What should I do when my child wakes at 5am?

The short answer

Treat 5am waking as a timing and sleep-pattern question before treating it as defiance. Record bedtime, estimated sleep onset, waking, naps and daytime alertness for two weeks. Check whether the child has had a plausible full night for their individual needs, whether bedtime has drifted unusually early, and whether dawn light, heating, traffic, hunger, toileting, pain or medication coincide with waking. Decide in daylight what counts as morning and prepare a calm low-demand bridge until then: safe quiet choices, dim light, minimal negotiation and a visual cue for when the day starts. Do not demand silent wakefulness from a frightened or very young child, and do not keep pushing bedtime later without checking the whole pattern. Speak to the GP if early waking persists, changes suddenly, significantly affects the child or family, or occurs with pain, loud snoring, choking, breathing pauses, unusual events or marked daytime sleepiness.

• Establish whether 5am follows a full sleep period or a short, disrupted one.
• Check what changes in the room and body near dawn.
• Agree a realistic morning boundary and a safe bridge before it.
• Move bedtime gradually only when the recorded pattern supports doing so.
• Persistent or concerning early waking belongs in a GP conversation.