3 Year Old Waking Up Too Early? Must-Know Tips for Parents
Is your 3 year old waking up too early all of a sudden? Learn what to do when your child wakes up too early and won’t go back to sleep.
It always catches you off guard, don’t you think?
Your 3 year old had always been a great sleeper, even since infancy when you were finally able to get her to sleep on her own. She had consistently slept by 7:30pm and would get a whopping 12 hours of sleep every night.
Except these days… not so much.
Sure, she still goes down at 7:30 at night with no problem at all, but now she’s waking up earlier and earlier. So much so that she’s even awake the next morning before you are.
She’s fine in the early morning hours of the day, but without enough sleep, gets horribly cranky the rest of the morning. With nap time still a long way to go (or no nap schedule at that), you’re spending a lot of time with a moody and miserable child.
Mornings are awful when your child decides to wake up at an unreasonably early hour. She might be content staying in her bed or crib, but causes a loud ruckus for the rest of the family until you come get her. She’ll go back to sleep if you bring her into your bed, but you don’t want to start that sleeping habit.
You’ve even tried letting her stay up late (which made things worse), or asked her to play in her room (only for her to cry the entire time).
How do you respond to your 3 year old waking up too early?
Well, this is what we’ll talk about today. You see, all my kids have woken up at an hour far too early even for me, an early riser. Instead of adjusting our days to accommodate early rising, I had to find a way to reset their sleep and establish good sleep habits.
Take a look at what worked for me and many parents, and hopefully the same can happen for you:
Table of Contents
1. Use a digital clock
For the longest time, one of my twins would wake up at an early hour every morning. It didn’t help that mornings were dark, even at the “official” wake-up time. From his view in bed, 5am could easily have been 6:30am.
That all changed when I put a digital clock in their room.
Preschoolers this age might not know when to come out, but many do know their numbers. You can explain to your child that she can only come out when the clock says a certain combination of numbers. For instance, you can say, “You can come out when the clock says ‘7-0-0’.”
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2. Use a light alarm
Similarly, you can also have a “light” alarm clock. Many parents swear by this, as the alarm clock is a clear way for young children to “tell time.”
You can program the toddler clock to turn on at a certain time and cast a colored light in the room. Instead of numbers to read, your 3 year old would simply know that she’s to stay in bed until the light turns on. If it’s still off, then that means she must stay in bed.
3. Muffle sounds with white noise
You may have tiptoed in the mornings before your child woke up to get the coffee started and some work done. Instead, every creak of the cupboard or stream of the faucet now wakes her up. If not your early morning sounds, then the neighbor’s car, the dogs outside, or a passing truck can do as much damage.
The best solution? Muffle these disturbances with white noise.
Using a fan, heater, or a white noise machine can drastically stretch her sleep in the early mornings. She’s likely to wake up during these hours when sleep is light, but white noise will prevent her from doing so as often.
Now when the neighbor starts his car or you turn the coffee machine on, she won’t hear any of it with the white noise disguising the sounds.
4. Keep the room dark
Just as sounds can wake your 3 year old earlier than usual, so too can light exposure. Early mornings are especially tricky because the sun can start to creep into her room. Combine that with lighter sleep, and you have a recipe for early wake times.
That’s why one of the best ways I’ve found to stretch sleep in those early mornings is by blocking as much light as possible.
Install darkening curtains over your blinds or shades to keep the room dark. Not only do they block morning light, but evening light, too (especially during daylight savings season). Besides the sun, they’ll keep neighborhood lights out of her room as well.
And keep the rest of the lights in your home subdued. Turn hallway lights off, and if needed, use a soft nightlight in her room. The darker the room, the longer she can sleep in during the mornings.
5. Have an earlier bedtime
Does your 3 year old wake up crying every night or wake up far too early?
Believe it or not, a later bedtime routine doesn’t always lead to later wake up times or quality sleep. You may have tried putting him down to bed an hour later, hoping he’d sleep equally later the next morning. Instead, he woke up just as early, and even more cranky.
To make it worse, he might have even grown used to sleeping shorter hours, making you think he doesn’t need more than that.
Instead, put him down for an earlier bedtime. More sleep usually leads to better sleep.
Move bedtime up in 15-minute increments. Let’s say bedtime has been at 8pm but you want to try for a 7:15pm bedtime. For the first few nights, put him down at 7:45pm, then at 7:30pm, and finally at 7:15pm.
To account for early bedtimes, make sure he isn’t napping too close to the evening. If needed, wake him up so he isn’t napping later than 3 or 4pm.
6. Don’t get your child up yet
Exhausted with early wake ups and meltdowns, you might be tempted to simply start the day the minute your toddler wakes up.
Instead, don’t get her up until the “official” wake up time—yep, even if that means dealing with tantrums at first. She likely won’t fall back to sleep either, at least in the beginning.
So, why wait then?
Starting the day when she wakes up only reinforces the very habit you’re trying to break. The longer you start the day when she wakes up, the more she’ll expect to be up and about the minute she’s awake.
But by allowing her to wait, you’re sending the message that it’s okay to wait, play quietly with her toys, or even try to fall back asleep.
If she’s up at 5am but you’d like her to sleep until 6:30am, check in on her every 15 minutes between then. That means you’d check in on her at 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, 6, and 6:15 before finally getting her up for the day.
And when you do get up, congratulate her. Even if she spent the entire time from dawn crying and whining, let her know how proud you are of her for staying her in room until 6:30am. Soon, she’ll either adjust and stay asleep until 6:30am, or wait in her room quietly until you come get her.
Conclusion
Early morning wake ups are rough for both parent and child, but thankfully you now have steps to turn this behavior around.
For starters, use a digital clock or light alarm to make it clear when she can start the day. White noise can muffle sounds, while darkening curtains can block light—two things that can easily stir her awake early in the morning.
Put her down for an earlier bedtime to lead to better quality sleep. And finally, don’t get her up until the official wake up time, and instead use this as a way for her to learn to wait.
No more early wake ups catching you off guard, friend! Now you can finally get your 3 year old to sleep later in the morning—even if you get your morning coffee or hear garbage trucks rumbling by.
Get more tips:
- Examples of a 3 Year Old Sleep Schedule
- When to Transition from a Toddler Bed to a Twin Bed
- Effective Ways to Handle the 3 Year Old Sleep Regression
- Realistic Examples of a 3 Year Old Schedule
- 8 Warning Signs You Need to Be a More Patient Mom
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