7yr old waking too early

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7yr old waking too early

Postby Tinks » Wed Jan 01, 2020 5:04 pm

Anyone else had this problem. my 7yr old grandson has been an early waker most of his life. He gets the required hours of sleep for his age but wakes between 4am and 5am which is very hard on my daughter who has tried everything. He is mostly vegan apart from his paternal grandparents feeding him meat and dairy. Anyone else had to deal with this, my daughter doesnt want him to take prescription dtrugs. He has done this from birth.
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Re: 7yr old waking too early

Postby michaelswarm » Wed Jan 01, 2020 6:19 pm

I would recommend investigating the natural sky rhythms like what the sun does where he lives, and how closely bed time matches, as well as exercise. What hours are dawn (first light) and dusk (last light) where he lives? And how closely do bed times match? What is the sleep routine of the parents?

For 10 hours of sleep, is he going to bed at 6-7pm? That seems early. But it’s winter and dark comes early further north in winter. Maybe artificial light and family activity can keep him up longer, so he sleeps later? Also, if there are no lights in the house, and rules against turning lights on, there is not much to do in the dark, and little incentive to get up early. Also, active kids (and adults) tend to sleep longer and better.

My kids, 5 and 7, go to sleep after dark (no lights after dark), after talking and fooling around some (7-8pm), and wake just before sunrise just before the sky begins to lighten (7am). That’s about 11 hours.

I also recall hearing some research that humans do naturally group into early, middle and late sleep groups, presumably so someone could be awake to tend the fire and watch throughout the night. Maybe he is just a natural early riser.
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Re: 7yr old waking too early

Postby Lyndzie » Wed Jan 01, 2020 7:12 pm

I have a 5 and 7 year old also, and we are in a similar time schedule. Bedtime is somewhere around 8-9, and they get up somewhere between 7-8. One of them is more of an early riser, and can get up as early as 6:45, but she knows to just wait in bed and not wake anyone else up. I’m assuming he’s not napping during the day, that could make things more difficult. And at the age of 7 they should be able to read quietly or grab a bowl of cereal and not disturb others. It doesn’t seem like a problem to me, just a quirk. Nothing that I could imagine drugs should be used for!
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Re: 7yr old waking too early

Postby Grammy Ginger » Thu Jan 02, 2020 3:51 pm

I raised a pile of kids. Some were larks and others owls. All ate approximately the same vegetarian-ish diet. I'm pretty sure your grandson's waking times have nothing to do with his diet.

This is how we solved the problem if you can call waking early a problem (I wake that early every day.) Anyway...

The child had to finish all chores before doing _____ (insert favorite activity.) One lark son loved video games. After he cleaned his room, completed his big chore (putting away clean laundry, cleaning the boy's bathroom, dusting the living room, etc), made his bed, combed his hair, brushed his teeth, dressed for the day, and read for 20 minutes, he was allowed to play until 6 am breakfast. He was also forbidden to bother anyone else.

We did a similar thing for our owls. They could stay up as late as they wanted after bedtime if they were in bed reading and got up in the morning as soon as their alarm went off.

They all tested my resolve with these and other limits but found they liked self-regulation. Owls and larks learned to get enough sleep all on their own. My lark son learned very quickly that the faster he finished his work the more time there was for play. He eventually taught his friends to be early risers and quick chorers after they wasted playtime fussing about choring.

AND if either set of our parents dared disrespect our wishes like your grandson's paternal grandparents did, they would not have the privilege of a one on one visit again for a VERY long time if ever. But...our parents simply wouldn't have done such a thing. We didn' t give our little kids sweets too often, so Grandma always asked me first before offering our children ANYTHING to eat.
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