Cant Sleep past 6 AM

Hi A.,
My advice is about the same as most the other moms. I also have an early riser. He'll be 5 next week but he has always been a morning person. He gets up before 6:00 every day. He does have his own clock by his bed & the rule is he cannot come out of his room before 6:00 (we have a 9 month old who is doing the same wake up early routine only he likes to be up before 5:00). If he comes out earlier, he has to go to bed at 6:00pm. Otherwise he goes to bed at 7:00. We've tried keeping him up later & he still wakes early. We've tried putting him to bed earlier & he still gets up at the same time so I haven't found anything to help with more sleep.
T.
p.s. My pediatrician did say that sometimes children learn their sleep patterns while in the womb. I believed it with this child because when I was pregnant I had to be up for work at 4:00am. But now I have a 9 month old that still insists on getting up early & I slept in with him so I don't know how true it can be.

Put her to bed at 7. The earlier kids go to bed at night the later they will sleep in the morning. Sounds like it would be the opposite, but it works. My young cousin goes to bed by 6:30 pm and sleeps until 7:30 am. He's 4. So I would try putting her to bed a lot earlier. Make it gradual, too, because it probably won't work to just start putting her to bed at 7 all of a sudden. Move it up 15 minutes every 3-4 nights. After a couple weeks she should be sleeping a lot better! :) Hope that helps.

Welcome to my world! My daughter is the same way - bed at 8:00 - 8:30 and up at 6:00. I can set my clock by her. On a rare occasion, she'll sleep until 7 am. The only solution is for you to go to bed earlier and continue doing what you're doing.

Sorry, but I had two like this and you may just have to wait until they outgrow it, mine were around 6 when it finally happened. The only thing I found that helped was to make them stay in their bed (except to go to the bathroom) until an alarm went off. They could read or play quietly, but had to stay put until a certain time. Good luck!

What about having her stay in her room and play or draw or etc. until at least 7:00? Tell her she can get up and be quiet, but she must stay in her room so that Mommy can get a little bit of sleep.
I hope you find a solution!!
M.

My daughter has been like this for years, and I am NOT an early riser. Only lately, at age 7, will she sometimes sleep later. We arranged for her to be able to feed herself in the mornings. We put all the things she needed in places she could reach to have a bowl of cereal. We assigned one low drawer for bowls, her spoons, cups, etc. We made space in a lower cabinet for a few cereal boxes and we made sure the milk (or in our case rice "milk") was in a child size pourable container on a shelf she could reach in the refrigerator.

The other thing we do is similar to you, but we did it during the week. We would set her up to watch pbs-kids programs which are on early in the morning on weekdays, for 1-2 shows (30 - 60 minutes).

Another thing you could try is putting out activities for her to do when she wakes up, since she is likely not reading alone yet. You could use fun activity books - like ones you might use in the car on road trips - phonics, early math, dot-to-dot,etc. These would keep her busy but not make a mess like an art project would.

We are actually grateful for her being an early riser now because she has to get on the school bus at 7:05 am!

Good luck,
R.

My daughter does this as well and we have a rule that she can't come out till 8, she plays in her room with her toys but she knows she can't come out till 8. If she comes in we tell her it is not 8 oclock yet and send her back. We do allow her to go potty any time she needs to but then back to her room. It takes some time for them to get the hang of it but gentle reenforcement and consistancy work magic and maybe you can get a little sleep!

Maybe try putting a fan outside her door to give her some white noise. That's what I do with my boys.

I'm sorry. That is very tiring. When my kids were going through this phase I tried giving them a little more physical activity during the day. During the winter this is little harder to do because we are stuck inside more so I think that kids need a little more to wear them out enough to sleep well. Some ideas I tried was more tickle time, doing exercises such as jumping jacks etc. (the kids love this and it gives me a work out too) and tag (within limits when playing indoors). Good luck.

You are doing all you can do, she has an internal clock and nothing you do will change that, as she gets older it will start to lenghten, but all you can do is wait. Half of mine are the same way, my 16 1/2 month old is the same way at the moment and my 3 year old doesn't sleep past 7 a.m. All of mine have done it to different degrees and around 7 or 8 they have learned to sleep in later, sorry I couldn't be more helpfull, but we can't stop mother nature :).

I had to set an alarm clock (actually the radio) to go off for my 4 year old. When it did, she knew she could come out of her room. She has crayons, books, and small dolls next to her bed in a bed caddy (hangs off the side of her bed) that she is allowed to play with when she wakes up and mommy and daddy are not.
She will contently play in bed when she wakes up. I should note that after a couple of months of this, she would still wake up at 5:30ish but would lay in bed and often times fall back asleep until 7. But she loves this morning time now!

I read somewere once about drawing a clock that says the same time as you want her to get up. Then you set it next to the real clock, and tell her when they match she can get up.

I like the alarm clock idea someone mentioned...note to self.

She should be aloud to come out to potty.

Hi A., I would try putting your daughter to sleep a little earlier. Sometimes the earlier bedtime makes it easier to sleep longer.

I have a friend (also a part of this forum so she might respond as well) whose son always got up at 5am. They gave him a big digital clock and said basically it doesn't matter what time you wake up, you cannot make noise or come out of your room until the first number says 6. (or 7, or whatever). Since she's five, she's plenty old enough to read the first number on the clock and so that may work. She can just read books or play in her room until the time you dictate. If she's not getting any interation with anyone, she may realize she's still tired and go back to sleep! Good luck!

I did the drawing of the clock with both of my children.I drew 7:00 on a piece of tape and stuck it to the real clock, and told them they couldn't get out of bed until then. This worked great. After a while of doing this, they began to sleep until 7:00am:)

Sounds like she has an internal clock. Can't do anythign to change that :-) I have one too My eyes pop open at 6am every morning.

My 5yr old knows how to tell time, which is how we deal with his 5am internal clock. We put a clock on his dresser so he knows what time it is and what time he can start being loud.

If they doesn't work for you...maybe you should go to bed earlier?

My daughter is also an early riser morning person and I am not! When she was around 5, I told her that she needs to hang out quietly watching tv or other quiet things until at least 7 and then she can come and wake me. I didn't feel bad about it because she seemed to be ok with it. It worked great. I just explained that mommy needs a little more sleep because I stay up later.

Buy some single serving cereals and milks, put a bowl and spoon out on the counter at night and teach her how to make herself a bowl of cereal and maybe leave a cartoon movie cued up in the DVD player so she can turn it on. This worked for my friend, who had a similar problem with her son. After trying everything to get him to sleep later, she finally just showed him how to make his own breakfast she she could get some sleep, also, he liked it because it made him feel more grown up.

This may sound weird, but tey putting her to bed a little earlier. I know people who have said if they keep their child up later then wake up earlier. Good luck.