Up at 5:00 AM? How to ditch the early-morning wakings
There’s nothing quite like starting your day at 5 AM, not by choice, but because your baby has decided it's time to rise and shine. If you’re whisking matcha before 6 AM, you know the struggle.
Before we dive in, let me reassure you—early morning wakings are both common and fixable. Your day doesn’t have to begin at 5 AM. We just need to figure out why the early wakings are happening in the first place.
What is an early morning waking?
Early rising is typically defined as:
Baby or toddler habitually waking earlier than 6 AM
Most babies need 10.5 to 12 hours of sleep overnight, so if your baby is hitting that number, you’re probably not dealing with an early waking. For instance, if your baby is going to bed at 7 PM and waking up at 6 AM, this isn’t considered an early morning wake. While early for us, your baby is sleeping a restorative 11 hours and waking at an appropriate hour.
Why do they happen?
Early wakings can happen for a multitude of reasons, but there are some common triggers to take note of when figuring out why your baby is rising early:
#1: Environmental disturbances
One of the easiest fixes might be in your baby’s sleep environment. Noise, light, temperature, and wet diapers are usually the culprits here. Sunlight sneaking into their room or a garbage truck making its early rounds can be enough to get their day started at an early hour.
What you can do:
A white noise machine can be a game-changer. It drowns out background noise so your baby isn’t startled awake by the outside world.
It might be time to upgrade the “blackout curtains” to legitimate blackout curtains. Light is stimulating to the brain, so sunlight creeping in can easily wake them up.
The ideal temperature for baby’s sleep environment is is 68 to 72 degrees. Body temperature impacts not only sleep onset but also the sleep quality and the time spent in restorative sleep stages. Of course, families live in different climates and babies can and do sleep soundly when dressed accordingly. It may not be realistic to heat your home to 72 degrees or cool it to 68 degrees, so dress your baby appropriately for their environment. Remember that hands and feet are not a good indicator of baby’s body temp so check their core: back of the neck, chest, back or tummy.
Get some good overnight diapers. Honest has a wide variety of sizes.
#2: Sleep pressure
Sleep is governed by sleep pressure and circadian rhythm. Your baby’s need for sleep builds up as they stay awake (sleep pressure), whilst circadian rhythm regulates sleep-wake cycles, largely influenced by light and timing. If your little one naps too much during the day or doesn’t have enough sensory input throughout the day, they may struggle to sleep comfortably into the morning.
What you can do:
Make sure your baby is getting enough wake time and plenty of sensory input during the day. This might mean waking them up from their last nap at a certain time, adding more time in between their naps or pushing bedtime slightly later.
Assess their nap schedule and decide if it may be time to drop a nap. Reducing the number of naps can help build the right amount of sleep pressure, leading to fewer early morning wake-ups.
#3: Over-tiredness and cortisol
On the flip side, keeping your baby awake for too long can also cause early mornings.
When babies get overtired, their bodies naturally releases cortisol to stay awake.This hormone can make it harder for them to fall into a deep, restorative sleep, leading to fragmented rest. By the early morning hours, the body’s natural sleep cycle becomes lighter, and the presence of this hormone can actually cause them to wake up fully instead of continuing to sleep.
What you can do:
Instead of keeping them up late in hopes of a longer sleep, focus on getting the timing right for bedtime. A consistent bedtime routine within their natural sleep window will help extend nighttime sleep.
#4: Nap Transitions
If your baby is transitioning from three naps to two or from two naps to one, their sleep needs are being consolidated into different pockets of time which can lead to early wake-ups.
What you can do:
Give your baby time to adjust to their new nap schedule while also being mindful not to reinforce the early waking pattern. While it’s normal if early mornings pop up for a week or so, your response will help even things out.
#5: Early Bedtime
While it might seem like an early bedtime will give you a longer break in the evening, it can sometimes backfire in the mornings. If your baby is going to bed at 6:30 PM and waking up at 5:30 AM, they’re getting a solid 11 hours of sleep. That’s not an early waking issue, it’s a bedtime issue.
