Sleeping FAQ: 12-18 Months – Early Morning Waking

My 15-month-old daughter is waking at 5am, but not through hunger.

My daughter has started to wake around 5am. I have had a previous problem with her waking early and her reluctance to be left alone at night. Through studying the books and help from other mothers on the site, I cut back on her morning nap, so she was having only 15-20 minutes, and I made sure she was always down by 1pm. After about 4 weeks she began waking nearer 7am, even though her lunchtime nap was usually no more than an hour. I also cut out the afternoon milk, which resulted in her eating better at 5pm. During the last week the lunchtime nap has got better and she will sleep for 1hour 30minutes. She has, however, started to wake earlier and earlier in the morning. Today it was 5am. She doesn’t stand up in her cot, she just cries. It starts with a little crying, but then it gets progressively worse. We always leave her as long as possible before going into her room. This morning I tried to give her some milk at 6am, but she wouldn’t take it. I then got her up at 7am and began the routine, but she still would not take more than 3oz of milk. I am getting down and tired as I tried so hard to change her daytime sleep, and although the lunchtime nap was not great, she was at least sleeping until 7am. I don’t think my daughter is genuinely ready to wake at 5am, and certainly I can’t take much more of the early starts.

She takes 4-6oz of formula at 7am and another 4-6oz at 6.30pm. She has three main meals a day and is offered water at lunch and tea. She naps at 9.30-9.45am and 1-2.15pm, and is settled at 7pm.

It can be very frustrating when you think you have solved a problem, only for it to reappear again a few weeks later. As you have found, it can take a while to reset the sleep cycles of a baby, and you did well to shorten the morning nap in order to do so. In the next few months this nap may need to be dropped altogether, but only once your daughter is waking at 7-7.30am.

At this age, development in all areas is extensive. Your daughter may be walking now, or if not pulling herself up on furniture and cruising around. She will be starting to talk and is able to do so many more things with her hands than a few months ago. This is exhausting. Watch a baby of this age and they are constantly on the go. While their need for daytime sleep does decrease and they are able to go longer stretches between naps, they do need to have a good night’s sleep in order to fully recharge. Even though your daughter has lengthened her lunchtime sleep to 1.5hours, she is still likely to be tired out by the end of the day. If she falls straight into a deep sleep, she is more likely to wake early in the morning when she enters her last cycle of sleep around 5am. Putting her to bed at least 20 minutes earlier, so she spends some time chatting to herself before sleeping, could well help the problem. You will need to be persistent as it can take at least two weeks for a difference to be detected. Just make sure she has a low key bath and bedtime so she will be relaxed and sleepy by the time she goes into her cot, but not so tired that she falls asleep immediately.

Now that your daughter is over a year old and is eating a good meal at teatime, she should be able to wait until breakfast and take her milk from a beaker. Check also that there are no external reasons disturbing her sleep, such as light or noise. It is also worth making sure that she is neither too hot nor too cold, especially in the early hours, as this may be reason enough for her to wake fully.

Once you are sure that all these possible reasons for early waking have been accounted for, you may consider putting some sleep training into place. If your daughter manages to settle herself at naps and at 7pm without fussing, then by gradually increasing the time you leave her before checking should help her to learn to settle back to sleep again in the early hours.