to rhink if your baby/ child goes to bed at 6 or 7pm

[firstforthought]

that it seems only natural they wake between 4 and 6 am?
I have read of people being sad or frustrated that baby wakes this early to start the day and i am thinking huh??
i have always put baby to bed when I go then I can expect a few hours broken or not then as the child gets older make bedtime earlier.

My DS always went to bed at 7pm since we returned from hospital - he's now 10 so allowed to go a little bit later - 8.30pm. He wakes between 6.30-7am every single day. (When he was a toddler he also had a three hour sleep in the afternoons after a morning at Playschool - bliss - very occasionally he would sleep right through).

He may be a good sleeper but he's got lots of other faults .

Meant to say that even as babies both ds' needed bedtimes around the 7pm mark and it was only as newborns that they went to bed the same time as us.

its fine if you are happy with it. but moaning that they wake too early I mean....

i kept my bAbies up til 10 or 11 - they then very helpfully slept through until 6.

Mine now sleep until late in the morning during the weekend, if they go to bed later. Especially dd, she usually sleeps until 9.30/10!

I just don't think it helps.

I have a friend with an early waking toddler. The major thing that helped was him getting into a bed, as he was more likely to go back to sleep if he doesn't wake in the cot.

Staying up late makes no difference. Last weekend they had dinner with us and both toddlers were up until around 9pm. DD had to be woken at 9am, her DS got us at 6am!

A late bedtime just doesn't help some children.

FWIW 4am is never an acceptable time to wake up.. it is night time and children need to be told that. My DS has always had problems with his sleep (getting better tho - fingers crossed!!!) buit my DD has slept from 6.30 pm - 8 am from 16 weeks.

Some children sleep less than others, I have a friend whos son has only ever slept for 10 hours so he goes to bed at 8pm and gets up at 6am. Think they are all different but in my opinion 4am is never OK

It's not practical for my ds to learn to sleep at 6.30-7pm because we often eat dinner at that time or a bit later. Plus once I'm back in work both dh and I won't be able to get home earlier than 6 so it would be a shame to miss seeing him all day.

He currently sleeps from around 8.30-9.30pm until 7.30-8.30am (he doesn't sleep through though unfortunately!)

Like FrancagoestoHollywood, I'm also not English and it's not unusual for children to be awake and out at 10pm in our country. DS used to go to bed around 9.30pm on school nights all the way through primary school and he'd happily get up at 8am the next day (it was a 5 min walk to school). I've never had the problem of being woken early.

I would have felt sad to put him to bed earlier tbh, if you work and put your kids to bed at 6.30, you'd only see them for about an hour a day.

Sometimes, if they're waking up too early they do need to be going to bed earlier. It sounds bonkers, but it's true.
I think it's to do with how we drift in and out of different stages of sleep - it's better to drift into a lighter sleep when it's still middle of the night and get back into REM sleep, otherwise if it's morning we just wake up.

Depends on the child!

For years, DD1 was up anywhere from 4.30am-6am, no matter what time we put her to bed. We tried all sorts! We are now in a set routine of bed no later than 7.45pm and she sleeps through til anywhere from 6am-7.30am. She is 6yo.

DD2 (5yo) is my angel sleeper! Usually in bed the same time as DD1 so at latest 7.45pm and we have to wake her for school at 7.30am most mornings. At weekends, providing DD1 and DS dont disturb her, she can sleep til 8.30am before waking naturally.

DS (yo) is still a little all over the shop! Usually asking to go to bed at 6pm, but we hold him out til 6.45pm/7pm and he goes through usually until about 6.30am. Sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later, but after the years and years of DD1 being a bad sleeper (right from birth) 6am is a lie in for us!

All kids woke at 6.50am this morning, which was fabulous and the bonus is that DH and I get some "us" time by 8pm each night.

Sorry, should read DS (3yo)

I don't think most toddlers sleep for more than 12 hrs though. So, if they go to sleep at 6.30, they will wake up at 6.30 right? I find 6.30 a very unreasonable time to wake up, unless you need to go to work.

DS (7) sleeps 7-7
DD1 (5) sleeps 7-8 or later at the weekends if she's not disturbed.
DD2 (3) 7-6.30/7

They're in bed by 7pm and I spend the first hour running around sorting everything and putting washing on then plonk on the sofa.

I think when you are new parents that evening time is crucial. I would always have rather got up at 6.30 that kept them up til 11pm.

Oh and I've always found that their sleep is worse if they go to bed later.

It totally depends on the child. DC1 slept solidly for around 20 hours out of every 24 as a baby, whereas DC2 slept far less. Both slept through the night ( around 10 -12 hours)from a young age, but whereas DC1 would also have a couple of daytime sleeps, DC2 rarely did. As adults, they are pretty much the same. DC1 still sleeps as many hours as is practical, given that they are now at uni, and DC2 still functions very well on far less sleep.

Personally, if I go to bed earlier I tend to find I sleep better and therefore longer than if I go to bed later. I expect it is similar for some babies/toddlers.

All of mine go up at 7/7:30 they take a small amount of time to settle but are then up between 6/7/7:30

No I don't agree.

Babies and small children need a lot more sleep than adults. DS2 is 10 months old, goes to bed at 6.30pm and I had to wake him up this morning at 7.30am - he also has 2 sleeps in the day.

A baby of DS2's age needs around 15 hours sleep in a 24 hour period. Many children don't get enough sleep and it impacts on their behaviour.

By age 15 months I'd expect it to be one sleep, by age 2.5 roughly no sleeps and after age 4 start to make bedtime a bit later than 7pm.

my 6 + 4 yr old have always gone to bed at 7pm, since babies - they need 12hrs . they are both summer babies - youngest in class so tired at end of the day. If up later we can't wake them up in the morning.

Babies and children in theory need more hrs than the adults.
One of mine has always been a 12 hrs sleeper.
The other has always needed no more than 9/10 hrs. And he's always woken in the morning in an excellent mood.

No, sorry@OP. Not necessarily the case. My DD has pretty much always slept 7pm-7am/8am. My DS has always gone down at 7pm, and used to wake about 5am as a young toddler, but now sleeps until his alarm clock goes off at 7am.

12 hours a night sleep is vital for my two.

"Mine have always slept 7pm - 7am.

On the rare occassion they have stayed up past 10pm, for weddings or parties, they wake up at the absolute crack of dawn. I have no idea why but in general they need 12 hours."

Yes! That is my DS down to a tee. We went through the early morning wake ups, through the earlier bedtime when he started school. But generally hes always been 6.30/7pm until 6/7 am. Hes 6yo now and usually sleeps 7.30pm-7am

YABU - I disagree it is 'only natural' to wake at 4-6am - most of the children I know go to bed between 6.30 and 7.30pm and sleep till 6-7am. Going to bed later doesn;t help most children as most children need around 11 housr sleep a night. So think the parents have every right to moan- they're tired

nope, my 4 and 6 year old go to bed at 7.30, sometimes earlier if they're overtired, sometimes later if we have stuff on.

the earliest they would ever wake at is 7, and that's rare... average wake up time is 8.30 and often they have to be pulled out of bed even later than that for school.

The baby (well, he's 2 but he's the baby still!) stays up til 9/10/11, and is often awake again at 5/6 ... if he even sleeps through.

Depends on the child really