timing: Contrary to what you might guess, keeping a baby up late at bedtime will not mean a later morning wake-up time! Sleep begets sleep, so a baby who goes to bed early is more likely to sleep well and wake at a decent hour. That said, though, older toddlers who still take an afternoon nap may actually benefit from a later bedtime. If you put a toddler to bed early, he may not be tired enough for sleep and may instead bounce around his bed for hours before he finally falls asleep.
Baby Waking Up Too Early? Here’s How To Fix It
So your baby is more than just an early bird. At this point, you probably know what’s causing the early waking….but how are you supposed to fix it? Good question!
First, you’ll want to start treating your child’s early-morning wake-up calls as night wakings, and not “start-of-the-morning” wakings. That means that while it’s fine to get up and offer your baby comfort and reassurance, try not to get your baby up for the day. If you do, you’re merely reinforcing that this early-morning waking is fine and normal and part of the regular routine. Do this for a week or so, and your problem may solve itself.
If, after a week of treating early wakings as night wakings, your child is still too much of an early bird, then begin making schedule adjustments. Do you need to work in an extra nap during the day? Maybe you need to shift the timing of any naps, so that your child has less awake time during the day? Consider moving bedtime earlier, or possibly later? Do you need to move feedings so that they happen closer to naps and bedtime? Perhaps you need to offer a bedtime snack? Gradually make these schedule adjustments, while still treating any early wakings as night wakings.
Generally, following these steps will resolve most early waking problems. If you’re still struggling, however, you may need a more expert approach to solving your problem.
For more early-waking help, check out our members-only e-book, Shift Your Child’s Schedule. It includes helpful tips designed to shift your child’s schedule either forward or backward so as to fix early- or late-waking problems. Members enjoy unlimited access to this e-book at no additional cost.
More Help From The Baby Sleep Site®
Early waking can be a tough habit to break. Fortunately, we can help! Connect with one of our expert consultants today; she’ll craft a Personalized Sleep Plan® just for your baby, walk you through every step of sleep coaching and schedule-making, and provide detailed answers to your most pressing sleep training questions.
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Gina Johansen says
My 18 month old wakes between 4:45-5:30 everyday. It’s been happening for around 2 months now. I let her cry it out for awhile but she shares a room with her 3 year old sister. I feel stuck in my schedule since I stay home with both children and moving around the little one’s sleep times impacts the older one. Her bedtime is 7:30 (older sleeps at 8) and nap is from 12:30-3:30ish. Any blaring issues that you see that may cause the early wake time? She’s otherwise a great sleeper. Although she usually wakes up upset. Any help is appreciated.
Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site says
Hi @Gina – Thank you for writing to us! 4:45am is an EARLY wake up time! Some babies/toddlers do have a tendency to wake early, but most can be helped to sleep a bit longer too! Have you tried an earlier bedtime to get her caught up on sleep? It may actually help the early wakings! here is a link to an article and schedule that may help:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/toddler-schedule/
Good luck Gina, and please contact us if things do not smooth out and you would like more assistance!
Rachel says
I appreciate this article, but unfortunately it doesn’t help my 3rd baby who is 10.5mo old. We’re giving him 2 good naps during the day (1hr-2.5hr each) and an “earlier” bedtime at 7pm and he still is waking at 5am everyday. We try to have at least a 2-3hr gap between last nap and bedtime. He wakes at least once a night when waking at 5am (usually close to 1am) but sometimes it’s every 2hrs for no reason. Since we have two other kids we can’t let him scream at night so we feed him to basically shut him up and help him fall asleep faster. We’ve tried stopping night feedings and he screams bloody murder and takes hours and hours to fall asleep (plus wakes others up). He’s never slept through the night since birth. My thoughts are since he should be getting around 14hrs of sleep and we want more night sleep than daytime sleep, to decrease nap lengths during the day to be a max of 2hrs total so he can focus on 12hrs at night. I’m at a loss though, because this article says the opposite of that yet it’s not working for us now.
Danielle says
Hi Rachel,
Thank you for visiting The Baby Sleep Site! I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling with night wakings. Based on your description, it sounds like you have a mix of sleep associations and maybe some scheduling issues going on, which may be affecting your son’s night sleep. We have an article series on sleep coaching at home that may be worth looking at, since you may need to move away from feeding to sleep at night, to help him learn to link his sleep cycles one his own. That series is here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/sleep-training-from-no-cry-to-cry-series-part-1/
We also have an article on weaning gently here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/weaning-affects-baby-sleep/
Since you’re dealing with a complex situation with the sleep association and early waking, and because you’re looking for a coaching method that’s low-cry and won’t wake everyone up, I would really recommend looking at our consultation packages here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/
Your situation is exactly the type where a consultant can offer a lot of support, and help you decide what order to work on sleep issues, make sure the schedule is solid, and make adjustments to the plan as you go.
I hope this helps, but please let us know if you have questions!
