How Do I Get My Little Man to Stay in Bed in the Mornings?

We still have a baby gate at my son's door, and he is 4. We don't want him up and unsupervised in the house while we are asleep. The baby gate kept him in his room. He would sometimes get up early and call for us, and we would tell him it isn't wake up time yet, and he accepted that. He would just stay in bed and talk to himself/ sing quietly until it was wake up time.

We spoke with him about the importance of sleep and how we can get cranky/ sick/ unable to do things and play if we don't get enough rest, don't eat enough food. It seemed to resonate with him.

Best of luck,
F. B.

If he's waking up between 3 and 4, ready to go, that means at that point he has had enough sleep. It is unrealistic to ask him to lay in bed until 6 am.

My boys never slept more than 9 or 10 hours before they gave up their naps. They were usually in bed by 10 pm and up around 7 or 8 am. Once they gave up their naps, they were sleeping for 11 or 12 hours.

I think you need to consider how many hours of sleep he's getting and how many hours of sleep he needs at night. I had many people tell me to just put my kids down earlier, and that would never work. They weren't tired yet. Not every child sleeps for 12 hours at night and takes a nap during the day. Try and determine how many hours of sleep he truly needs, and then plan his bedtime accordingly.

Try not to worry about Daycare or Preschool. If/when he goes to one of those, he will get use to the schedule over time. He will be fine.

You have to do what works, and it's not going to work to ask a 2 1/2 year old to just lay awake in his bed for 2 to 3 hours. It's just not going to happen.

Seems like this is his natural sleep/wake cycle. If it is no problem for now, don't change it because he will be going to daycare. Everything will be different at daycare and he will change his whole cycle within a week of attending naturally. They will keep him awake in the morning, he will adjust to their nap time and he may or may not change his bedtime. Give him a hug and all my best.

At that age we eliminated the daytime naps. J would wake up at ridiculous times to start the day, and then one weekend he didn't take his normal nap either day and we realized that bedtime was much easier, and he slept until 7 am. We went a few more days without the daytime nap, just to see how it went. At preschool the 3-5 year olds that don't nap have quiet time, they aren't forced into one. My son just was ready to give his nap up (I sure wasn't), and it made bedtime/night time SO much easier.

I do not recommend putting him to bed later…I mean it sounds like it would work, but you can already see if doesn't. Plus, who wants their 2 y/o up until 10…not me! I need some down time!

Anyway, I would just keep on with the Ok to Wake light. Before bed tell him that he can leave his room when the light is on. If he wakes up before then he can play quietly by himself. If he comes into your room, tell him you will bring him right back to his room. The hardest part is getting yourself out of bed to bring him back into his room, but that's what I would do. Let him know that he doesn't have to sleep, just has to stay in his room. This will help him feel like he's more in control. He may play for a while, and he probably won't be that quiet ;), but I think he will eventually realize that waking up that early is for the birds, and stay in bed.

I basically did this with my two kids and it worked. I feel like if you tell him every time you put him to bed that this is how it's going to work and then you follow through on it, it will work. The first day or two, I might tell him during the day too, like…remember tonight at bed time you have to stay in your bed, etc.

I agree to look at total number of hours sleeping and remember not everyone gets the kids who sleep 12-14 hours a day... Mine didn't. Very frustrating but it was what it was. And they never went to bed much before 9pm bc I'd rather them up later at night than up so early in the morning. I'd gradually move bedtime later if I were you and he won't automatically sleep later just like we when change the clocks - takes time to adjust - but he should. Also don't let him nap at 10:30. Move that later slowly. Keep him busy that last 15 min, then 30 min etc so he can stay up later then and at night. Then hopefully he switches to more like a 6am wake-up and on weekends, we'd let them watch tv for a bit while we dozed.

i would use a stern voice and tell him he must go back to his room and play quietly in his bed until the OK to Wake light comes on.
no way would i be getting up this early, nor setting a precedent that it's okay, nor allowing him to climb in bed and be a PITA.
have a favorite toy snuggle into bed with him, and if he wakes up before the light, he's allowed to play very quietly with that toy. period.
no getting up. no wandering the house. no poking mommy.
boundaries and a good firm NO are a mom's best friends.
khairete
S.

