aibu to think my 3yo must need more than ten hours sleep a day- i certainly do!

[bedraggledmumoftwo]

So dd1(3) has completely dropped her nap. She goes to bed 7-730, has a gro clock set for 630am, and three (yes three) different blackout blinds/ curtains to make her room as dark as possible. Yet here I am again, completely knackered since she was shouting her head off at 530am. And she is clearly knackered too and driving my impatient self mad with c constant tantrums that I put down to tiredness!

Particularly tired this morning as I stayed up to see my dh (only until 11). During the week I go to bed by nine to stand a chance, but I am at my wits end. I let her drop the nap assuming she would sleep better at night, but now she is still waking with the lark and driving me insane!

My DD (4) has only needed about 10hrs of sleep since she was about 2. She goes to bed about 8-8.30 and wakes up between 6-6.30am.

12hrs sleep isn't set in stone, it's just a guide some kids will sleep 14hrs a day while others will sleep for less. You could always reinstate the nap or let her have a later bedtime so you're not constantly up at 5.30am

If you look at charts there is quite a lot of variation between the amounts of sleep different children need, same as adults! I need 9-10 hours to function, DH is fine with 6. DD must have taken after DH because she hasn't napped since she was 3yo and sleeps 10-11 hours at night.

Hang in there, soon she will be old enough to entertain herself in the mornings for an hour or so.

Dd is 2.2

She usually goes to sleep about 730-8pm and wakes between 530-630

Usually no sleep in the day

Friend's DD is almost 5 and has been up for the day at 5:30am forever. Nothing has changed that so they just go with it now. Some kids are just wired that way.

I could easily sleep ten or 12 hours a night myself, given the chance. Don't understand how she needs less sleep than me! But also I do think she needs more. The earlier she gets up the more badly behaved she is, tantrums over everything, which I put down to exhaustion, just don't know how to break the cycle!

Have you tried putting her to bed earlier? I find if I put my DD to bed earlier, it moves her wake up earlier (last night, bed was 6:45 and she woke at 4:45) but then I go and give her milk and she usually goes back to sleep for a bit! My DD also dropped her nap and really needs 12 hours if she's going to last the day without being tantrummy.

Dd will be 3 soon and is up for the day anytime between 5.10 & 5.45 and she has a gro-clock (which she ignores). Guess I'm just going to have to get used to it -& drink more coffee-

I feel your pain. DD is 2.5 and was up at 5.30am today. She goes to sleep around 7pm but no longer naps in the day unless we are in the car. If she does have a nap then she doesn't go to sleep at night until later. I think I need more sleep than she does!

Have tried earlier bedtime, but currently work ft and cant get home until after six, so don't really have the chance. Would love to adjust them to a later bedtime and later morning, but have to get up at 630 for nursery/work so again not possible. Soon to be made redundant though, so may be able to experiment much more once I am a sahm...

I don't think 530am is that early. Its the time I get up for work in the week and as long as I'm asleep by ten a couple of nights a week I don't feel too sleep deprived.

Hygellig, exactly. I think I would need more sleep than her under ordinary circumstances, but can't go to bed at 730 except on occasion . But after three and a half years of sleep deprivation I feel like I could sleep for a year!

OP From 2 up - and that's sixty ears - I have got by on less sleep than the average. Sorry, but that's how some people are. Good luck

it sounds like she is getting more sleep than any of mine ever did. She isn't up particularly early for a little one either. Count your blessings! x

It's so frustrating, DS was always an excellent sleeper (7-6) but he's now 6 and I'm struggling to get him to go to bed much before 9 and he's up any time after 5.
He sees that it's still light outside and just won't go to bed.
He's seeing the sun at 5 and is getting up (we have blackout blinds but we need to leave the door ajar so his room isn't pitch black.
It's so frustrating.luckily he's beginning to entertain himself but I'm missing the morning cuddles which I never mind, even at 5am

It does get easier

Neither of my children ever slept more than 10-10.5 hours at night, and my oldest barely napped either! (Even as a small baby).

I'd gradually move her bedtime a bit later, and work on getting her to stay in her bedroom if she wakes before, say, 6.30am. You can't make them sleep but you can have rules about what is an acceptable time to wake everyone else.

My 3 year old has nightly walks hopping from bed to bed room to room. Sometimes it's at 3am and sometimes 5am. Sometimes he's crying for his comfort blanket. He goes to bed by 7-7.30. I just ignore him and he gets into my bed and is asleep again 30-40mins later and then sleeps until 8.

*sixty years - last time I looked I only had two ears.

The later my ds goes to bed, the earlier he gets up. And no naps

DD dropped her daytime nap at 14 months. Regardless of what time I put her to bed she wakes between 6:30am and 7am

Tis just her

shifty completely shut the door and put a night light on or glow in the dark stickers so it's not pitch black?

op sounds like training her to be quiet in the mornings is the way to go then! Can she turn on a light by herself, you could leave some books or toys handy so in the morning she can start trying to entertain herself. With the gro clock, setting it for 6:30 might be too big a step. If she usually wakes around 5:30, try setting it for 5:35, then when she manages to stay in her room till the right time you can make a big fuss of her, and the success should spur her on to repeat it. Then when she gets the hang of it you can move it back 5 minutes at a time.

My 2.5 year old DD goes to bed at 7.30-8 and is up at 5 every morning. On most days she still has a 1 hour nap during the afternoon but it doesnt matter if she naps or not or if I put her to bed earlier or later she is still up on the dot of 5 every single day. I feel your pain OP, it's knackering. Her big brother is a teenager so would sleep till 3pm if I let him, I knew I'd be letting myself in for some sleepless nights having another child but I'd forgotten about the early rising

Could she be hungry/thirsty? You said she's obviously tired but still waking up.

Ds3 is almost 9 and still needs less sleep than me. He goes to bed between 9:30 and 10:00 on a school night and I have never had to wake him. He went to bed at 10:00 last night and was still reading when I went to bed at 10:30. I woke at 6:30 to the sound of his chatter. He's always been the same.

Luckily he doesn't come into our room until he hears us moving. He reads or builds Lego models and makes animations with them on his iPad. It gets better!

You could move her bedtime later or alternatively work on getting her to play quietly in her room until you get up? A friend bought her dd a vtech laptop toy and she could only have it first thing in the morning and only if she played quietly with it (taken away if she started shouting). We did a sticker chart for playing quietly and not waking siblings for our early riser. Linked it to being allowed to watch an episode of peppa pig that day!