Beata Di Giovanni says
My baby is going to be 8months next week, still having 2-3naps a day, going bed 18.30-19.00 each night wakes up few times at night for dummy and once to eat, dot at 5am awake for a day, how to extend it till 6am?
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Beata Di Giovanni, thanks for visiting! I’m sorry you’ve been struggling with early wake ups from your little one. As the article mentions, early waking can often be the result of a schedule issue (even if it’s small) so here is a link to a sample schedule for an 8 month old: https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/8-month-old-baby-schedule/
If you find you are still struggling with the early wake ups, let us know! We have several other resources that may help. Please feel free to contact us directly anytime at [email protected] and we can help you more from there. Hang in there!
Michelle says
My 6 month old normally wakes for the day around 7am. However in the last few weeks he has gradually been moving his wake up time earlier and earlier each morning. He now wakes at around 5:30 or 5:45 and he is quite cranky so I know that he is not ready to be up for the day. He falls asleep consistently each night between 7:30 and 8:00 in his crib by himself. Then he normally sleeps through the night without waking to feed. My dilemma is that I know when he is waking at 5:30 that he is hungry so I don’t want to just let him cry. So what I have been doing is going in and treating it as a night waking – keeping the lights off, feeding him, and putting him right back in his crib. He normally fusses off and on then until 6:45 or 7:00. My question is if he finally falls asleep at 7:00 what am I to do? Since that is his usual wake up time do I go in and get him up for the day? Or do I let him sleep till 7:30? I have been just letting him sleep until whenever he wakes up. The problem is then it throws the whole day’s schedule and routine off. I would like to work on getting him into more of a consistent napping schedule but can’t quite tackle that until I have helped him establish a consistent wake up time. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks so much!
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Michelle, thanks for writing to us! I am sorry you’ve been struggling with some scheduling issues for your little one. I think you are right in giving him that one feeding to get him through, rather than letting him start his day, but it’s probably difficult for him to settle back down since he’s so close to the morning. Here is a link to an article with a few different tips and instances to wake up your baby: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/should-you-wake-a-sleeping-baby/
Getting a schedule in order is not directly one of them, but it is implied in the first point. If you find you need more help and things don’t smooth out soon, especially as you start to get on a nap schedule with him, then let us know and we can definitely help! I’m confident our sleep consultants would be able to work through this with you so you can find the perfect schedule that works for your little guy and family.
I hope this helps!
Liz says
Due to travel, holidays and daycare colds, my husband and I have developed the ‘bad’ habit of bringing our 14 month old into bed to when she wakes up – she nurses and will fall back asleep. It’s usually around 6/6:30am, but the last few days have been much earlier – about 5. She’s in the process of going down to one nap, seemingly always teething, and is typically a pretty poor napper despite our best efforts.
I’d like this to stop! Should I go in and nurse her and then leave her again, or just leave her? (I’d also like to stop nursing but that’s another story.) We’re okay with letting her cry if it will fix this.
Neosha says
@Liz – Thank you for reading and for sharing with us. Some form of sleep coaching for your little girl can definitely work to break a sleep association such as co-sleeping (if it’s undesired) or nursing to sleep. “Cry it out” is one that may work if it works for your family. If you’d like a personalized plan of action or more support as you work to help her sleep more independently and wean from night feeding, please consider connecting with one of our sleep consultants here:https://www.babysleepsite.com/about or joining hundreds of other families in our Members Area, which you can read about here:https://www.babysleepsite.com/diy/ Thank you again for commenting – please keep reading!
Perla Desjardins says
Hello Janelle,
I have an 11 week old boy. His nights are all over the place and I never know when he will wake up although his routine has been the same since 6 weeks old. Bath, massage, pjays, swAddle and bottle. He puts himself to sleep which is great. He went through a few days where he did 7-3 am but that didn’t last
I’ve been having trouble with him waking up at 5:00 am and not settling, I sooth him back to sleep but it only takes 15 mins until he’s up again and then try and sooth again and he just doesn’t seem to ever want to go back to sleep. HELP!
His day naps are terrible be only does 20 mins unless I’m out and about and he’s in his car seat.
Neosha says
@Perla – Thank you for reading and for sharing. We’re so sorry to hear that your little guy’s sleep has been so tough lately – we know how exhausting that is for you both. Especially when he starts waking up too early! It can be a bit difficult to get his sleep on a pretty set schedule until he gets a bit older, but you can check out this article which specifically discusses getting your 11 week old to sleep better: https://www.babysleepsite.com/how-to-get-my-baby-to-sleep/how-to-get-my-11-12-or-13-week-old-to-sleep/ I hope it helps, Perla. Hang in there!
