Any ideas how to get DS to sleep later?

He used to sleep until about 7. For some reason the past few weeks he is up at 5:30. Yesterday he was up at 4:30 He will lay in his bed or go downstairs and play but he is not getting enough rest IMO. I tried putting him to bed later around 8 or 8:30 and it didn't help. He goes to school in the afternoon but by then he is exhausted. His teacher said he is fine there but when he gets home he is overtired and fresh. Any ideas?

Re: Any ideas how to get DS to sleep later?

Do you have a lot of trees around your house / his bedroom? The birds have been sooooooooooo loud by us the past few weeks and wake me all the time and I believe they woke my younger DS this morning. Maybe try a noise machine or fan one night to drown that out, see if it helps?

Re: Any ideas how to get DS to sleep later?

Ugh, it's like this in our house. Any slight noise after 4:30am will wake the boys up. I have a sound machine in both rooms. Darkening shades also. I now tell Jack that if he wants to get up he has to look out his window first....if the sun is not up he has to go back to sleep. Not sure if it works or not but it sounds good

Re: Any ideas how to get DS to sleep later?

Room darkening shades definitely help... Also, Leighla recommended a Teach Me alarm clock that turns green from yellow when it's OK to get up. Set it for 7 a.m. and tell him it's not morning until the clock turns green. Good luck!

Re: Any ideas how to get DS to sleep later?

Same thing is happening here too. DD would wake around 7:30-8am, but the last few weeks she's been getting up between 5:30-6:30am. We tried putting her down later too, but that didn't really help!

Re: Any ideas how to get DS to sleep later?

We put toys in DD's crib right before we go to sleep and long after DD fell asleep. She has a stuffed monkey rattle, a teething toy and a 'touch and feel' book. She wakes up at the same time, but she keeps herself occupied for longer. We get her once she starts crying.