Sleeping FAQ: 18-24 Months – Early Morning Waking

Since moving into her own room my 18-month-old daughter is waking very early.

My daughter always slept well from 7pm to 6-7am since she was 10 weeks old. We moved house 6 weeks ago and it was all right still. My children now have a room each; since birth my daughter had shared with her brother who is 2 years older. In the beginning there were no problems with separating them. In the past 2 weeks after a teething bout she is now waking at 5-5.30am. On some mornings my daughter will respond to controlled crying after a few minutes. But she doesn’t go back to sleep. She only chatters or is quiet until 6am. On a few mornings I have had to do controlled crying for 45 minutes by which time her 3.5 yr brother is awake and it is then time to get up anyway. This early waking affects her daytime sleep and she needs 30 minutes at 9-9.30am. She then sleeps 1-2 hrs after lunch at 12.30/1pm.

We are at a loss to know how to get her to sleep longer as I feel I can’t drop her morning nap while she wakes so early and her brother (who still naps most afternoons) is very tired if he is woken early by her. She rarely wakes in the night. Both children are so good in most things although have always been early risers (7am is a luxury), but before 6am is too early. She settles at night by 6.30pm.

Getting enough daytime sleep at the right times can be tricky at this age, and is compounded with early waking. Try pushing all her naps on a little so her bedtime moves nearer to 7pm. This should push her whole cycle on a little, but it could take at least a week or more for you to notice the effect in the early morning.

Begin by moving her morning nap on towards 9.30am. Although she is tired in the morning due to her early start, you should manage to do this if you put her down 5 minutes later every three days, so moving her on slowly. Limit this nap to 20-30 minutes, even if you have to wake her. Moving this on should help move on the lunchtime nap so she is going down at 1pm. If she then sleeps until 2.30pm she will be able to stay up until nearer 7pm. Once she is going down at this later bedtime, provided she is not falling into an exhausted sleep straight away, she should sleep in later in the morning.

Check her room for any chinks of light and check that she is neither too hot or too cold, which can be another reason for early waking.