7Yr Old Wakes up Early

That may just be how his biological clock works. My cousin, from the time he was born until now (he is 39) wakes up at 5:30 in the morning. He used to play quietly in his crib or room but that is just how he is. His daughter is the same way.

My son is an early riser as well. It doesn't matter what time he falls asleep he is awake by 7:15 at the very latest every day. He's been like that since he was a newborn.

And to the person who talked about additives...I'm certainly all for a healthy diet but both my cousin and my son are on hugely healthy, largely preservative free diets. I cook nearly everything from scratch as did my Aunt (my Uncle opened and operated one of the very firts health food stores in Chicago 35+ years ago.

For us...it's just the way we are made. Everyone has different sleep needs and a different internal clock. If he is not tired all day and acting out I would just learn to accept it. Personally, I think it's great that he's up to get a jump start on his day and I know it will serve him well when he's older.

Have him sip warm milk or chamomile tea just before bed and have a t.v. in his room so that if he does wake up early, he can just switch his t.v. on to avoid waking up everyone else in the home.

Most processed and fast foods contain additives can can act as stimulants in young children. Try putting him on a "whole food" diet (in its natural form - fresh fruit, veggies, meats eggs, etc.) Cut out as many additives as possible, especially MSG (google this and find out how dangerous it is to children). Caffeine can also stay in the system for up to 12 hours (like MSG, its another culprit with highly addictive qualities and even withdrawal sympoms). Cut out as much corn syrup as possible - opt for real sugar, butter, block cheeses (anything Kraft has a horrible amount of adds), maple syrup, etc. over processed "spreads". "Sugar free" items usually contain sugar substitiutes that are much worse than the sugar they're replacing. I made the switch (am still making the switch, its a one day at a time process) years ago and my family has really benefitted from it. My girls' attitudes and ability to focus have improved. Their health has REALLY improved - I was able to take my youngest off all her allergy meds. I gained 40lbs while going thru cancer treatment and was able to lose all of it without having to exercise. Check out this website for some kid-friendly health tips: www.cancerproject.org :}

I'm quite late but I just wanted to say that I've alwasy been an earlier riser. At age 5 I used to call my aunt at 5am to see what she was doing (it was the only other phone number I knew at the time). I would tell her that it was light outside so it was time to get up. As I got older I slept until slightly more reasonable hours (until 6:30-7), and it doesn't (it didn't then and it often doesn't now) matter what time I go to sleep. I'm just a morning person. I knew that when I got up I was allowed to have a bowl of cereal, and read or watch cartoons until someone else got up. On the other hand, my younger sister, with the same bedtime, would sleep until noon if you let her - and is like that even now.

I don't know how to make him sleep later other than maybe the ideas already suggested, But my advise is for in the morning if you want to avoid him waking the whole house or getting into trouble before you get up. My children each have an alarm clock in their room and its not to wake them up it is to tell them when it is safe to leave their room and go downstairs. I just have them set for 7:30 and when they wake up they can listen to their radio or even get up and play but they must stay in their room until it goes off. Hope this helps, Good Luck and God Bless!

i don't get it either!! my kids do not get the amount of sleep the 'experts' say that children their age need to function optimally. my 3 year old son is the worst and he rarely takes a nap. i don't have any usual problems with them as far as crankiness or irritability (other than the typical), so i have just accepted it. my husband and i do not require a lot of sleep, maybe they have inherited it from us. i am, however, concerned when i hear on t.v. or read that a child 7 (my daughter is 7) needs 11-12 hours of sleep a night. what?? when is she going to spend time with her family if she is sleeping that much?? sorry i'm no help :-) just wanted you to know that i deal with the same thing. just think, school is starting soon, and you can remind your child that 'the early bird gets the worm.' best of luck.

All my kids get up at 6 am like clock work. They don't need more than 8 hours a sleep. I don't see any reason why you would want to mess with someone's natural sleep pattern. Especially if they are energetic, happy, don't have behaving issues, and there not tired. I had a friend criticize me because I don't make my kids take naps or sleep the recommended 12 hours a night. I told her the same thing. My Childs pediatrician agreed with me.

Your your Childs mother and if you think he is not getting enough sleep then there must be something amiss in his day to day behavior. I would get to the bottom of that. His sleep could be a result of what ever else is going on.

I noticed lots of people are negative about having a TV in rooms. I don't think its the TV that is the problem. You need to limit the time they can watch it. I would not be so negative on people who do allow there children to have TV's in there rooms. There are some parents who do actually have children who listen to them. I disagree with the no TV thing. But again as your Childs mother you know if they are going to listen or not. And us mothers are also good at diffusing situations before they occur. Lets not judge people who do have children with TV's and are able to follow the rules.