Easiest to just get up.

Was he climbing out of his crib?
Would be easier if he was still in a crib.

Take solace that early up means early nap.

If he's waking up and ready to go, could he be hungry?

I had one who never ate much of a supper, and he would wake early (like 5 am) ready for breakfast. I gave him some toast before bed - problem solved for us.

I always assumed mine were hungry, because they'd have these growth spurts and suddenly be out of sorts - with sleep, and moods, etc.

Good luck :)

My daughters are 2 and 5 and I simply made a rule that they have to be quiet and in there room until a parent comes to say good morning.

It doesn't work. They still try and wake us up but we typically are able to pretty quickly put them back to sleep with us or in their own bed by saying that there will be some sort of consequence.

Time to drop the nap. Let him take a catnap to take the edge off, but move bedtime a little earlier and work on dropping the nap.

Start keeping him up until 10 or later. His biorhythms will take about a month to change. It doesn't happen in a couple of weeks, sometimes it takes a month or two. This is why so many people that work shift work where they switch every couple of months are always tired and they cut off their life expectancy by 10-15 years by working that shift...

Give him time. Also, he's old enough to be in his room with the door shut. Tell him he has to stay in his room, period. If he comes out he gets in trouble. Of course that can backfire on you if he needs you for something, like he's puked, and he's afraid to come tell you because it's too early.

It truly sounds like he has you trained to his wants. He wants to go to bed at 7:30, he wants to get up at 3am, he wants to take a nap at 10:30am. he wants to take another nap in the late afternoon too I'd guess. He gets to sleep when he's sleepy.

This is a normal schedule for kids in child care or pre-school. Kids take naps/lay down for quiet time until they come back from Christmas Break in Kindergarten...so he needs to get this sleep pattern fixed like you are wanting.

Get up 7(ish). Eat breakfast and get ready to leave or get ready to leave and eat at the school.

8-11 do stuff, pre-school curriculum, child care daily schedule, play or go to library reading time, have a LIGHT morning snack...go out of the house and stay busy.

11:15 (ish) clean up and get ready for lunch. Have lunch. Wash hands but kiddo goes to bed quickly so the activity of cleaning up doesn't wake his body up.

Noon, be completely done with lunch and be laying down for nap.

Sleep until about 2:30/3pm.

Get up, have snack, play/do chores/get ready for dinner.

5-7 dinner, family activities, go do stuff like a park or game.

8pm, have an evening snack, bath, ready for bed but doing quieter things like reading, talking, watching TV (Puts my kids to sleep), etc....asleep by 8:30/9pm

by 10pm for your little guy he'd need to be asleep so he'll sleep later in the morning.

You can do this, you just have to decide you're his boss and YOU can decide, to some extent, what his schedule is and that he will comply. His body will eventually get used to his schedule and he'll start to get sleepy on cue, when you sit down with him and put him beside you in a snuggle, his eyes will get droopy and he'll fall asleep. When he wakes up he'll see the time of day and remember to let mom sleep.

He's waking you up because you give him good attention when he does this. You snuggle him or talk to him or get up to start your day. If you could ignore him (I know this is impossible) he'd get tired of trying to wake you up and stop it. So the next best thing is to get him doing something else. You can do it.

I would be looking at why he's waking and not just how to keep him in bed. There is obviously a need at this age.
How many hours a day is he sleeping, naps and nighttime combined. He may need more sleep. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but some kids (like mine) would respond to being sleep-deprived by sleeping worse and less. We had to add extra naps, even if it meant driving them around at random until they fell asleep. He could be cold, hungry or even something as simple as being lonely and suffering from separation anxiety. He could be having bad dreams but can't vocalize them to you. He could be teething, I think that's around the age they get another set of molars. It could be a growth spurt. My youngest has nightmares when she's going through growth spurts in fact.

Is he potty trained? If not put a gate across his doorway. He may be waking because he's wet or he needs to go.