Author’s practical guidance
Five in the morning and the clock that decides
Source named in the book: trials comparing bedtime approaches (Gradisar)
Early waking has three usual causes and they need opposite fixes.
Say this now
“It's still sleep time. Your light is red.”
An object holds the rule, so you are not the one refusing at five in the morning.
“When it turns yellow, come and find me.”
Gives them a job for the waiting and a moment worth waiting for.
Do this
- Add up their sleep across a week first — nap and night together.
- Set the clock to their real waking time, then move it later in ten-minute steps.
- Black the room out properly and deal with birds and traffic before anything else.
- Keep the hour before six dull — no screen, no breakfast, no coming into your bed.
- Change one cause at a time and give it ten days.
Avoid this
- Moving bedtime earlier to buy a later morning — more time in bed is the most common cause of the problem.
- Starting the day whenever they call — a reliable morning at five is a morning worth waking for.
- Testing all three fixes in one week — you will not know which one moved it.
If it repeats
If nothing moves after three weeks, the answer is usually that this child needs less sleep than the schedule assumes. A later bedtime feels like the wrong direction and is frequently the one that works — try it for a fortnight before you decide it is not.
Why the book suggests this
Early waking has three usual causes and they need opposite fixes. Too much time in bed for this child. Light and noise arriving at five. Or a morning that is worth waking for — company, a screen, a bottle, your bed.
Gradisar's trials point at the first one, because it is the one nobody suspects. A child put down at seven who needs eleven hours will be awake at six whatever you do at the window, and pushing bedtime earlier to fix an early morning usually makes it earlier still.
From this collection
Same Words: Every Night
45 prepared situations in this family area.