What you can do:
If you’d rather they wake up later, try gradually pushing the entire schedule back by 10-15 minutes until you find a better balance between sleep and wake times. it’s important to move the entire schedule versus simply moving bedtime.
#6: Illness or Teething
If your baby has been sick or is dealing with teething, sleep disruptions can ramp up suddenly. Even after they’ve recovered, early morning wake-ups can become a habit.
What you can do:
Once your baby is feeling better, take action to get back on track. Stick to a consistent wake-up time and avoid reinforcing the early wake-ups by starting the day earlier. (See more reinforcers below!)
#8: Hunger
Last but not least, hunger can be a big reason why babies wake up early, especially younger infants. If your baby wakes up hungry at the crack of dawn, they’re going to have a hard time settling back to sleep without a feed regardless of their sleep skills.
What you can do:
Consider offering a dream feed before you go to bed or a nutritious snack closer to bedtime. This will help keep them full through the night and reduce the chance of hunger waking them up too early.
Why is it sticking around? Early waking reinforcers:
Starting the day as normal
It’s tempting to start the day when your baby wakes up early, but if you adjust everything to accommodate those early mornings (like giving more naps or starting meals earlier), you might be reinforcing the habit. The earlier the naps fall, the earlier the bedtime, and the cycle repeats.
What you can do:
Instead of starting the day when your baby wakes up early, try to gently stretch the time between waking and the first nap.
Hold off on feeding or turning on the lights right away. This can help reset their body clock to a more reasonable wake-up time. (take a look at how I helped a client work through this exact problem!)
Lacking confidence
Your baby has always struggled 4 AM onwards so you’ve always supported sleep at this hour. As sweet as that is, it’s not so sweet every day at 4 AM. If you’re picking your baby up, rocking, singing, or moving them to your bed, they may simply be accustomed to this support and not have had a chance to settle themselves when sleep pressure is lighter.
What you can do:
Treat all wakings before 6:30 AM or 6 AM (depending on bedtime and child’s sleep needs) as a night waking. Commit to letting them settle in their sleep space. Practice makes progress.
Not giving routines a chance
You’ve tried capping the nap, you’ve tried a later bedtime, you’re doing the dream feed, but nothing is working. Chances are, you’re not being consistent enough to see any progress or be able to identify what’s working and what’s not working.
What you can do:
Give your new routines a longer “test period” before moving on to the next one.
Instead of trying a million things at once observe how your baby responds for 7-10 days after making one or two well-thought out adjustments.
The exceptions- natural early birds and low sleep needs
Sometimes, babies are just early risers by nature. While most early mornings are solvable, some of our sleep predispositions are actually genetic, meaning that if you or your partner are early risers, your baby might be an early riser.
If your baby seems to be up with the larks regardless of bedtime, you may just have an early riser who needs an early bedtime to match.
If your baby is waking up happy and well-rested after 10 or 10.5 hours of sleep, they might need less nighttime sleep than other babies. With low sleep needs babies, you can often adjust the nap schedule and/or bedtime if you’d like a longer nighttime stretch.
Remember, it will take time, and you’re not alone.
Even when you’ve identified the root cause of early morning wakings and made the appropriate changes, you will need to be patient as your child’s circadian rhythm adjusts. If they’re accustomed to wakings at 5AM, their internal body clock will need time to reset. This is why making a schedule change alongside behavioral modification both need to be part of the plan.
If you’re up at 5:00 AM every day with your baby, you’re in good company.
But just because something is common, doesn't mean it’s normal or should stay that way, and here’s the proof:
“I cannot say enough great things about Ella! My husband and I were waking up every 2-3 hours and up before 5:30am for 9 months. We wanted to take it slow and not begin with the CIO method. Ella had clear methods for us, was great with communications, and just an overall pleasure to be coached by. Our son started sleeping through the night by night 5 and started sleeping to 6:30 am by week 2. Don't hesitate to book a session with her - My only regret was not booking sooner!”
Ellen BerryIf you feel like you’ve tried it all with no results, it might be time for some extra support. Book a consultation call with me, and let’s see if we can get your whole family sleeping in later by next week.
