Causes of early rising

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Causes of early rising

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Your baby keeps waking up at 5 AM for probably one or more of the following four reasons: The first one is your baby may be going to bed too late, which is super, super common. Lots of parents are putting their children to bed too late hoping they'll sleep better at night, but it actually causes the early rising. So probably somewhere between 7 and 8 PM is a good bedtime on average. The second reason could be if their baby is not getting enough naps during the day and enough restorative, long enough naps, because for instance a 6-month old needs 3 to 3 1/2 hours of nap time during the day. The third cause that's very common is that they're awake too long before bedtime. So maybe they have a nap from 11 to 1 PM and then they don't go to bed till 8:00, and that long window makes them overtired, which makes them have difficulty going to sleep and staying asleep, and it causes the early rising. And the fourth one that's the most difficult to understand and relate to is that if you put your baby down too drowsy so that they don't know the skill or haven't learned the skill of putting themselves to sleep, and then they can't apply it at that really hard time to go back to sleep, like 5 am. So it's probably one or more of those causes.

Learn about: Causes of early rising from Kim West, LCSW-C,...

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Kim West, LCSW-C

Psychotherapist & Author, The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight

Kim West is a mother of two and a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical (LCSW-C) who has been a practicing child and family social worker for more than 19 years. Known as The Sleep Lady by her clients, over the past 12 years she has helped thousands of tired parents all over the world learn to listen to their intuition, recognize their child’s important cues and behaviors, and gently create changes that promote and preserve his or her healthy sleep habits. 

West has appeared on the Dr. Phil, Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, TLC’s Bringing Home Baby  and CNN, and has been written about in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Baby Talk,  Parenting, The Baltimore Sun, USA Today, The Telegraph, The Irish Independent and the Washington Post. West hosts the sleep section of The Newborn Channel, played in maternity wards in hospitals across the country. West is the author of The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight: Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy with Joanne Kenen. She is also the author of 52 Sleep Secrets for Babies and The Good Night, Sleep Tight Workbook.

Kim received her master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. She lives with her family in Annapolis, Maryland.

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