Reception DD is wired

[iamred]

My DD is really enjoying school so far it seems. She is wired afterwards, which I get, her little brain is stimulated and it's great. But she needs to get a good night's sleep and doesn't seem to be able to switch off before about 8pm which I'm sure is too late. By that time she's overtired which can result in meltdowns. I think she actually needs bed at 7pm but is too wired...

Anyone else finding the same or have any tips?

[Muskateersmummy]

Finding exactly the same thing. Literally cannot get her to go to sleep, the only thing that works is for me to go and lie with her. I'm as exhausted as she is!

[Puffykins]

Yes. Exactly the same. In fact DD is still awake next to me, she's massively over tired (also waking up early) and I need ideas! We do bath, bed, story in bed etc. - and no sugar in the evening, but..... Any other ideas?!

[DubiousCredentials]

My dd is yr3 and still like this!

[Saracen]

You may know that people typically go through phases in which they are more or less ready for sleep. If your dd isn't ready at seven, you might try her even earlier. Look for a calm contented peaceful state - that is the time to try, before she looks tired. Whip her off to bed quickly and she might manage to fall asleep then. Wait too long and the opportunity is lost, and she'll have to go through another cycle.

[TeaBelle]

Did you ever do baby massage? Our teacher said that she used it when her child was over stimulated etc and helped her to wind down after packed days at school.

[PotteringAlong]

Yes. We've brought bedtime forward - bath at 6 and bed at 6.30 which seems to be helping him stop getting overtired. If we miss that window he's up until 8 ish

[roundtable]

I was also going to say try for earlier as silly as that sounds. When mine are being ridiculous, it's bath and pjs straight after dinner. When I don't miss the boat all is well, when I do...uh oh

[IAmAPaleontologist]

Dd gets like that. Year 3 now but has always been like that. She used to come back downstairs all full of questions and theories on life and the universe. Was lovely but maddening! She'd be all wide eyed and you could tell her brain was buzzing. We just rolled with it really. She's always been a good reader which helps as we took to just letting her read in bed until she fell asleep. She still does, reads til all hours sometimes I think but she is thankfully generally very good at knowing how much sleep she needs.

[iamred]

Thanks all!

This is all horribly reminiscent of overtired vs undertired naps from when DD was a baby. She was a catnapper and I could never get the sleepy cues right!!

I think I need to give her time to get all the chat out of her system. Bed time is always chaos as her and her younger sister seem to think running around naked and hiding is The Best Game Ever!

Putting a film on gets them sitting still but doesn't actually prevent the verbal diarreah once DD1 gets in bed.

Tonight she was in bed at 6:45 but sodded around and finally went off at 8pm.

[MarklahMarklah]

All through reception and now the same in yr1. If I'm lucky then she dozes off around 8pm, but it's normally later.
She gets up okay, but the idea of 'winding down' is beyond her, regardless of what we do.

[leopardchanges]

My DS and younger DD were like this too. We stopped all TV after dinner and go straight to bath. Bath is a bit longer than before and then there are PJs and story time. It kind of tricks him into thinking it is later than it is too and he will go to sleep earlier (also have to lie beside him).

I wonder if your DD winds herself up a bit by the talking, rather than simply getting it all out? If she really has a lot to get out, is there a way to chat with her earlier to preempt it a bit?

It did require rejigging the tidying up after dinner, but I tend to send them upstairs to muck around (aka "get ready for the bath") while I do a quick tidy and then either I or DH finish it later.

Which isn't late, because they're asleep earlier! :)

Good luck!

[SliceOfLime]

Oh god mine is like this! And she's only doing mornings... Running rounds screaming with excitement at 5.36/6, getting the 2 year old equally frenzied, nonstop talking, taking ages to wind down even once in bed... No solutions but sympathy!