How to Get Your Toddler to Sleep Later (Part One)

Is your kiddo up and ready to party in the 5am hour every morning?

Ugh.

I swear I think ALL kids go through a phase like this.

Toddlers waking up at 5am has been a super common phenomenon with families during the summer months and especially since COVID hit.

But, you don’t have to brew extra coffee just to get through the day.

You can put away the concealer for under your eyes.

There are a few simple tips that can get your toddler’s sleep back on track.

Because toddler should be sleeping until at LEAST 6am.

Part One: How to get your toddler to sleep later - until at least 6am

1. Put them to bed earlier

When kids wake up before 6:00, there’s probably something “off” with their sleep schedule. Sleep begets sleep -- which means that in order for kids to sleep well, they have to be

getting enough total sleep.

One of the clues that a toddler isn’t getting enough sleep is when they consistently wake up before 6am.

So, the solution is to move bedtime earlier.

Move bedtime 15-minutes earlier.

Give it 5 - 7 nights of the earlier bedtime to see a difference.

The Magic of the Early Bedtime doesn’t happen over one night.

You need a consistent base of good sleep from the early bedtime before you start seeing the benefits.

2. Make the morning boring

Listen, if Jimmy wakes up at 5:30 and gets to crawl in bed with you and snuggle, or grab an iPad and start watching Paw Patrol – that’s a pretty awesome morning. I’m not sure he’d want to miss that!

Think about how you can make your toddler’s morning experience as boring as possible. As little interaction with family members as possible and certainly no food or screen time.

The less Jimmy has to look forward to in those pre-dawn hours, the more quickly his body will learn that there is nothing to be in a hurry to wake up for, and he will naturally start to sleep later.

It’s usually the combo effect of both of these tips used together that is the game changer to get toddlers to sleep later.

In Part Two, I’ll show you how to keep your kiddo happily in her room until whatever time YOU want her day to start 😉

Sleep Tight!