How do I get my 2.8yo to sleep more?

[minipie]

DD has never been keen on sleep ever since she was a baby.

Now she is 2 years 8 months, she will sleep 10 hours in 24 and that's it. So if we put her to bed at 8 she sleeps till 6. If we put her to bed at 7.30 she sleeps till 5.30. She will not go back to sleep no matter what we try. If we let her nap in the day she ends up sleeping even less at night.

There are often wake ups in the night as well, especially if she has a cold or other bug (which is most of the time - I'm sure the lack of sleep means she gets bugs more easily so it's a vicious cycle).

If she was happy on this amount of sleep I would just accept it. But she's not. She's tired and hyper, followed by tired and miserable. She is very difficult and stroppy and she falls over and hurts herself a lot. On the rare days she sleeps more, she is like a different child - her behaviour and coordination are so much better and she's (mostly) a pleasure to be with.

Any advice most welcome! She seems to want to live on the bare minimum of sleep...

[FATEdestiny]

At that kind of age I would start off working on mornings, many children are dropping daytime naps at this age.

Have you tried a groclock?

[minipie]

Thanks FATE for replying. I agree, I'd rather she didn't have a nap, she's definitely old enough to do without one, given she's not exactly a big sleeper.

Yup, we have a groclock - it's helped a little in that it's had the effect of keeping her quieter in the mornings when she wakes early - she now mostly chats to herself rather than yelling for us - but she still wakes just as early and still doesn't go back to sleep so she's still tired in the day...

[minipie]

The other issue is that it's quite difficult to stop her napping - if we go anywhere in the buggy or car when she is tired she will fall asleep.

[LovesYoungDream]

Have you got blackout blinds in her room, is the light waking her?
You could try a reward chart - stickers for good bedtime routine/staying in bed until Xam. X amount of stickers gets a reward
Is something waking her - noise/cold/heat/hunger/thirst?
I've heard of people sleep training and using sleep nurses, might be an option?
My dc usually wake more often when ill so that could be one reason for it.

[LovesYoungDream]

If she is napping in the buggy and it is causing problems, I would start making her walk more and leaving the buggy in the car unless travelling long distances on foot. Use places like the park/play areas as incentive. She may be in a cycle of using naps instead of sleeping in the mornings so if you could get her to go a few days in a row without a daytime nap and earlier bedtime, she might break the cycle and change her routine

[minipie]

Yes her room is blacked out - not pitch black but pretty near. We try asking her why she's woken and she'll say something like "I heard the noise of the wind" or "my toe was hurting" (nothing wrong with her toe) ie she makes up an answer!

No nap and earlier bedtime did work well for a week, then she started waking even earlier... We do try to avoid napping as much as possible but sometimes the buggy/car is unavoidable... we keep it as short as possible though.

Reward chart is a good idea - worked well for potty training last week - I might have to wait a few weeks though as I think the novelty has been used up for the potty training!