When the Sun Isn’t Up, But Your Baby Is: How to Break the Cycle of Early Rising
There was a time in my life, before I had my son, when I would set my alarm for 4:45 a.m., drag myself out of bed, and head to my 5:15 gym session. After class, I’d drive home, feeling extremely smug, shower, enjoy a hot breakfast and coffee, and leisurely get ready for my day of teaching. This phase lasted about three months before exhaustion set in, and I gratefully returned to 8 a.m. wakeups and quick eyeliner in the staff car park. When I decided early mornings were no longer for me, I simply stopped. I cancelled my membership, changed my alarm time, and it was done. But when you’re parenting a baby or toddler, you don’t have that choice. The early rising starts, and it might be fine for a little while. But then, suddenly, you find that it isn't fine any more. You go to bed dreading 4am. You find yourself rocking, feeding, singing as the sun rises, your eyes hanging out of your head, and you just don’t know when, or if, things will ever get easier. The not knowing is the killer - if you knew that you’d be up at 4am for three more weeks, or three more months even, you’d be able to handle it, but when your baby monitor starts to crackle at the crack of dawn for the 18th morning in a row, and you think ‘is this just going to happen for the rest of my life?’, it can feel impossible. If you’re in the thick of early mornings, I want you to know: there are solutions. And often, they’re simpler than you think.
When my baby started waking (and staying awake) at 5am, then 4:30, then 4am, every morning, I would sometimes find myself putting off my own bedtime. I’d be awake until midnight, afraid to go to sleep because I knew I’d be jostled from it. It may sound dramatic, but if you’ve been in the thick of it - like I was - you know that it FEELS dramatic at the time. Everything feels harder, laggier. When I finally sought help from a sleep consultant, and understood that a) there was a solution and b) it was a simple, pain free solution that literally took two mornings to work, I jumped straight on the sleep science train and I’m still enthusiastically riding it. If you’re feeling the DRAMA of constant early risings, I am here to tell you that you can just choose to stop doing it, and it will be almost as simple as adjusting your alarm clock and cancelling your membership (ahhhh I’ve finally circled back to the gym anecdote! Clever right?)
Understand that early rising will usually resolve itself, if:
You’re mid-way through implementing a new sleep or daily routine, or you’re introducing new sleep associations/settling techniques. Consistency for 10–14 days is key.
Your child is mastering a new skill (e.g., crawling, talking).
There’s a temporary disruption (e.g., travel, illness, teething).
However, if early rising is reinforced during these temporary morning wakes, it can develop into a habit that persists even after the trigger is long gone.
When my son first started rising at 5, it was because he was teething for the first time. He was upset and so clearly in pain, and so I would bundle him up and bring him straight into bed with me, snuggled in close and warm so I could comfort him and be there when he needed me. Weeks later, however, he’d still be waking at 4am every morning, even though his two cute little teeth had long since cut through. Can you see what the issue is here? I’d reinforced the early rise by removing him from his sleep space, away from his sleep associations, and bringing him into bed with me. I’d signalled to him that, at 4am, we end the ‘night’ phase of our day and begin the ‘mum’s bed’ phase. For us, the solution was to simply keep him in his sleep space. With guidance from a sleep consultant, I moved my rocking chair right up close to his bed, and, rather than bringing him to bed with me, I rocked him next to his own bed; still in his sleep suit, still with his white noise, still in darkness, his dummy in his mouth. Staying in his sleep space was enough to reset him, and within a couple of days he was waking up at 7am. Not to be dramatic about it or anything, but I will never forget the first time I woke up and saw ACTUAL SUNLIGHT through the cracks in my blinds.
Step 1: Understand why your child is rising early
Early rising is one of the most common—and exhausting—sleep challenges parents face. While some children naturally wake early, persistent early rising often signals a mismatch between your child’s sleep needs, routine, or environment, and is usually due to a combination of biological, environmental, and behavioral factors. Addressing these root causes can help most families shift to a more manageable morning wake time. To work out why your little early bird is chirping at 4am, you could:
Keep a diary for a couple of days, making note of:
When your child naps and how long they sleep for
How your child goes to sleep and how long it took them to get to sleep
What your child eats for dinner, and at what time (if on solids)
When your child has their last breastfeed or milk bottle (if applicable), the time they have it, and where they have it
Take a sneaky picture (without flash!) of your child’s bedroom when they go to sleep, and another one when they wake early in the morning. Do the pictures look the same? (Hint: ideally, you shouldn’t be able to see anything in either picture!)
Ask yourself: has your child been unwell? Are they teething? Any changes in their nappies? Have they started childcare? Any changes in their routine?
Remember that 11 hours of overnight sleep is developmentally normal for many children. If your child is sleeping 11 hours but starting their day at 6am, this is not really ‘early rising’; it is biologically normal. To address this, you could try adapting your child’s daily nap schedule or the time they go to bed for the night.
Once you have come up with some ideas about why your child is waking so early, then you can start to address these causes.
Step 2: Strategies to address early rising:
Treat an early rise like a night time waking, and try to resettle them back to sleep in whatever way you usually would. If they are wide awake, though, and absolutely will not be resettled, use a soft, dim red light and offer quiet toys or books for them to play with, but keep them in their room with all their sleep associations present. It is important to keep them in their sleep space until the desired wake time.
If your child is old enough and you are confident that they are not actually hungry, avoid feeding them, as this can reinforce the habit of early waking.
Avoid using co-sleeping as a strategy to address early rising. If you enjoy co-sleeping in the mornings, set a consistent earliest time (for example, 5am or 5:30 a.m.) and only bring your child into bed after that time, to avoid reinforcing earlier waking.
Key Takeaways
Early rising is common and often resolves with consistent routines.
Avoid reinforcing early wakes with feeding, co-sleeping, or early naps.
Keep your child in their sleep space until your chosen morning wake time.
If none of these causes seem to resonate with you, seek support. If you’re feeling stuck, our team at Hello Sleep is here to help; you can book an appointment with us for one-on-one support and advice. However, persistent early rising, paired with parental exhaustion, may warrant help from your GP and/or a paediatrician, who can rule out underlying issues such as food intolerances, sleep apnoea, or even circadian rhythm disorders, and can connect you with further resources to improve sleep for your family.
