I hope you can help me gain some insight... My son previously went to bed at 7pm, had a two hour nap at preschool, and woke up around 6:30-6:40am in the morning. He turned three two weeks ago. This past week he has started waking between 5-5:30am. We have tried shorter naps and putting him down later at night (last night it was 8:30pm with a one hour nap) and he still woke up at 5:30am.
Do you have any thoughts about why he just started this "new" early wake schedule?????
Additionally, I can not think of anything else that has changed in his life recently.....or anything I have changed for him....
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!!
**His school has also informed me that until they are four years old, they will have a two hour quiet/nap time. They stated that he usually naps approximately 1 hour 20 minutes...
our just 4 yr old doesn't nap, but started waking early.
we use black out curtains...
he goes to bed at 7:30/8, no nap and up at 6:30.
we put a "7" next to his clock and he knows not to come out until then unless he uses the bathroom.
he hasn't napped since he was 2.5 or 3.
he may just not need 14 hours of sleep a day anymore. I know lots of 3 year olds (mine included) that dropped their nap already.
Maybe try "quiet time" in his room by himself instead of a nap so he can rest and have down time, but maybe he doesn't need to sleep. My 3 year old quit naps around her birthday and now we put her to bed at 7 and she gets up at 6:30. Unfortunately, the quiet time doesn't work for us (it lasts about 15 minutes before she starts yelling for me), but friends of mine have used it with a lot of success.
sleep begets sleep - go back to regular long naps and earlier bedtimes so that he is getting optimal sleep amounts - at his age it should be 15 hours about.
Put some white noise in his room - either a fan or noise machine, and possibly a CD on continous play. Also tell him that until the sky is light it is not time to get up. When he gets older you can use his door being open or a number on the clock as the key to when it's time to be awake.
kids get into habits easily, all it takes is ONE time of you treating an early waking like it's really time to get up and they get set in that time. So treat the early waking like you would a middle of the night one - put him back in bed and tell him sorry, not time to wake yet.
He may be going through a growth spurt, so give him a protein rich (not sugary at all) snack right before he brushes his teeth at night to make sure he makes it to morning.
