Why does the baby wake up so early in the morning?

Baby waking up early is a common problem in the summer, and it was the mentor who led me into the sleep consulting industry. Because my eldest son was 1 year old that summer, he woke up at 5 o\’clock in the morning every day. It was during the process of researching information on the Internet that I discovered the sleep consulting industry. What time does it take to wake up early? Many mothers say that the baby got up at 8 o\’clock before and recently woke up at 7 o\’clock, so does it count as waking up early? Some mothers asked if getting up at 7 o\’clock before and now at 6 o\’clock counts as waking up early. The problem of early waking often occurs in summer. An important reason is that a healthy baby\’s internal biological clock follows the sun and is closely connected with nature. In summer, the sun comes out early, so babies can easily wake up early. Generally speaking, waking up around 6 a.m. is not considered early. What about before 6 o\’clock? Here are the following two points: If the baby wakes up before 6 a.m., is in good spirits, gets at least 10 hours of sleep at night, and the interval between getting up and taking a nap in the morning is not short, then it is normal. Rather than waking up early. My elder was basically like this when he was a child. In the summer, he went to bed at 7 o\’clock in the evening and woke up at 5 o\’clock in the morning. He was in good spirits. In winter, I get up at 6 o\’clock at the latest. If the baby gets up before 6 o\’clock, he will start crying and want to go to sleep after playing for less than an hour. In other words, if the interval between getting up and taking the first nap is less than 1 hour, it means waking up early in the true sense. Moreover, in this case, the baby\’s overall sleep duration at night is less than 10 hours. A mother once left me a message saying that her baby went to bed at 10 o\’clock and got up at around 6 o\’clock in the morning. In this case, it is obvious that you woke up early. It can be said that there are individual differences in the question of how old a baby should be before he wakes up early. Some babies are naturally prone to waking up early, and some babies are not so sensitive to the sun. Some mothers also left messages to me saying: My son is not my son, he is the son of the sun! The latest and most complete 2023 [Kindergarten, Junior High and High School] premium VIP course catalogs from famous teachers in various disciplines on the entire network, click to view now! Take my two children as an example. When I was young, the eldest would get up at around 5 o\’clock every time in the summer, and at 6 o\’clock in the winter. The second child gets up at the earliest at 6 o\’clock in the summer, and at 7 o\’clock in the winter. But generally speaking, if a baby wakes up early, it will gradually improve after the age of 2 years old. Most babies no longer wake up early at the latest by the age of 3. After entering kindergarten, especially elementary school, if you go to bed late at night, you may not be able to wake up. So don’t worry, the problem of waking up early will end sooner or later. After my second child turned three, we finally had a happy situation where the whole family slept until after 8 o\’clock. What are the reasons for waking up early? There are actually many reasons for waking up early, and I will analyze them one by one here. 1. The Influence of Father-in-the-Sun I mentioned earlier that the baby’s internal biological clock follows the sun’s rising in the east and setting in the west. The mother’s description of it as “son of the sun” is most appropriate. Therefore, summer is the worst season for babies to wake up early. The influence of the sun actually has two aspects: the baby is in a light sleep state in the early morning, and the stimulation of light can easily wake the baby from the light sleep state, making it difficult to go back to sleep. The baby is the real \”child of the sun\”. Even if it is cloudy and rainy and the indoor light is dark, the baby willI will still wake up when the sun rises. In the first case, a 100% blackout curtain can be used. Note that blackout curtains must be equipped with curtain heads or curtain boxes, otherwise light will easily leak from above. In the second case, blackout curtains are useless. Moreover, I discovered that there are quite a few such \”children of the sun\”. 2 Sounds: Babies are in a state of light sleep in the early morning and are easily awakened by external stimuli, light, and sounds. And once you are woken up, it is more difficult to fall asleep. After waking up a few times, it becomes a habit to wake up early and find it difficult to go back to sleep. In summer, the sun rises earlier, and the elderly in many families will get up earlier to exercise or do housework. If the room is not too soundproof, the baby will be easily woken up. I have also encountered fathers who would get up around 5 a.m. to run, which would easily wake up the baby. After many families discovered this problem, the whole family made an appointment to sleep together until after 6 o\’clock, so that the baby could wake up later. In summer, when it is not so hot, some families will sleep with their windows open. In some communities, garbage trucks will drive in after 5 o\’clock, and the loud noise can easily wake up the baby. There are also some communities where the environment is very good, and the chirping of birds can easily wake up the baby. In this case, it is best to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner to sleep. 