Exhausted parents across the UK have been offered a lifeline by a professional health visitor, who has detailed the precise reasons why babies, toddlers, and young children often wake before 6am. Ruth, a health visitor based in England who shares parenting guidance on TikTok, posted a video earlier this week addressing this widespread struggle, providing both explanations and practical strategies to help families get more rest.
External Factors and Bedtime Timing
Ruth's first piece of advice is to rule out any external influences disrupting a child's sleep. Light creeping into the room, regular early morning noise outside the window, or the child being too cold can all be culprits. She recommends ensuring the bedroom is dark, using a fan or white noise machine to drown out external sounds, and keeping children warm enough, suggesting socks as a simple tip during colder months.
Another key factor is bedtime itself. "For a lot of babies, toddlers and children, only some of them require 10 or 11 hours of night time sleep," Ruth explains. If a child is getting substantial daytime naps and is put to bed as early as 6pm or 7pm, their "sleep cup" can be full by the early hours. The solution can be as subtle as pushing bedtime later by 15 minutes every couple of nights until the early waking subsides.
Nap Schedules and Developmental Leaps
For babies still taking multiple naps, the timing of the first nap is crucial. If a child wakes at 5am and is put back down for a nap at 6am because they seem tired, this can actually reinforce the early rising pattern. Ruth advises either making that first nap extremely short or gradually pushing it later by increments of just five minutes every few days.
Major developmental leaps, such as learning to roll, crawl, walk, or talk, can also disrupt sleep. A common issue for toddlers is toilet training. "We can often see they wake early because the bladder is full and they need to go for a wee," says Ruth. Once awake, the release of the hormone cortisol makes it difficult for them to fall back asleep.
Practical Tools and Managing Expectations
For toddlers struggling with early waking, Ruth recommends using a GroClock, which can be set to teach children when it's an acceptable time to get up. She suggests starting with a realistic time, such as 5.30am if they currently wake at 5am, and then gradually moving it later in 15-minute increments over several days. During this training, parents should treat any wake-up before the clock's signal as night time.
Ultimately, Ruth confirms that some children are simply early risers by nature. If all advice has been tried, she recommends creating a safe, age-appropriate environment in their room with books or quiet toys, allowing them to occupy themselves until the designated wake-up time. "Setting realistic expectations that some children will never wake at 7am. And that's unfortunately how it is," she concludes, sharing that her own older children would read or play quietly in the morning.
The NHS provides general sleep guidelines which Ruth's advice complements: toddlers aged two to three typically need 9-12 hours of night sleep plus a 1-2 hour nap, while children aged two to five need around 12 hours of sleep in total.