Stephanie says
My baby boy is 6 months turning 7 months in 6 days. Ever since he was 3 months he’s always slept through the night with no feedings. Since a month ago he’s been struggling through the night waking up or rolling over stuff like that. I don’t if that’s what’s making him have bad sleeping at night. He wakes up 5 am all happy like it’s good but it’s too early!! Sometimes he’ll even wake up between 2-4 am. As long as I give him a bottle he’ll go back to sleep. His schedule consist of 11am-1pm first nap, 3-5pm second nap and sometimes not all the time but if he’s super cranky I’ll give him a 15-30 min nap between 7-8 pm. And then he gets a bottle at 9-930 and is knocked out. What am I doing wrong? Are his naps to long… he’s also started in solids since he was 4 month old. Please help me !!
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Stephanie, thanks for writing to us. I’m sorry your son’s sleep has been difficult recently. I know that can be frustrating, especially when you got use to sleeping good again! At this age it is still normal to need 1-2 nighttime feedings, and since they do so much growing in the early months, he may just be going through a growth spurt and need a little more. Here is a link to a sample 7 month schedule so you can take a look and decide if you need to make any changes: https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/7-month-old-baby-schedule/
You’ll notice our days start and end around 7am/7pm in our sample schedules and I know that is different than what you are currently doing. You can certainly adjust the times to reflect the bed time you are currently doing, but we do find many babies do better going to sleep closer to 6:30/7 (and then having the day start about 12 hours after). I know that isn’t the ideal wake up time, but if with doing other things don’t fix the problem, you may consider bringing his bedtime back if your schedule allows and see how that works.
If you need more help, please let us know! We have a ton of resources that go deeper than our sample schedules and blog articles should you need more help. Hang in there!
Jillian says
My daughter is a little over 9 months and is consistently waking up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 AM no matter what we do. She has two pretty decent naps a day (one from 9-10/1030 and the other from 1-2:30/3). When she wakes (unless she is sick or is completely inconsolable) we leave her till 6/6:30. Sometimes she gets back to sleep, sometime she doesn’t and just cries/fusses/plays till we come in. This has been going on like this for months!!! (Note she generally sleeps through night till this time) She is usually down for bed anywhere between 6:30/7PM every night. She has a two year old brother who is a champion sleeping and sleeps 7/7:30PM-7/7:30AM. We find ourselves going to bed at 8PM because we know no matter what day it is we will be up at 5:30 with our daughter. Help!!! Is this fixable or are we destined To just deal with our little early riser. We both work full time so this has been brutal.
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Jillian, thanks for writing to us. I’m so sorry to hear you’ve been struggling with such early wake up calls from your daughter! It sounds like you’ve tried a lot, but I did want to send the link for a sample 9 month schedule: https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/9-month-old-baby-schedule/
One thing the article mentions is that while some babies are able to sleep through the night at 9 months, others do better with one feeding sometime in the 4-5 range to help them power through until morning. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried feeding her, but this was a similar situation to us (also with the older brother that was the best sleeper ever, ha!) and that helped. It was still exhausting to have to do a feeding, but it was a better trade for me since my husband and I could at least switch off. Good luck! If this doesn’t help and you need more advise, let us know. I’m confident our sleep consultants could help you trouble shoot what’s going on, so if you’re interested in a more hands on approach with us, please contact us directly at [email protected] and we can help with the next steps. Hang in there!
Peter says
Hi. Our 9 month old has always been a poor sleeper. Naps usually are max of 30 minutes no matter what we do. We get the odd long nap of 2 hours but very very rare. We start bed routine around 6.15 and have her in bed before 7. She wakes pretty much ever two hours through the night.
How can we help her nap better? She wakes from naps cranky and rubbing eyes. She will likely resist going back down again straight away however. Any help much appreciated. Thanks
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Peter, thanks for writing to us. I am so sorry to hear you’ve been struggling with naps and frequent wake ups from your daughter at night. They definitely play in together and we would love to help. We have a free guide that can help give you a starting point for helping improve her naps: https://www.babysleepsite.com/free-baby-nap-guide/
I do think if you are still struggling with the short naps and frequent wake ups, that you may find a personalized email consultation extremely beneficial to getting your sleep back. Here is a link to read more about our consulting services where you can work with a sleep consultant to create a plan to get both naps longer and nighttime stretches longer (with the goal of a full nights sleep). Here is the link to read more: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/
If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us directly at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to talk through all the options. Hang in there!
Janelle Casanave says
My LO has a pretty solid schedule, but waking up at 5am! I try to leave her in her crib until 6am, but at some point between 5-6am she typical has a poo! Do I just change her and out her back in? Also her first nap of the day is 9am-11am, second 1-2ish, 3rd 4-4:30. Is this too much sleep?
Janelle Reid says
Hi @Janelle Casanave, nice name! 🙂
Thanks for visiting the Baby Sleep Site, but I am sorry you’re struggling with your little one’s early waking! Here is a link to a sample schedule so you can find the link to the age of your child and see how much sleep is appropriate and compare your current schedule to see if you can find anything to tweak to help: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-feeding-schedules/
I hope this helps! If you need more information and help with this, let us know! You can contact us directly anytime at [email protected]