How to keep your early-riser sleeping

If your child is waking up before the crack of dawn every day (i.e. before 6 a.m. after a 7:30 bedtime), this checklist is a good starting place for solving the issue: 

• Offer them more food before bedtime to fill their tank a little more.

• Use blackout blinds; make sure the room is dark enough and that street lights aren't seeping in around the sides.

• Avoid night lights or light-up toys in the room. The perfect amount of light for a child’s room is to have a night light on in the hallway with their door left open just a crack. And cover any LED lights from devices in the room (humidifiers, monitors) with electrical tape.

• Put an extra layer on your child, so that they don’t become a little chilly at 5 a.m. when body temperatures tend to drop. If your child doesn’t move around a whole lot while they sleep, you could also slip a extra light blanket on them when you’re heading to bed. But keep the room temperature between 18 and 21 degrees C.

• Use a little white noise (placed away from your child’s bed) to help drown out early-morning birds, garbage trucks or snowplows rolling by, a heater kicking in or a parent getting up early for work.

All of these tips assume that your child is falling asleep independently, without any sleep 'props' like Mom or Dad falling asleep beside them (and then going off to their own bed for the night), or for younger children, falling asleep feeding or with a pacifier. Since we have a lot of light-sleep phases in the early morning hours, your child will almost certainly wake up at 5 a.m. looking for their prop.

If you'd like more tips for helping your child sleep well, I have a free video series - one for every age group from infants to age 10.