3 Night Feeds A common phenomenon I found during consultation is that if the baby has had at least 2 night feeds before 4 o\’clock, the baby will easily wake up around 5 o\’clock and may poop. After cleaning up after pooping, it is difficult for the baby to go back to sleep. Even if the baby has not pooped, it is difficult to fall asleep. The reason may be that the belly is a bit bloated, which is common in babies of younger ages. Due to this reason, when the baby wakes up early at a young age, waking up gradually becomes a biological clock and becomes a habit of waking up early. Or babies who have too much night milk may find it difficult to fall back asleep after waking up around 5 a.m. due to the above reasons. Another common problem is that the baby has a night feed at 11 o\’clock and a night feed at 3 o\’clock, and then wakes up at 5 o\’clock and finds it difficult to go back to sleep. Because the baby will easily wake up in about 2 hours after the second night feeding. In fact, the solution is to slowly postpone the first night feeding time to 12 o\’clock, and the second night feeding time to 4 o\’clock, so that the baby can sleep until after 6 o\’clock. 4. Complementary food before bedtime. Many mothers are afraid that their baby will be hungry in the middle of the night, so they choose to feed complementary food before bedtime. Usually after finishing the complementary food, the baby feeds and goes to sleep. As everyone knows, this not only prevents the baby from sleeping well in the middle of the night, but also causes the baby to wake up early. Because after a night of digestion, it’s time to defecate. Just like too much night feeding, even if you don\’t have a bowel movement, you will still be in a relatively bloated state and it will be difficult to go back to sleep. For this reason, I recommend that solid foods be consumed at least two hours before bed. 5. Sleeping together. If the baby does not wake up in time when it is time to sleep together, it will cause the last time of waking up during the day to be too late, which will also lead to early awakening. This situation is common in babies who are 8 or 9 months old and have three sleeps and two sleeps, or babies who are one year old and older and have two sleeps and one sleep. A common situation is that it is already after 6 pm when you fall asleep in the evening, and it is almost 7 pm when you wake up. The time to go to bed at night was postponed until after 9 o\’clock. In this case, the baby may be more likely to wake up early in the morning. The solution is to cancel twilight sleep in time, go to bed earlier at night. Even though the baby still wakes up earlier, the amount of sleep he gets at night becomes longer. 6. Going to bed too late at night. Going to bed too late at night will cause the baby to be overtired and wake up early. For example, as mentioned earlier, I go to bed after 10 o\’clock and wake up after 6 o\’clock. Going to bed too late at night will not make your baby wake up later. Many families artificially delay their baby\’s bedtime at night in order to let their baby get up later. Not only will this not make the baby wake up later, it may also cause the baby to wake up early. Even if the baby does not wake up early, the baby\’s sleep duration at night is artificially reduced. This is something that many mothers find particularly difficult to understand. It is only reasonable to go to bed late and get up late. The reason is this: babies who sleep too late and are overtired have higher cortisol levels in their bodies. Cortisol levels are also relatively high after falling asleep. As the sun rises in the morning, cortisol levels begin to rise. Because basal cortisol levels are relatively high due to excessive fatigue, their cortisol levels quickly reach the critical point of wakefulness. They will wake up early. 7 Teething: Many babies after one year old wake up early to a certain extent due to teething. Often after the cusp appears, it will disappear when you wake up early. 8 Human Intervention Early awakening occurred due to the above reasons. In many cases, the baby may still be able to go back to sleep within 1 hour. In order to let the mother sleep a little longer after a hard night, the elders or aunts in the family will take the baby away to play with her. Over time, a fixed biological clock is formed and it becomes a habit to wake up early. In this case, it is recommended that the baby not get up early after waking up early, and then coax him for a while. After persisting in coaxing for a period of time, it will also improve. I woke up early, what should I do? If the baby\’s early awakening is accidental and not a problem with the sun\’s biological clock, the most important thing is to eliminate the above reasons and solve the problem according to the investigated reasons. For example, if there is too much night milk, reduce the night milk. If the complementary food is fed too late, then feed it too late. Feed complementary foods early. Another very important measure is to continue coaxing the baby to sleep after waking up to avoid forming a habit of waking up early. What should we do if the baby has formed a habit of waking up early, or the baby\’s early waking up is due to the sun\’s biological clock? In this case, the first thing to do is to ensure that the baby’s nighttime sleep duration is sufficient. Arrange to go to bed earlier. If your baby often goes to bed at 8 o\’clock in the evening and wakes up after 5 o\’clock in the morning, you can appropriately advance the bedtime to 7 o\’clock at night, and the baby will not wake up earlier because of this. On the contrary, this adds an hour of sleep time to the baby at night, which will make the baby feel much better when he wakes up in the morning. We parents can also take this as an opportunity to go to bed early and get up early. From this perspective, babies waking up early reminds us to return to a healthy life.