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Home › Articles › Sleep Issues › The Early Bird: Waking up Too Early

The Early Bird: Waking up Too Early

An Excerpt From The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers & Preschoolers (McGraw-Hill, 2005)

By Elizabeth Pantley

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Other Reasons Why Your Child May Be Waking up Early
If you've added up your child's sleep hours and have determined that an excess of sleep isn't the cause of early awakening you should be able to add more sleep time in the early morning. Before we get into the general tips for encouraging longer sleep, it may help to figure out why your child wakes up early, and how to address those issues. Here are a few things that might be waking her up:

  • Light. Daylight, street lights or house lights can cause a light sleeper to wake up.
    Solution: Cover the windows, keep the room dark.
  • Noise. Some children are easily roused when they hear voices, traffic, pets, plumbing sounds or neighbors.
    Solution: Use a radio set to a classical music or talk show station, or a white-noise machine to mask outside noises. You can set it like an alarm to go off on a quiet volume about an hour before your child's typical awakening time so that other noises don't rouse her. (Don't worry – if you are using white noise or keeping the volume low this won't wake her.) Another option, if you can, is changing your child's sleeping place to a quieter room.
  • Nature calls? Perhaps her diaper, training pants or Pull-ups are wet, or she has to use the bathroom.
    Solution: Give your child less liquid in the hour or two before bed. Provide several pre-bedtime potty visits. Use diaper doublers orextra-thick nighttime diapers. If she's totally potty-trained, teach her how to use the bathroom by herself during the night and leave a nightlight on in the hallway. She may not even realize that she's able to do this on her own if she never has!

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