Why do babies and children always wake up so early?

How early did they go to bed? That might have something to do with it. :)

When my first son was born, I bought opaque shades for the bedroom. The sun didn’t rise until I said it did.

Most healthy young children will get a higher quality of sleep than us angsty grown-ups, and not need to go back to sleep. They are also excited to face each day, where we can sometimes figure the day can wait for another hour. Then the day comes when you can’t get them out of bed in the morning.

It’s also an annoying conspiracy.

They are hungry. Their little bodies need to be fed more often. If a baby is nursing he needs to be fed even more often. Their bodies process mommies milk very efficiently.

I always got up early because I was forced to go to bed against my will so early. My bedtime was 7pm for most of my childhood, and even into my teenaged years it was 9pm in bed, 10pm lights out. First off, I was born a night owl. We know now that some people are born night owls and some day larks. It’s genetic. There’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. This makes sense, since there is an evolutionary advantage to having a pool of people in the tribe who are naturally more alert at night to watch for danger while the rest of the tribe sleeps. When not forced by the tyranny of the day lark majority to bend my schedule to theirs, I prefer to sleep from about 8am to 2 pm. As a child, since I was forced to go to sleep just as I was getting my best energy, I never slept very much.

Because they go to bed early.

I don’t think they wake up early, I think they wake up a certain amount of hours after they went to sleep.

As a child and even now I prefer to sleep late.

Something else occurred to me in addition to what others have said…

If they have nap times, that could explain it as well!

@SmashTheState me too. :) I also resent my childhood bedtime, to this day.

I resent school starting so early. I was exhausted and could have done much better in school with later hours. I did do better my senior year when my first period teacher let me be late every day. An extra hour of sleep.

@JLeslie I really struggled with tardiness all of my school life, because I could never sleep. I never had insomnia, although starting in my early teens doctors started giving me sleeping medication for “insomnia.” My body just really wants to sleep in the early morning hours. Come 1–2am, I feel like I’ve had a pot of coffee, I am ready and motivated. Been that way for as long as I can remember.

@ANef_is_Enuf The whole world is run by day larks, for day larks. It never even occurs to them that there’s a large minority who were born night owls. For example, there are laws governing how late telemarketers and collection agents are allowed to call, just as there are noise bylaws which prevent major construction from being carried out at night. But no one gives a shit if the phone rings every ten minutes while we night owls are trying to sleep, and it has been a lifelong irritation that piledrivers and jackhammers always start up the instant I’m ready for bed in the morning. In the city where I live, they even have bylaws “closing” public parks late at night under the assumption that all the good people are at home asleep, and only ne’er-do-wells are up and around.

It would be interesting to know the statistics on things like average income and lifespan of night owls versus day larks. I suspect night owls are at a significant disadvantage. I know a number of studies have linked shift work to serious health problems.

@ANef_is_Enuf I sleep very well typically, especially when I was younger. I just wanted everything shifter two hours later, so my problem was not as extreme as yours. My mom says she loved summer when we were young, so she did not have to drag my sister and I out of bed in the morning.

As an adult I would be thrilled to go to bed regularly between 11:00 and 12:00 and wake up around 8:00am. When I was younger a little later would have been more preferable. My husband gets up at 5am most days and I hate it! He is falling asleep by 9:00 at night. On the weekends if we have a late date with friends he can barely stay awake sometimes. I hate it. Sometimes he just doesn’t want to go to evening get togethers. I hate it.

I know people who say nothing good happens after midnight. I hate that expression. Lots of hate in my post here. :).

@SmashTheState I wouldn’t be surprised. I know that I have spent more time in my life without any sleep at all as a direct result of attempting to adhere to a “normal” sleep schedule. There is no way that is good for the body.
@JLeslie my husband’s natural sleep schedule sounds a lot like yours. He isn’t flipped to the extreme, like I am, but he prefers to stay up a little on the late side, and wake up closer to 9am, sometimes 10. Though, he probably spent at least the first 5 years with me being completely confused by my own sleep habits. lol.