Early Morning Wakings: Why is My Baby Waking Up Early?

Do you have a baby waking up early in the morning? Are you wondering why your baby is waking up so early, how early is too early for a baby to wake up, or how to help your baby sleep later in the morning? There are many reasons for a baby waking up early. Let’s dive in and talk more about those early morning wakings. 

Why are early mornings so difficult for babies?#anchor

The Short Answer: Your baby’s sleep pressure is simply lower between 4:00 and 6:00 am.

What does that mean? Falling asleep is never easier than at bedtime because the conditions are almost perfect: it’s dark outside, the temperature is slightly cooler, your body is tired, your brain needs a break, and this is the time of day your body expects to go to sleep.

Now, just the opposite is true during early morning hours: our bodies have had almost a full night of rest, the sun is beginning to rise, our melatonin drops, and we are in a lighter stage of sleep. Our bodies may need more sleep, but all of these factors are fighting for us to wake up.

You and I have learned to combat this struggle. We may slightly awaken multiple times from 4:00 to 6:00 am, but we quickly put ourselves BACK to sleep. Babies who are constantly waking early between 4:00 and 6:00 am have not yet learned this skill and need our help.

What are early morning wakings?#anchor

Early morning wakings are wakings that fall between 4:00 and 6:00 am. After 6:00 am, well, that’s simply waking up for the day! 6:00 am to 7:00 am is truly a natural and developmentally appropriate wake time for babies. So, when we say “early morning wakings,” we’re talking about babies who wake up before 6:00 am.

Why is my baby waking up early? How can I fix these early morning wakings?#anchor

Culprit #1: Sunlight is sneaking in.#anchor

Yes, even a tiny shift in light during those early morning hours can cause a baby’s body to say “time to get up” and be a reason that your baby is waking up early. Remember, we are all in our lightest period of sleep from 4:00-6:00 am. Now add in light (which we know stimulates the brain), and it can be very difficult for a baby to fall back to sleep!

If you’re not sure if the room is dark enough, try waving your hand in front of your face at 5:00 – 6:00 am. Can you see it? If you can, there’s too much light!

Shutters, blinds, or even dark curtains will rarely block out the light sufficiently by themselves. Adding blackout blinds (Use code Cara for 10% off) can be so helpful. Even black construction paper taped over the windows works very well. Please use whatever works best for your nursery, but keep all of those light-blockers out of your baby’s reach.

Check out my Hand Test to hear me talk about how much difference this makes!

Culprit #2: Bedtime is too late.#anchor

For most babies, a later bedtime does not encourage “sleeping in.” In fact, a later bedtime can do just the opposite and cause babies to wake early.

If your baby is struggling with early mornings, consider an earlier bedtime. I know it doesn’t seem to make sense, but earlier bedtimes really do help many families resolve early morning wakings! Even shifting bedtime 20-30 minutes earlier can have a huge impact and help prevent your baby waking up early. (Consider a bedtime as early as 6:00-6:30 pm until these early mornings resolve.)

Let me share this scenario with you:

Michelle’s 13 month old, Wyatt, had a consistent bedtime of 8:00 pm. This bedtime worked well for their family because they have many evening activities. Michelle really longed for a 7-8:00 am wake time for Wyatt in hopes that she could fit in a morning workout before the baby awoke. This would make sense, right? That’s 11-12 hours from bedtime! But…Wyatt was always up by 5:00 am.

Do you want to know my advice to Michelle? An earlier bedtime! Once Wyatt started going to bed at 7:00 pm, he started sleeping until 6:00 am and sometimes even 6:30 am! Sure, it’s earlier than Michelle would have hoped, but it’s still far better than 5:00 am. And remember, a 6:00-7:00 am wake-up is 100% normal for babies.

Because of their family activities, Wyatt sometimes goes to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 pm. This is simply how life goes. Michelle just knows that Wyatt will wake up earlier that next morning. Her goal is to have him back to his normal bedtime the following night.

Every once in awhile, I’ll meet a baby who truly does better with an 8:00-8:30 pm bedtime; however, it’s rare. Try an earlier bedtime FIRST.

Culprit #3: The first nap of the day is too early.#anchor

An early first nap can cement early morning wakings! Your baby’s body treats a very early nap as an extension of night sleep, and early morning wakings will continue.

To prevent this problem, here’s your plan:

• For babies taking 3 naps a day, we don't want to let that first nap of the day start before 8 am. 

• For little ones taking 2 naps a day, we don't want that first nap to happen before 9 am. 

• If your little one is taking 1 nap a day, we want to make it to a noon nap. 

Please know your baby may struggle to make it to this time at first. That’s okay! We’re going to go ever so slowly to help them reach that goal. Aim for 10-15 minutes longer each morning. 

Culprit #4: Baby is overtired at bedtime.#anchor

Too much awake time prior to bedtime can cause an overtired baby and be a reason for baby waking up early. You would think babies would sleep later when overtired, but it simply doesn’t work like that in the baby sleep world. Instead, often an overtired baby wakes up early in the morning.

How much time can your little one be up before bed? That’s the challenging part: it’s actually different for every baby. Get to know your little one, but here are some averages for the wake window before bedtime:

Real-Life Example: 9 month old, Hank, woke from his last nap of the day at 2:30 pm. Hank’s normal bedtime is between 7:00 and 7:30 pm, so his parents kept him up until 7:00 pm. Even though his bedtime seemed perfect, Hank still woke at 5:00 am… every morning. That 4.5 hour wake window was simply too long.

