Does your baby or toddler get up early in the morning? Rest assured, there are solutions to get a few more minutes of sleep. Here are four tips for waking up later in the morning.
What is meant by "getting up early" is of course entirely subjective. For some parents, seven in the morning is already early, while others can get up at five without problem. As for children, getting up early is not a problem. It is only when this alarm clock puts them to the test.
So, it is important to know first if the child gets up too early. You can ask yourself questions like "is he in good shape after waking up?", "Will he start his day when he is well rested?". If the little ones still seem tired when they wake up and may even be cranky, this may indicate that they are not getting enough sleep.
Very often, babies wake up earlier than most parents would like: if the child wakes up at six in the morning, it is however considered that it is a waking hour which corresponds to the development of babies and all -small. So, if your little ones get up in the morning with the banana, shine like the sun and are impatient to start the day, you probably don't have a problem with waking up. At least not on your baby's side.
However, if you suspect your child is getting up too early and not getting enough sleep, we have a few simple tips and tricks for you to help prolong their (and your) sleep.
1. Don't skip the nap
Desperate to see their child get up early, many parents skip a nap at one time or another, sometimes all the time. They hope their cherubim will make up for the sleep they lost during the night. However, it doesn't work that way. On the contrary, children who are too tired have more difficulty falling asleep and wake up earlier. A daily nap can help them sleep better and longer at night.
Of course, the age of the children must be taken into account. The older they get, the less sleep they need during the day. Babies four to twelve months old sleep up to four hours a day, while babies twelve to twenty-four months old only need two to three hours. From two years old, one to two hours of nap is enough.
2. Send him to bed early
Many parents try to delay the bedtime of their little ones because they think they will sleep longer the next morning … wrongly. Overworked children sleep less and less – and, moreover, are also in a less good mood. After all, we are all cranky when we are tired.
It may therefore be useful to advance bedtime a little. Try to send your little ones to bed 20 minutes earlier. If this works, you can advance another 20 minutes – until you have found the ideal bedtime for your child.
3. Don't let him get up
When parents take their little one out of bed in the morning and interact with him, they show that they get up at the same time as him. The child then understands that this is a correct time to get up and that the day can start. If he wakes up too early, it can be useful to take care of him as if he had gotten up in the middle of the night. You can calm him down, but don't play with him yet, speak in a low voice and don't turn on bright light.
This will give your child the opportunity to go back to sleep. Within a week, your problem could be solved on its own.
4. Understand what can disturb your sleep
Waking up early is not a voluntary act for all children. Certain factors can also disturb their sleep. So try to understand what could prevent him from sleeping, to find the source of the problem.
There may be too much light in the room in the morning and you may need to hang a curtain or blind. There may be a bird's nest near his room and the sounds wake up your baby. In this case, constant background noise (white noise type) could contribute to drowning out the noise. Sometimes the solution to a sleep problem can actually be quite simple.
Tips to help baby sleep through the night
With younger children, it is not getting up too early that is a problem, but rather too hectic nights. The constant awakening gets on the parents' nerves. During the first weeks, rest assured, it's completely normal. Babies must first learn that there is day and night. You can help your little ones step by step and work together smoothly so that one day they can actually sleep through the night.
Remember that each child has their own pace. Stay calm and give him the time he needs.
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