Early Mornings

Don’t know about you, but I’m wondering when children grow out of early mornings?  My son J is 6 and still wakes me before 6am on a regular basis.  Even on a relative lie in day, I’d be very lucky to make it past 6.30.  And it has to be mummy that gets up too, but that’s another story.

Changing bedtime makes no difference.  Even when he went to bed at midnight (we arrived late back from holiday) he was up at 6.30 the next day.  This makes occasional late nights and tiring days problematic as he doesn’t get any extra sleep in the morning to compensate and hence is grumpy for a day or two while he recovers.  We do try to keep to the routine and don’t like to vary from it by more than about half an hour as a result.  Some parents seem to be unconcerned about keeping their children up later on holiday, etc.  Maybe they have children who recover quicker and aren’t adverse to the occasional lie in.

So what happens when children get older and change their sleeping patterns.  Will he change overnight into a teenager like child wanting long lie ins?  Will it be gradual?  Is it in steps and stages? What’s your experience of sleep development in children?  What can I expect for the future?

Update: Just to let you know how long it took.  By about 9 years of age he was sleeping in a bit later at the weekends, say 7 or 7.30.  By 11 he was sleeping in till 8 or 8.30.  Now as a teenager I have trouble getting him out of bed before 10.30 or 11 if there isn’t a reason to get up for.  He’s also started going to bed later: say 10.30 on a weekday and midnight at the weekend.  Interestingly though he’s fairly regular in his sleeping hours because he doesn’t over do it if he goes to a sleep over or similar.  He’s often asleep soon after midnight.  He has become a boy who likes a lot of sleep and I’m glad about that as I understand it aids development and growth.