Early Rising Child

https://youtu.be/7OGW7GhXCX0 In this blog I am talking all about the early-rising child. The previous 3 have been focused on how to spot where the overtiredness is coming from that causes the early rising. I’ve talked about how to cope with early rising and strategies to solve all of this and what I want to share with you here is how to stay on track. Once it gets good, how do you keep it there? You’ve done the work. Everything I’ve talked about in the last few blogs, you’ve implemented it beautifully, and you’ve finally overcome those early wakings, and your little one is waking beyond 6:00 AM. Feels great, right? But I’m here to share with you how you can keep it that way because the problem is most people reach that stage, and it goes back off track. It falls off track again, and sometimes it happens with the seasons because it’s got lighter outside in the mornings, and it’s waking them up and that kind of thing, but I’m going to share with you exactly what you need to do to stay on track. First things first, don’t get complacent because one of the reasons lots of people do fall off track is because they get complacent, so all the things that they set up and all the things that they’ve done to get this resolved, they kind of stop doing them. They think they don’t need to anymore. “It’s fine. They’re sleeping fine now. Don’t need to do that.” Probably you do, so don’t just let these things go. Don’t get complacent. It’s also really important to know that some little ones are just wired that way. They are wired as early risers, but that doesn’t mean you have to succumb to wake-ups that happen before 6:00 AM. It does mean they may always be a 6:00-ish or just after 6:00 AM waker, which is an early-ish waker. My own eldest is like that. I’ve always had to stay on top of it, always over the years, because whilst I would not accept anything pre-6:00 AM, because that’s still nighttime, I’ve had to do the work and keep up on everything to make sure that he is waking after 6:00 AM. So, where all his school friends might go to bed later, that’s fine. They can manage it because they sleep in later, but because I know that he absolutely won’t, I have to keep his bedtime earlier because even if he went to bed later, he wouldn’t wake up any later. Some are wired that way, so you need to know your child and what’s best for them. Then, you’ve got to stay on top of it. So, what can you do to stay on top of it? A really obvious but easy one to forget is to keep the room dark. We are so sensitive to the light, some more than others, but being dark means sleep time, and it tells our brains that, whereas light helps to… well, actually it prevents the sleepy hormones, and it suggests that it’s time to wake up, and it wakes us up. This is why these wake-up lights work and these fancy blackout blinds that people have that come up to wake them. I mean, how amazing is that? It’s because it works, and it’s how we’re wired. In fact, since the days of sleeping in caves, that’s how our whole body clock and the circadian rhythm was born was through light and dark, night and day. So, keep the room dark. Use everything you can find to black out the natural daylight. I’ve known people put tin foil into the windowpane with all kinds of tape and all sorts. There are stick-up blackout blinds. There is static stuff you can put on the window, on the glass, that is a blackout peel-off thing, blackout blinds. I’ve often been a fan of blackout blinds followed by blackout curtains over the top tucked in around the edges so that you really are cutting out all the natural daylight. The only kind of light you want is a dim, amber or red-colored nightlight if you need some light, so keep it nice and dark. This is especially a problem here in the UK when we go into our lighter months, and the light starts creeping in. Also, be wary of that coming in the hallway and the doors, the bedroom door, so you may need to make sure the bedroom door is shut, or any land