Right then,

My 4 year old is not a great sleeper.

He goes to bed around 7.30/8.oo pm every night good as gold. BUT, and its a big but, he’s up and about at 5am every flipping morning!!!!

We’ve tried putting him back down – no chance
We’ve tried keeping him up later in the evening – just wakes up at 5am in a bad mood cos he’s tired

He has recently started having a sleepin the day again after his nursery placement finishes. Once he’s drifting off to sleep there is no point trying to wake him up – very heavy sleeper.

His little brother is fine btw.

Is it just one of those things or are we missing a trick?

ta

tired from kent

Maybe he’s just not tired enough when he’s going to bed. Get the lad out on the bike more and for longer.

5am is a wonderful time of the day – embrace it

PS – I can’t sleep & get up around 5 every day too 🙂

EDIT – on a serious note, I’d try moving the bedtime 10 mins later each day & see if that helps

You need to cut out the sleeps in the day, he’s too old for that from my experience.

One of these worked for our 4-yr-old, and yes, those daytime sleeps won’t be helping.

Maybe he’s just not tired enough when he’s going to bed. Get the lad out on the bike more and for longer.

yep tried that, beasted him and his bro round the woods on their bikes for a couple of hours on sunday afternoon, then went swimming…

up at 5 on monday 😯

Yep the youngest (now 13 and is gradually reaching teenage ability to lie in) used to be up between 5 and 6 at that age. Taught him to put a video on and not to wake us until 7!

But also cut out sleeping in the day.

+1 for the Gro-clock or similar. Plus reward charts if he can stay in his room until it says time to get up.

Don’t straight away set it for 7am though (obviously) – play a longer game, 10-15 mins each time he manages it. He needs to learn to settle himself again, if you think about it once he gets up, comes in to you he’s woken his body up, has the excitement of seeing you, of course he won’t resettle. If he can wake up, see the clock is still saying sleepy time, and then immediately roll over again because he knows he’s not missing anything and worse, if he does get up he’s a day further away from that latest reward, he’ll soon learn.

Stop him sleeping in the day, my 4 year old not longer needs his day time sleep.

Also make sure he eats enough at dinner

buy a sheet of reward stickers – sounds simple, but if he gets one of those by staying in bed it really could work.

and if you don’t have it already, a stair gate on their bedroom door to prevent any escapes until u are ready to get up

Just get up with him, he is visionary, you are the one that needs to embrace change.

Daft as it sounds, have you tried putting him down earlier? I’m led to believe (from occasionally tuning-in when my wife regurgitates baby-whisperer-type bobbins at me) that being over-tired leads them waking earlier, so putting them down earlier means they wake later (I said it sounds daft).***

Dad of a 4yo who sleeps from 7pm to between 6:15 and 7am…

Although I’m another vote for making the most of an early start, the trails are lovely and clear at that time of day 😉

***EDIT: Apparently a daytime nap isn’t the same ‘type of sleep’ (I said it was bobbins) 🙂

is there something wakening him at 5, we found our boy wakening at 5 was down to water/central heating turning on, moved him away from the radiator and put a blanket over it to cut out the noise. better sleeper since

Just get up with him, he is visionary, you are the one that needs to embrace change.

lol, my favourite answer 🙂

I think we’ll try the clock thing and some batman stickers to start with.

Daytime sleeps are out as well.

cheers all

5am is quite harsh.

If ours wakes up (he’s two) a bit early, we just leave him for a while – he usually goes back to sleep.

Currently enjoying 7.30pm to 7.30am sleeps. Another one due early Feb so about to COMPLETELY ruin all that.

Dammit!

its very harsh indeed.

You do know what’s coming don’t you Surf-mat?

When we were expecting our second, a riding buddy of mine laughingly told me that the difference between having 1 baby and 2 was tougher than the adjustment between having 1 baby and none at all…

i laughed…

now I understand…

Yoss – some say it’s not too bad, some say it’s MUCH worse.

I’m gritting my teeth and hoping for the best.

oh don’t get me wrong, its bloody brilliant and you’ll be fine but don’t underestimate the force of the impact on your life!

I bet you think your organised now don’t you?

YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BEING ORGANISED YET!

🙂

Our daughter (7 in two weeks) was pretty much the same.

The only way we got past this was be sending her back to her room to play. Simple but it worked.

That way she did not interupt our sleep, and in time as the school routine kicked-in (different to nursery routine) she would stay asleep longer; but knew if she woke up early that she was to play in her room untill we were awake.

+1 for the gro clock. Works with our 2 year old, and hopefulyl he’ll have got into the routine of it when we take the sides off his cot-bed this weekend…

As said above, 4 is too old for a daytime sleep. Mine goes from
19.30 to between 6.30 – 8.00.

I’m going to try that gro-clock, we are in the same situatiuon, he (5 years old)goes to bed at 7, up at 5. Sometimes he’s so tired we have to carry him upstairs, so stopping up isn’t an option. even Haloween and Bonfire Night, sayed up late, up at 5ish.

Nothing mentioned above about stuffing him with food before bed. How about a supper just before he goes down? Milk and toast or something. It may be that it’s the hunger clock that’s wakening him.

Or get a radio alarm clock and say that he can’t get up until it comes on – like that gro clock thing but a bit more interesting for the wee man.

Other than that hard cash bribery is your best bet.

I second the food/milk before bed.

Our oldest (4 too) started waking up early recently, she was hungry (you could hear her stomach growling!!!). Give her milk and something small to eat now, and she sleeps 7.30 till 7ish now

When we were expecting our second, a riding buddy of mine laughingly told me that the difference between having 1 baby and 2 was tougher than the adjustment between having 1 baby and none at all…

i laughed…

now I understand…

+1

I don’t think putting them to bed later helps. I think it’s more about establishing a routine and what’s acceptable. It’s not easy to break once a habits formed either. Like some of the others I count myself fairly lucky as both of ours (6 & 2) usually manage 7:30 pm to around 7:00am.

Our little lad (3.5yrs) is not bad, 7pm to bed and up at 6am.

Be careful with taking the mid day nap away. Our little un’ will go for a nap if needs one during day(he decides). Don’t get me wrong, our lives aren’t dictated by it, but if we are at home and he can go to bed for an hour, he does (we won’t let him sleep longer than 1-1.5hrs). Having a nap during the day (IME) has no effect on the night sleep as they do get into a routine of night sleeping ie. 7pm-6am.

I think the big thing is routine and if you can get your kid to use the Gro-clock or stay in his / her room to play until a sensible time then that would be the best plan of attack.

As for our 1.5yr old girl, don’t even get me started…..;)