Our son is 5 and has never been a good sleeper. He was awful when he was a baby for the first 3-4 yrs. It gradually got better but it’s still not great. He takes ages to go to sleep and then is usually awake about 5 – 5.30 am. He finds any excuse he can to get up – saying he needs a poo etc. It’s wearing us out! Wife’s expecting no.2 and is tired out anyway so this is isn’t helping. We even saw a specialist who concluded that he’s just one of those kids who doesn’t need much sleep. Anyone got any tips short of chaining him to the bed or moving his bed into the garage…. He doesn’t watch any hyper tv before bed, gets a story etc, has a night light, bottle of water by the bed. He just says sleep is boring!!

Sorry mods – stuck it in the wrong slot, feel free to move

Can’t offer any real advice, but you’re not alone. Our 4 year old has always been a crap sleeper, and like yours is one of those kids that just doesn’t need much sleep. She goes to bed around 9 and is up at 6. If she goes to bed earlier, her sleep is terrible. She’s like the Duracell bunny.

If your son is 5, has he started school? Has that made any difference? Small consolation is that in 8 years you’ll probably have the other problem and won’t be able to get him out of bed in the morning, bloomin teenagers.

Every kid is different, and while others proclaim ‘ours goes down at 7, and wakes at 7’ is great for them it’s not a one method works for all. Doesn’t help when you’re knackered though.

My parents had a baby/kid that wouldn’t sleep

50 years later, I’m no better 🙂

Just get yourself to bed as soon as he goes off and just enjoy the early mornings, it really is the best time of the day

or Phenergan 🙂

I’d echo uplink there, enjoy the mornings. Elmo’s world is on at 6.35am on C5. Or go for an early morning walk with them. We do that often, and it’s great being up and out before everyone. Also lets my wife get a longer lie.

How thick are his curtains – are they blackout?

We’ve already watched Wall-e this morning with a cuppa and it’s not gone 0800 yet.

Feel for you… Been there.

M6TTF – Member
Sorry mods – stuck it in the wrong slot

If only you had done that over 5 years ago. 😉

It’s just a phase, wait until the teenage years 1pm is considered an early rise. 🙄

You need to go to bed earlier so it don’t wear you out, especially with a new one on the way. Most kids get up early, that’s kids.

mine goes to be at 6:20 and gets up at 6:04!!

every day except weekends when its 5am!

Thick curtains done. He’s started school but made no difference. Thing is come 5.30pm he’s absolutely knackered and would fall asleep on the sofa if you let him, then he seems to get a second wind and off he goes. Maybe he can get up in the night to feed his sibling 🙂

It’s a behavioural problem. I recommend you read a book called Toddler Taming by Christopher Green, it will explain how to train your child to sleep during the hours that suit you: http://www.amazon.com/Toddler-Taming-Survival-Guide-Parents/dp/0449901556

it will explain how to train your child to sleep during the hours that suit you

Train your child…………. 🙄

My son was very similar – was rubbish as a baby – still waking 3 or 4 times a night at 3.

By the time he was 5 he was sleeping through though, although he still woke early.

We just put a digital clock in his room and said “If it’s before 6 you lay there and go back to sleep, if it’s before 7 you can put your light on and read or play quitely but you can’t disturb us and if it’s after 7 you can go down and put a dvd on the the telly/atch tv and we’ll be down when we’re down.”

It generally worked, he knew what the rules were and, at 5, was old enough to follow them.

I’d try and find a way of dealing with this that doesn’t just lead to tension on all sides.

He’s 14 now and you wouldn’t believe how much I savour going into his room and waking him up to go to school each morning 8)

then he seems to get a second wind and off he goes

That sounds like over-tiredness to me. Our girls get more excitable as they get more tired (and subsequently wake earlier).

Perhaps try an entirely different routine and see if you can break his cycle? Get a ’Day/Night’ clock and encourage him to stay in bed (even if he is awake) until it is ‘daytime’ and reward the good behaviour?

Just get him doing some proper work during the day to tire him out. Chimney sweeping, mucking out pigs etc.
I’m sure he’ll sleep fine after that.

Our son is 5 and has never been a good sleeper. He was awful when he was a baby for the first 3-4 yrs. It gradually got better but it’s still not great. He takes ages to go to sleep and then is usually awake about 5 – 5.30 am. He finds any excuse he can to get up – saying he needs a poo etc. It’s wearing us out! Wife’s expecting no.2 and is tired out anyway so this is isn’t helping. We even saw a specialist who concluded that he’s just one of those kids who doesn’t need much sleep. Anyone got any tips short of chaining him to the bed or moving his bed into the garage…. He doesn’t watch any hyper tv before bed, gets a story etc, has a night light, bottle of water by the bed. He just says sleep is boring!!

My penny’s worth, although I don’t have direct experience of this…

Your son is now 5, so is perfectly old enough to understand that bedtime means bedtime.

I may be wrong, but from your description it sounds like he’s leading you both a merry dance because he knows he’ll get the attention etc.

It may be painful for a while, but I think you need to break the cycle by being firmer with him and make him know that all the messing around at night is not acceptable.

There must be someone on here, or an interwebs site, offering advice on the practicalities.

I know it may not be easy, or work, as friends of ours have had an awful 3 years with their two kids … but it’s maybe worth a try.

My 3 year old is a bit of a pain for this.
Often takes quite a while to get him to sleep, and then he’s sometimes up in the night, sometimes in our bed, sometimes wanting one of us in his, and then up properly at 6am.
Problem is, there’s no routine. Tried “controlled crying” once. It worked! Next night, no probs getting hime to sleep, next day, nightmare, next day, fine again.
And the day/night clock was a joke, he figured out quite soon to press the buttons to get the sun up!

Best thing we’ve found so far is to go with the flow. Try and relax him and there’s no point getting angry as it makes everyone worse.

Sleep is over-rated, thats why we go to work!

I may be wrong, but from your description it sounds like he’s leading you both a merry dance because he knows he’ll get the attention etc

The iminent arrival of number 2 may also be a contributing factor – all the parents I know with 4 year plus gaps in siblings have had more jealousy/attention issues, simply because they are that bit more self aware.

Crammed our 3 into a 5 year period, makes no difference you’re just knackered in a different way with different issues 🙂

I feel your pain, my boy was similar and to some extent its a little better now at the ripe old age of 8 1/2. He would struggle to go to sleep and then wake really early regardless of when he went to bed. We used to try and wear him out, challenge him more mentally and physically and it had very little effect on his sleeping time (It would just make him more moody the next day) so we just explained constantly that mommy and daddy needed sleep and taught him to switch the telly on which he started doing by himself since he was about 6. He still wakes up real early but keeps himself busy now and instead of forcing him to go to sleep in the evenings we have loosened the rules (which he constantly tries to negotiate higher). It’s gone from 19:30 to 20:30 now and is up at 6:30-7am and doesn’t seem to be affected at all so we’ll leave it at that for now.

My daughter, now 5 sleeps like a log. She is almost asleep before her head hits the pillow and we need to drag her out of bed to get dressed for school in the mornings. Once up she is chirpy as anything. Just shows you the opposite sides of the coin is possible in the same household.

In the end there isn’t much else you can do, just make peace with it and if it comes down to be quite stern and tell him to bugger off and leave you and the wife alone because you need to sleep. He is better of for it if you are both rested so be cruel to be kind.

Not much point having black out curtains and a night-light!

If it were me, I’d get rid of the night light. Obviously this might be difficult if he’s used to it. But that’s what I’d do.

bk in the old days they used to put a bit of rum in a bottle…