Why the light isn’t working yet

An OK-to-wake clock asks one thing: wait until the light changes. If your child wakes at 5:15 and the light comes on at 6:30, the wait is over an hour, which is a long time for a small child to stay put. Many give up and come to find you, and the light never gets the chance to be the thing that says “now”.

So the steps below start from a wait your child can manage and make it a little longer as they get the idea. They are our suggestion for setting the clock, worked out from how these clocks behave; no medical body or study sets the size of each step, so adapt them to your child. The American Academy of Pediatrics describes a similar idea, small changes over several days, for moving a child’s schedule around a daylight saving change; that advice is about clock changes, not early waking.

Start where your child is

  • For three or four mornings, write down when your child actually wakes up, not when they come out of the room.
  • Set the wake-up light 5 to 10 minutes after that usual time. The first mornings are about seeing the light change while they wait.
  • When it changes, praise them for noticing it and waiting.

Then move it later in small steps

After two or three good mornings, move the light 10 or 15 minutes later. If a few mornings in a row go badly, go back one step and stay there a little longer. The clock-change planner turns your start time, target time and step into a dated table you can print, so everyone setting the clock moves it on the same days; treat its dates as the earliest you would move on, not a deadline.

Keep the target realistic for your family: the aim is a wake-up time you can all live with, set on the clock, not a particular number of hours of sleep.

An “almost time” light helps the wait

Some clocks show a different color shortly before the wake-up light, which tells a child who is awake that it is nearly time. MELLA can glow yellow 5, 15 or 30 minutes before green, and LittleHippo’s manual calls this a time to play quietly in the room until the light turns green. ZAZU Sam and Pam glow orange for 30 minutes before wake-up, and the Baby Shark clock half-opens its eyes 30 minutes before, their makers say. On Hatch clocks you can add a step to a routine yourself.

Give them something to do while they wait

  • A few books or a quiet toy by the bed, put there the night before.
  • One clear rule, said the same way by everyone: “When it’s green, you can come and get us.” The introduction guide helps you write it down for a grandparent or sitter.
  • Help always comes first. A child who is ill, scared or needs the toilet should come to you whatever the light says.
  • A morning chart with a sun to color in for each morning they waited.

When the light isn’t the problem

Early sunrise through thin curtains, a noisy street or a bright clock display can all wake a child before any light could help; blackout curtains or turning the display down are worth trying first. If your child snores, seems very sleepy during the day or you are worried about their sleep, talk to their doctor; the American Academy of Pediatrics explains which breathing signs to mention.

Sources

Details can differ between versions and countries. Dates show when we last checked something that changes, like stock or a recall. Every source we use