Here is how we remedied the situation for Hank: We shifted bedtime to 6:30 pm. This earlier bedtime prevented Hank from becoming overtired and helped him to overcome his early morning wakings.

Is this within his “typical” 7:00-7:30 pm bedtime range? No, but sometimes real life requires that we adjust. For Hank this worked!

Culprit #5: Your baby is getting too much daytime sleep.#anchor

Sometimes, babies wake up early in the morning simply because they aren’t tired anymore. When babies get more daytime sleep than they need, they often don’t sleep as long at night. This blog on Nap Schedules: 5-25 Months will help you find the recommended daytime sleep for your baby. As your baby gets older, naps will need to be adjusted. It may even be time to consider dropping a nap. 

Real-life example: Charlotte’s 10 month old was a great sleeper. Emma slept 7:45 pm to 6:45 am every night. She took two glorious naps. But then… she suddenly started waking at 5:30 am. Mom evaluated every aspect of Emma’s day. After tracking her naps and nights for a few days, she found the issue: Emma was napping for almost 4 hours total during the day. By the time she had slept until 5:30 am, she was getting all the sleep she needed in 24 hours.

The Fix: Mom limited each nap to 1.5 hours. This was 3 hours of total daytime sleep. Emma slowly started sleeping until 6:30 – 6:45 am. She had simply been getting too much daytime sleep. This amount had been perfect for Emma at 7 months, but it was too much for her at 10 months.

Culprit #6: Your baby isn't getting enough daytime sleep.#anchor

The other side of this coin is a baby who is taking short naps and is extremely overtired. Remember, being overtired often manifests in early morning wakings.

If your baby struggles with naps and you suspect that it could be a reason your baby is waking early, Conquering Naps: Your Guide to Great Days can help. 

Culprit #7: Parents are reinforcing the early morning wakings. #anchor

“Wait, are you saying it’s MY FAULT that my baby is waking early and is up at 4:45 am each morning?”

Please hear me, I am never one to blame parents. Isn’t there already enough guilt in our society? I promise NOT to add to it.

Follow along with me: Every weekday morning, your alarm goes off at 5:15 am. You drag yourself out of bed and long for the weekend when you can finally sleep later. Saturday morning arrives: your alarm clock is off, but your eyes bounce open at 5:14 am! Ugh! Wide awake! Why? Because your body has an internal alarm clock that longs for that consistent wake time.

Your baby has that same internal system. If your baby is consistently waking early, perhaps it’s just out of habit. Let’s work hard not to reinforce it. Treat it like a middle of the night waking instead of getting them up and starting the day.

What would you do at midnight if your baby kept waking? Get him up and pour yourself a cup of coffee? Of course not- you would keep it dark, quiet, and all business. We want everything about these early waking moments to communicate to your baby: “It’s still night time; everybody is sleeping; you should still be sleeping too.”

If you need a plan to handle night wakings, my classes will teach you.

Culprit: #8: Your baby is hungry.#anchor

Personally, when my own babies would wake up too early in the morning, I always assumed it was hunger. This is a fairly common assumption. Hunger is often a concern for parents and it has an immediate solution. However, it isn’t always the culprit. If your baby is getting their calories in during the day and staying on their growth curve, hunger does not have to be your first go-to for early morning wakings.

Please know: I’m not saying your baby is not hungry; I’m simply saying we need to evaluate the entire picture.

An important component to sleeping through the night and keeping baby from waking up too early is getting those calories in during the daytime. Being responsive to your baby’s hunger cues and offer daytime feedings every 2.5-3.5 hours the entire first year and beyond will help!

But, if you think your baby is still waking up early in the morning due to hunger, then they may need more calories. Try adding in extra daytime calories by giving an extra ounce or two in each daytime bottle or by adding in a nursing session during the day to rule out hunger. If your baby is older than 6 months, talk to your pediatrician about adding more solids to their diet. (If you need help to gradually wean night feedings, my 5-24 Month Collection will give you step-by-step instructions.)

Culprit #9: Your baby is too drowsy or asleep at bedtime.#anchor

If your baby is unable to fall asleep on their own at bedtime, it is unlikely that they’ll be able to fall back to sleep during the early morning hours. Because the sleep drive is so low in the early morning hours, this is the most challenging time for a baby to drift back to sleep after coming to the top of a sleep cycle. Being able to fall asleep at bedtime and back to sleep at night wakings throughout the night is a vital skill in conquering these early morning wakings.

If your little one needs help with falling asleep independently, I have classes for you!

Finally, please understand this: Correcting early morning wakings will take time and consistency. When making changes for your little one, give the strategies at LEAST a week to evaluate the effectiveness. If you’ve read all these culprits and you’re not even sure where to start, I created The 5–24 Month Collection to hand you everything you need for great sleep all in one place with step-by-step guidance and customizable plans. If you have purchased any of the Taking Cara Babies classes and resources, please know a phone consult can offer you personalized support along your journey.

It’s rarely a quick fix, but finding the reason your baby is waking early is the first step in getting off that early morning waking struggle bus!