After 4am, the production of melatonin slows way down/stops. Sometimes this makes it hard for babies and toddlers to sleep past those wee hours of the morning. It can be hard to get your child to go back to sleep at this hour.
Environmental factors such as light and noise are common culprits for waking our little ones up too early. Avoid any TV, iPhone, tablet, or screen time of any kind for at least an hour before bed.
The most common solutions include: following an age appropriate schedule, ensuring the child isn't waking from hunger; and keeping the bedroom very dark until the desired wake time.
keep things dark, quiet and boring until your ideal wake up time. Don't send the message that it's time to be awake, as this will reinforce the waking if it's habitual. consider if it may be time for a nap transition. Early morning wakes can be a sign that your little one is getting too much daytime sleep.
If your baby's morning nap is too early in the day or for too long they learn that they need to be awake for longer in the lead-up to this nap, so at 5 AM they won't want to go back to sleep.
CIO is very effective at bedtime because there are a number of biological factors that make it very difficult for your child to stay awake at that time. However if your baby wakes up very early in the morning (4:00 AM or 5:00 AM) letting them cry will almost never result in them falling back to sleep.
If your child is waking at 5am, it is very likely she is still tired and can barely make it 1.5-2 hours before she needs a nap. If you are putting her down before 7:30/8am for a nap, her first nap of the day is essentially being lumped in with what should have been nighttime sleep.
We wouldn't consider that a baby waking up too early. Truly, a normal and healthy wake time for babies is 6:00-7:00 am. This is just a typical circadian rhythm for infants, even though I know 7:00 am to 8:00 am would be so much nicer.
Most infants are happiest in the morning when they are rested, well-fed, and not overstimulated. Then, try a few things out: Make eye contact and smile to get the game started. No surprise there, the best trick for getting your baby to smile may be smiling at them yourself…
Early Morning Feeds
IF baby seems to wake up at 5 a.m. and won't go back to sleep, try waking baby at 4 a.m. with a feed then putting him back down to sleep a bit later. The more baby has eaten throughout the early evening, the longer baby will sleep in the morning. White noise is key when baby is feeding.
Baby sleep
Most wake 2 to 3 times during the night for feeds. Babies have shorter sleep cycles than adults and wake or stir about every 40 minutes. By 3 months, many babies will have settled into a pattern of longer times awake during the day, and longer sleep times (perhaps 4 to 5 hours) at night.
By 6 months of age, babies are having most of their sleep at night, but they still need day sleeps. Expect 2 sleeps a day until 12 to 15 months – then one is usually enough. Some babies and toddlers sleep through because they can last longer between feeds and hunger does not wake them.
“Newborns love white noise, so make sure you use it consistently, especially overnight. Darkness will also promote longer periods of sleep. The more consistent you are with these two elements, the more baby's body will know it's time for sleep whenever she encounters them.
It also helps to ensure that baby's room is as dark as you can get it at night, and start turning down the lights in the house at least an hour before you put her to bed. Simulating the sunset will help to cue that melatonin production so that it's in full swing when she goes into hercrib.
If your baby's circadian rhythm puts their natural wake time at 6 a.m., 3 a.m. would be the approximate time that their body stops releasing melatonin and begins to release cortisol. When the release of cortisol corresponds with the end of a sleep cycle, your baby will more than likely wake.
Most babies and toddlers do best on a 7 am – 7 pm schedule, but any wake up time between 6-8 am is both ideal and realistic to achieve. So if you need to wake your baby to wake up at 6 am so you can get him ready and head to work, feel confident in that choice.
Dream feeding might wake up your baby more and lead to trouble falling back to sleep, or result in more night wakings because you disrupted that first very restorative period of sleep. Dream feeding may also backfire in the long run because baby will get used to having an extra feed overnight.
The method involves having the child sleep for 5 hours, followed by 3 hours of awake time, and then 3 hours of sleep again.
There are 3 early morning sleep training methods that you can use to teach your child independent sleep skills. These are staying in the room method, interval check ins, or the cry it out method. The first two methods are going to be a gentler approach.
Babies are generally developmentally ready to be sleep trained at 4 to 6 months. By about 5 to 6 months, they can sleep through the night without needing to eat, making it a good time to try the CIO method.
REASON #2: She's overtired
All babies need 11-12 hours of total overnight sleep. The signs of being overtired include: taking a long time to fall asleep, trouble staying asleep, frequent night wakings, early wake ups and fussiness during the day. Not to mention bags under her eyes.