3 year old waking at 4am ready to start the day!

[newmamma_aug07]

My 3 year old has always had sleep issues. For the last couple months, he has been waking at around 4am about 5 nights a week. He won't go back to sleep despite my best efforts. I'm thinking it might be because DH gets up for work at 4:45am. Regardless, I'm not a fan of waking up that early. He goes to bed about 7pm (trust me, he's ready at that time!). Any advice on getting him to sleep a little more? I've heard of sleep clocks like this one but don't know how effective they are.

[goodygumdrops]

Wow.  That's got to be hard. The only think I could think of is to move his bedtime later.  I know he probably needs it and you do to but maybe if you did it gradually...like a half an hour at a time. 

My 3.5 year old always wakes up around 7;30 which I think is early on a weekend.  Lately, I've been setting him up with snacks and a dvd and then I get to go back to bed.  I think it really depends on each child but my son does really well...he's very independent. 

good luck