Bringing bedtime earlier

[jarox]

My 3&1/2 year old has found it really hard to stop napping. He gets really tired in the middle of the day but we are pushing him to stay awake because if he naps he doesn't go to bed until 8:30/9.

Trouble is I thought stopping him napping would mean he would fall asleep earlier but if he doesn't nap and goes down at 7 he still stays awake until about 8:30. He has a good bedtime/bath routine and we always read a story. Is there anything I can do to get him to sleep earlier? I feel like he's just got into a habit of sleeping late now! He is always tired and grumpy in the morning so I know he's not getting enough sleep!

[clarabellski]

Hi Jarox no advice as such but just an observation. We put DS to bed at 7pm more or less every night. He sometimes falls asleep within 5 minutes but sometimes I'll be walking past his room at 8pm and I can still hear him chatting away to himself/not sleeping. The point is consistency. He knows that we put him to bed at 7pm whether he tired or not.

That being said - he is too small still (at 20m) to climb out of bed so doesn't really have a choice but to lie there!

[TepidCat]

Have you tried an even earlier bedtime - my DS is 33 months and on 'no nap days' is asleep by 6pm (in bed by 545pm) if I miss this drowsy period he can be up until gone 9pm even though he is clearly exhausted.

[Amethyst975]

We've had this problem a lot. What time does he get up in the morning? We've found that letting our DS sleep in in the morning can cause as many problems the next night as a daytime nap, so we aim to get him up at 7am each morning. We've also brought his bedtime forward to 6.30pm since he's started preschool, and he definitely needs the extra half hour.

[jarox]

Ok thanks. He usually wakes between 6:30 & 7am. It makes sense that he could be over tired and struggling to sleep so I will try an even earlier bedtime and see if that helps!!

[Snoopyokay]

The clocks go back soon so an earlier bedtime will naturally occur!

[mctat]

Yep I'd definitely try earlier bedtime!

[rufieroo]

I’d also try an earlier bedtime, my 2.5 yr old dropped his nap at around 2 because otherwise he wouldn’t go to sleep until 10!! Now his bedtime is 6.15-6.30 and is asleep straight away, if for some reason he goes to bed later on he’ll have trouble falling asleep