We have battled our son's early-bird tendencies ever since he started sleeping through the night. When we are successful, he will go several weeks sleeping until 7-7:30 and then, suddenly, he will be back to his 5AM wake-up call. If he would lay with me in bed, watch a DVD, or even play quietly, this would be no big deal, but he is ready to go, ready to play, just plain ready when he wakes up.
He is also in a pretty foul mood when he gets up early, which puts his mother in a pretty foul mood, which makes no one all that happy. We have researched and experimented ways to get him to sleep in a little later and we found three things that did actually did work for us.
1) Putting Him To Bed Earlier
This seemed so counter-intuitive, but it did work when he was younger (around 12 months). We had been putting him to bed between 8-8:30, and he was waking up around 5. One morning (at 5:15) I was madly searching the Internet for some way to get him to sleep a little later and came across some information that suggested to try putting your Early Bird to bed earlier. We did, and it worked almost immediately. We moved his bedtime to 7:30 and he started sleeping until about 7 every morning. Weird, and I have no idea why it worked, but it did work.
2) Crying It Out
I am not a big believer in letting kids cry it out. I see nothing wrong with parents that do, it's just a technique does not work for me personally. But desperate times and all that, right? Anyway, at another point when our son was getting up really early, we decided to let him cry for 10-15 minute increments. I was determined to make him stay in his crib until 6 AM. It only took a couple of mornings for it to help. He first woke at 5AM and we waited until 5:15 to get him. We did this a couple of times and he started sleeping a little later and soon we were waiting until 5:45 to get him, and then suddenly he started sleeping until 7.
3) (In Direct Opposistion to #1) Put Him To Bed Later
The time change back in the fall really confused my son 's sleeping habits. He went from sleeping soundly all night from 7:30-7:00 to waking in the middle of the night and getting up early. Most people tell me their kids' adjust after a week or so.... but not my kid. He only recently became a good sleeper again. It took several weeks. One adjustment I made was to his bedtime. When he was younger putting him to bed earlier helped, now that he is a little older, moving his bedtime later by about twenty minutes worked.
4)Teach Them To Use A Clock
My son is too young to do this, but when he gets a little older, I plan on teaching him to recognize numbers on a digital clock and not alllowing him out of bed until he sees a certain number, like 9:00. Just kidding! I wish....but I'll more than likely teach him to look for 7:00. When he sees that 7 is the first number, then he can get out of bed. I have heard of numerous people doing this and they say it works well, when the child is old enough.
I have decided that, like most things parenting, adjusting sleeping habits calls for lots of patience and lots of trial and error. Eventually something will work.