My 10 Month Old Wakes up Earlier and Earlier Each Day!

Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child by Dr. marc Weissbluth, this book saved my life when it cam to sleeping. My son has been a good sleeper since he was 8 months becasue of the book, i mean there are bumps along the way but for the most part it helps you to understand why the sleep problem is happening and how to fix it. It addresses the issues that can arise when there are more that one child in the home too. It will help and i paid about 10 dollars on amazon.com

Has he just learned to stand? If so, when you go to him in the morning is he standing in his crib? If so, does he know how to sit back down? Ofen babies learn to stand but don't know how to sit back down and that frustrates them. If this is the case, teach him to sit. Then, hopefully, he will be able to get himself back down and back to sleep.
Oh, and babies around this age sometimes get fearful of 'where they are.' If he is falling asleep in another location and then being put down, when he wakes, he could be fearful because it's a 'new location.' Or they wake up and can't see where they are and get frightened. If this might be the case, then put in a nightlight.

Good luck.

I found it interesting with my children that none of them slept the exact hours each day. It was as if their bodies were programed for a different daily hour cycle (like 25) instead of 24, so every so often they would sleep more, then sleep less. I actually think that's kind of normal.

Hi there,

We went through this with my 8 month old, and we just decided to let him CIO... That took just a couple days of crying. We do have a 3 year old as well. I just got both of them white noise machines, the 3 year old gets it put on dolphins, say it blocks sudden noises like crying and 8 month gets white noise. I know it is hard as you do not want to waken the other one sleeping, but it should only take a couple times and your baby will learn. We live in a new home development, so they are still building houses, so the noise machines help with that too. We got a baby white noise machine from Brookstone. Hope this helps. On your lil about me, sounds like we are in the same boat!

I swear my son did the same exact thing at the same exact age. It was maddening! Once, we even just all got up at 5:30 and made pancakes...the little stinker then fell asleep in his high chair.

This phase lasted about a month for us, and thankfully, pardon the pun, it was put to rest. Hope it ends for you soon.

My daughter did the same thing at about that age and it wasn't until later that I realized it was the transition from 2 naps to 1. What happened was that she suddenly started waking up much earlier (going from 7:00 consistently to about 4:30 or 5:00) So at first her morning nap would be a lot earlier too, but then it got later and later as she was staying up for longer periods of time. Then all of a sudden she was back to sleeping until 7 again, so therefore the "morning" nap became one mid-day nap, first around 11:00, then gradually becoming later- about 12:30. This went on over a period of about 2 months maybe? And the weird thing was it was so sudden that she was waking up early and then so sudden again when she started sleeping later again. But I guess it was her body just knowing what to do. Maybe that's what's going on?

Every kid is different. My daughter is 5, sleeps 12 hours at night, and still needs an afternoon nap! I know most kids don't take an afternoon nap at her age and most sleep less at night but she's just a sleeper. Yours seems to just want to be up and about, nothing wrong with that at all, just put him to bed a little later. It will take awhile for his sleep schedule to adjust so just be patient with it!

If he's going to bed at 6:30-7, how late can you expect him to sleep? I would slowly start pushing his bed time back a little later. Don't do it all at once, maybe in 15-30 minute increments and I'll bet he starts sleeping later.

My first question would be, is he possibly waking up with the sun? Is his room dark? If not, try something that will darken the room completely. I found that both of my kids needed the room to be completely dark for them to get the sleep they really needed. If light is not an issue, try hiding a couple of toys in his bed that may keep his attention for a while and then allow him to go back to sleep if needed. Sometimes my kids would play for a little while and go right back down. It was important for me not to stimulate them with my presents, or they'd be up and ready! Good luck!

I have been having a similar issue with my 9 month old although not as extreme. he used to wake up at 7 religiously for many many months, then in the last couple of weeks he started waking up five or ten minutes earlier each day. now we are at about 6. i have made the observation that if i have him take shorter naps we sleep a bit longer in the morning. yesterday i had things i needed to do so i let him take a 2 hours nap and 1.5 hour nap, and we were up early! a couple of things you could try;
1. don't let him nap more then 3 hours during the day total
2. try to push back his morning nap as much as possible so morning nap isn't cutting into night-time sleep.
3. gradually push back his bedtime to 7:30-8 by making daytime naps gradually later.

hope that helps. now i just need to listen to my own advice. it's hard enough maintaining routine with just one, i can't imagine what it's like with 2!

We had a similar problem, but pushing the bedtime back worked very well with us. My daughter goes to bed around 8:30 - 9pm and sleeps until 7:30 or later sometimes. She naps during the day, but no more than 3 hrs.

Just don't go too fast, try 15 minutes increments so they aren't overly tired at night.

Make sure the room is dark (darkening shades or curtains). I would definitely integrate a nap early in the afternoon and shoot for a later bedtime. We find the earlier we put them down, the earlier they get up.

My kids were the same ages and this worked for me.

Is he getting enough to eat during the day? The only time my 10 month old seems to wake during the night, or wake early in the morning, is if he didn't get enough to eat the day before. We've been doing a "dream" feed around 9pm, and that seems to hold him until 6:30-7:30am. He usually gets about 12 hours of sleep a night, and naps about 3 hours a day.

you might want to put him to bed later. It may cut into your evening, but if you don't want to get up at 5:30 then it might be better to put him to bed later. He may also need less naps during the day if you want him to sleep a straight 14 hours. All kids are different and need different amounts of stuff. You might have to experiment some more.