Our four-year old son has been an early riser basically since birth. He started sleeping through the night at ten weeks old, but would always wake for a morning bottle at 5:00 in the morning and not go back to sleep. We then had our second son who sleeps like his momma; he sleeps in until around 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning most days. Of course, my husband and I had already been up for a few hours with our first son by the time our second son woke up. Needless to say, it often left us dreaming of a way we could make our oldest son sleep later in the morning.
We tried quite a few things, limiting his naptime, taking away his nap (and he still needs it!), keeping him up later (he goes down at eight o’clock), making sure he runs around for an hour before bed, giving him an earlier bedtime (evidently sleep begets sleep). You name it; we tried it! Nothing worked and he was always up at the crack of dawn.
It was only after I noticed him taking a big interest in telling time on our digital clock that I remembered something I had read a year or so ago. Some brilliant mother had put a digital clock in her child’s room and told her that she couldn’t get out of bed until it said seven o’clock every morning. I thought long and hard and finally decided to give it a try.
First, my son was thrilled that he was getting a clock in his room. I covered up the minutes on it, so he could focus only on the hours. He was pretty disappointed as he wanted to see all of the numbers, so of course, I removed the covered up minute hand. That night at bedtime, I instructed him that he was not to get up from his room until the clock said seven in the morning the next morning. He was all for it. I also told him that I didn’t care what he did in his room if he woke up before the designated time, but that he was not to come out of his room until it said seven o’clock.
My husband and I went to bed that night wondering if this strategy would really work. Imagine how thrilled we were when we woke up the next morning shortly before seven! I knew he was awake in his room, I could hear him quietly playing. It didn’t matter though, because my strategy had worked. He was in his room playing rather than waking us up at five in the morning. Right at seven o’clock, his bedroom door opened and he came running into our room. He was pleased as punch with himself for having stayed in his room until his clock’s time was seven.
This strategy has worked brilliantly. My husband and I, for the first time in over four years, are actually sleeping past five in the morning and we love it. My four-year old feels in charge of his sleep time and he loves it. This has been a successful sleep strategy for us for over two months. Of course, recently my two year old who is cutting teeth has been waking up at six in the morning, which kind of blew our sleeping a bit later. Oh well, that is parenting for you!