Best of luck!

My son started doing that too when he was 7. We just started putting him to bed earlier, something like 7:30. I know it is really early, but my son also took a long time to fall asleep. It helped improve his mood. Now he is 8, we started turning the night light off after 30 minutes or so and now he doesn't need one. The darkness helps him fall asleep almost immediately now, and he goes to bed later and sleeps later. I am off in the summers, so his sleeping until 7 or 8 is nice. Hope that this helps.

I have the opposite problem with my 5 year old SHe doesn't go to bed at night and sleeps in... We just got a new bedtime routine going and she is in bed by 9-930 and up by 7-830 in the morning. I'm hoping school will help her go to bed earlier so she goes to bed earlier onher own. And liekthe other Moms said as long as he is healthy don't worry. Make sure he has something to eat and do inthe am and he should stay out of things. As far as a tv goes My 5yr old has one but she earns it every day... and then again she un earns it to...just like allher other toys they are priveledges.

My almost 4 year old son has been like that since he was born. I really think that some kids don't need as much sleep. He is younger than your son, so sometimes he goes to bed at 7pm, or when he was younger and missed his nap, sometimes as early as 5 30 pm! However no matter how late he went to bed he still gets up at 6, or 6 30 or earlier.

Hi T.. Hopefully by now, you've nipped this problem in the bud, but if not, I do have a couple pieces of advice....I have an almost 5 year old who is the same way, and a 7 yr old that sleeps great. I really do think it's how we're genetically made up, as to how much sleep we need. In an effort to let your 7 year old know that it is appropriate to fall back asleep, is it possible that you let him climb in to bed with you? Sometimes my guys will go for this, and then fall back asleep for 1 more hour. While it is not an ideal situation for you at first, it may teach him that it feels good to fall back asleep when you first open your eyes in the morning. Later, on the morning that he does fall back asleep, you can talk to him about how nice it is to close your eyes again and he can try to practice it on his own. Just a thought. Oh, and I totally agree that too much TV is not good for anyone - we should all monitor it. I do have one friend however, who does not allow her children to watch TV, and guess what? Every party or playdate, those kids are attached to it! The last time was at a pool party, and no one could get them to come out and swim, b/c a TV was on. Pretty sad...I don't think they're getting whatever message the mom is trying to send. Best of luck with your 7 year old.

I'm a little late here, but I'll just chime in that I also have an early riser. I know I always woke up early as a kid too, I remember playing with my dolls or Barbies or mostly laying in bed and reading when I was a kid and the rest of the house was asleep on a Saturday morning! I understand where you're coming from in wanting to make sure he is getting enough sleep though, because I have also worried about that with my 5 year old, but our pediatrician has told me multiple times that as long as he's energetic and active and healthy when he is awake, that he's getting plenty of good sleep, and he's just one of those people that doesn't require quite as much snooze time. When mine does fall asleep, it's out cold within seconds, so he doesn't waste the hour or two that some people do, trying to get to sleep, just gets right down to business! It is annoying on a Saturday morning to have someone playing in the hallway singing at 5:15, but I know that he is happy and healthy, growing like a weed and smart, so he's getting the rest he needs. He probably hasn't slept to 8:00 more than a handful of times in his life, hasn't made it to 7:00 many more times than that. I think if your son wasn't growing properly, or was having problems concentrating in school, then you might need to see about doing something to make sure he gets more sleep, but if he's not having any problems, I think you guys are absolutely fine.

This has already been mentioned, but I also tell my girls (8 yo)that they are not allowed to come out of their rooms until 7:00. They can read books or play quietly if they wake up earlier, but no TV and no time with me before that time. I have younger ones who sleep until 7:30 or 8 (thank goodness) and I'm not really a morning person, so we all need our peace in the mornings and this has worked at our house. Without TV or parents to keep them entertained, they tend to fall back asleep if they wake early and that keeps us all happier.

I honestly don't have an answer for you. I have a 6 year old son that does the same thing. There are mornings that he is up and going at 4:30 or 5:00. Ugh! We have tried keeping him up really late and wearing him out and it only made him more tired the next day. We just moved his bedtime back to 7:00 or 7:30 and put up black out curtains on his window. We have seen a slight difference but nothing past 6:30 or 7:00. Hope you figure something out soon. I totally know how exhausting this can be. Hang in there and good luck.

A.

