I have a daughter who is 12 who sometimes will stay up later than my 5 yr old. He thinks he is missing out on something if she gets to stay up later - so I know the feeling there.
What we do is enlist her help with getting him to bed. She gets her pajamas on, brushes her teeth, kisses good night, etc at the same time he does. It appears to him that we are tucking him into bed, and tucking her in right behind him. We are letting her stay up later, but he doesn't know that. =) Sneaky I know - but it saves a tantrum!
Maybe it would work for you - I dunno - but it might be worth a shot.
Has he always been an early riser? My son (adhd, 9) got up between 5 and 5:30 every day for the first 4 years of his life. He's gradually gotten better over the years, but is still the first one up.
I know this sounds really backward, but when my son gets tired he moves faster. When he was younger I learned to put him to bed as soon as his energy level started to go up in the evening. Sometimes when kids get over-tired they actually sleep worse instead of better and then get caught in a cycle of sleeping poorly and being over-tired, which then leaves them sleeping poorly again.
I never did figure out how to get him to go back to sleep when he woke up early though- just how to prevent him from waking even earlier. By the time he was 3 he could work the tv, so I would just make sure it was on PBS before I went to bed and he eventually stopped waking me up.
The only other thing I can think of is to make sure you're not letting him eat/drink anything other than water before breakfast. If he gets used to eating early than he'll definitely keep waking up early because his tummy will tell him it's breakfast time!
Sounds simple but have you tried putting him to bed later at night?? Or when he wakes try getting him to go back to sleep? I know someone that her son wakes at 5AM and she takes him down on the couch with his pillow and blanket and he falls back to sleep. Just some ideas. Good luck.Does anyone have any ideas? I have a 4 yr old son who has been diagnosed with combined adhd. He is getting up earlier and earlier and its effecting the entire family including waking our 1 year old. I am at my wits end to know how to get him to sleep beyond 5am. This results in huge tantrums at the end of the day as he is completely exhausted with tiredness but refuses to go to bed until he collapses in a heap.Any help would be so welcome,
thanks
Unfortunely I cannot let him stay up late, its not physically possible poor boy is so tired he can barely speak and often does himself an injury as for some reason he will start racing round and squirming around that often results in a badly judged leap over some item of furniture etc.
Also no hope of getting him back off to sleep - his mind is racing and he is literally ready to go - he races to the loo and back like a rocket.
Maybe he is in a cycle of poor sleep. As his older sister needs less sleep and is often staying up, he hates to feel he is missing out and refuses to go to bed 'earlier'. Only time he has had a lie in is when he was on drowsy cough medicine administered at 4am! Dare I say, it was bliss.
Thanks for your messages I will endeavour to get him in bed early and break this cycle if it is - lets hope.