Is your little sleeping through the majority of the night but waking early in the morning? I’ve been there and I know how exhausting it can be. In this post, we’re going to dive deep and uncover how early is “too early,” the possible causes for early wake ups and what you can do to get your little one on the right track.

Why do Early Morning Wakings happen?

Early morning is described as anytime between 4:00-6:00AM. Why do babies struggle with early morning wakings? Well, simply put, sleep pressure or natural drive to sleep is less during that time. At bedtime, the environmental conditions are perfect for your baby to fall asleep; dark environment, cooler temperature outside, the brain is producing melatonin and the body is tired and ready for a rest.

During morning time, staying asleep proves to be more difficult for no other reason than a change in environmental factors. Light begins to creep into the room, melatonin production dips, your baby has had a full night of sleep and begins to transition into the lighter stage of sleep. Older children may frequently wake up between the hours of 4AM-6AM but will quickly put themselves back to sleep, whereas, younger babies have not yet learned that skill.

Reason One: Light Exposure

Even the tiniest bit of light creeping into your baby’s room tells your little’s body that it is time to wake up for the day. Light exposure combined with the lightest phase of sleep are the perfect combination of elements to create an early morning waking. Thinking your baby’s room is dark enough? Try the hand test. During early morning hours, enter the room and be sure all the blinds are drawn and lights are off. Place your hand about 18 inches away from your face and wave it back and forth. If you can see your hand, the room is not dark enough. Adding a black out shade like this or this can help.

Reason Two: Overtiredness at Bedtime

For decades, mother’s around the world lived by “keep them awake and they’ll sleep at night.” This is NOT true. In fact, keeping your baby awake longer then they can tolerate does just the opposite. If the last stretch of awake time before bedtime is too long, it will cause your little to become overtired. This is a large contributor to early morning wakings. If you think the culprit of your baby's EMW may be overtiredness at bedtime, try pushing bedtime up by 15 minutes each night until you find the bedtime sweet spot.

Sleep Tip: If your baby is a newborn (3 months or younger), it is totally normal to have a bedtime between 9-11pm. This ONLY applies during the newborn stage. To learn more about how to get your newborn sleeping, check out my blog post Building the Foundations of Healthy Sleep During the Newborn Stage.

Reason Three: Too Little Daytime Sleep

Just like at bedtime, if your little is not reaching the recommended amount of sleep for their age, they may become overtired. Often times overtiredness begins with early morning wakings. If you have a chronic short napper, check out the visual below for some suggestions on how to conquer the cat nap.

Reason 4: Forgetting to Wait Then Respond

Did you know that in other countries throughout the world, babies typically sleep throughout the night by 12 weeks of age? This is because in those other countries, they practice the art of waiting before responding to their baby’s cries. Parents can unintentionally reinforce early morning wakings by responding to their babies too quickly. It is not uncommon for babies to cry during their sleep and not actually be awake. As long as your baby is 4 months or older, try waiting 1-2 minutes before responding to their cry to see if they put themselves back to sleep.

Reason 5: First Nap is Too Early

Similarly to responding too soon to early morning wakings, establishing a routine of providing an early morning nap can inadvertently reinforce EMW. The body views an early morning nap as extension of night time sleep. Doing this consistently can reinforce the routine of waking early and napping early. On a day where your little wakes up during early morning hours, be sure to try and get through to the end of their typical wake window. I know this is much easier said than done. You can help your little to stay awake by making wake time as engaging as possible: get outside, take a bath, or take out some new toys.

Early morning wakings can be a frustrating sleep issue that isn’t always easily solved. If you are struggling with resolving your little’s early morning wakings, reach out to me here and let’s figure it out together.