I have that problem even though I am much older. I have read to try foods like warm milk and cookies, bananas and dates. Whole grain bread sandwich. Make sure the room is neat and organized. Do not nap during the day. Exercise during the day not before bed. In the hour or two before going to bed, do not eat large or indigestible meals containing animal fats and refined carbohydrates, caffeine drinks, watch distrubing TV or read books of the same. Take a nice warm bath before bed. I pray this helps Bless your home.

Maybe the longer days of summer are getting him up. If you haven't already, try making sure his room is dark and quiet in the mornings.

None of my three children have ever done that. Bedtime here has never been earlier than 9pm once they were all past toddler age as I've seen and heard parents having the same issue with their children being up between 4-6am. My children were never nappers. When they were babies, sure, they napped but not after 2 or 3 years of age. I am not a napper. If I take any sort of nap during the day, Im up half the night. 9pm is bedtime and they all wake up anywhere between 7 and 8am. That's perfect for school time and now that my youngest is starting Kindergarten this year, we have already started getting her to bed earlier so she'll wake up earlier. I just think some kids don't need 12 hours of sleep. 8-9 is plenty and once school starts, he'll fall asleep much easier at night as he'll be tired from the days events. I had to nix the tv in my son's room as he did not want to go to sleep at night, thanks to cartoons being on 24/7. I wouldn't worry. If he's awake, he's getting plenty of sleep.

T.,

I also am a little late with my response. We had the same problem with my stepson. His Mother let him get up all hours of the morning and put the TV on. As he grew older a TV was placed in his room. Our rules were that he could not leave his room until 7am (and at our house that meant no TV.) He always slept late at our house. Now at age 15 becuase of the bad habit he picked up as a child he spends his summer doing nothing but sitting in front of the TV from the time he wakes up and until he goes to bed. Nad with his lack of exercise, of course he is quite overweight. His half sister and I just leave him at home when he visits because he doesn't want to go to the park, pool, anywhere with us.

Getting up early is perfectly healthy. Just set up a few ground rules. Don't use the TV as a babysitter. And under no circumstances should you put a TV in a child's room.

It kinda depends how his mood is during the day. But you said he is sleeping from 9:30 to 5:00 or 6:30 that is 7 1/2 to 9 hours. Pray he keeps that schedule of sleep. LOL

I just read all of the responses because I could easily have asked your question myself! Here's what we do: bedtime is 7:30 or 8, at the latest. My son gets up whenever, and I tell him the night before what time he can wake me. During the school year I get up at 6:30, and he's usually been up about 1/2 an hour. He can fix several easy breakfasts in case he gets hungry (we live in a 2-story house, so he won't wake us unless he drops something).
One thing that's about to change for the school year: this summer he has learned to use our very complicated dvr, so now he gets up early to watch tv alone. He's going to have to stop watching tv in the morning--maybe that will make him not want to get up as early!
Oh, and please DON'T put a tv in his room--that's just setting him up for more anti-social behavior than is already normal in pre/teens. Also, if he's bored in the morning, he's more likely to go back to sleep (as someone else said).

I know I'm late here, but just one other thought I didn't see mentioned. My son went through a similar phase at that age. I eventually realized that he was stressed and overscheduled at that time. He is now 12 and a great sleeper, but after that experience I was very careful to make sure to allow for adequate exercise and downtime and regulate his anxiety level and schedule. Could your son be nervous about something like school starting? Any changes in his life or routine? It could just be the light in his room or he's going through a phase, but I thought I would throw my experience out there for you to consider. Good luck.

Well, I don't know if this will help any, but I remember going through a phase like that when I was 7. I'd wake up super early, 6a, 5a, 4a, sorta to see how early I *could* wake up. My siblings and I would watch the cartoons on cable as early as they came on - and we learned that, indeed, there was a time of day when cartoons did NOT play. Just the colored bars. (This was before Cartoon Network.) Anyway, after a while, I found that waking up super early wasn't exciting anymore - and I realized I was tired. I went back to getting enough sleep on my own. I'm sure my mom knew, or suspected, but she let us figure it out, and we did, and we stopped getting up super early.

At that age we also were able to feed ourselves simple things, so I guess my mom figured that, if we were quiet, not damaging anything, and not going hungry, she wasn't going to get too bothered about it. I think this phase only lasted a few weeks at most, perhaps a month. (Time is nebulous when you're 7.) Good luck!

Oh, P.S. - as for the advice to put a TV in his room - bad idea! That will make it harder for him to sleep at night, and increase the odds of him spending lots of time alone in his room, or at least not playing outside or reading or working on hobbies. If he has puzzles, books, or toys in his room, that's enough to keep any child occupied!