When did your DC sleep later?

[OnSilverStars]

My DS has never slept late. Always an early riser. He's 4.5 and he's always up by 6, usually before. I know that's not mega early but still, he's so tired all day.l and so am I.

My 2 year old used to get up about that time too, now she's a bit older she sleeps until about 7 or a bit later. It's great.

Did your DC eventually start sleeping later? How old were they. It's driving me mad

AIBU to expect DC1 to sleep until 7????

It comes with a little story to read, we made a huge fuss about unwrapping and setting it up and then did a big thing of saying goodnight to the owl etc... Then the first few mornings when she woke before the owl, she'd call out, we'd go in, whisper that the owl was still asleep and tuck her back up as if it was 2am not 5.45 and then creep out. When the owl woke up we made a big song and dance of that too, and it only took about 3 days for her to get it. Went from 5am to 7am wakes in less than a week.

Well OK. DH and DBIL took the car out for a spin age 3&4 (automatic) in the early morning while their parents slept. There is no way on God's green earth I would leave an awake 2year old in another room while I slept. I suppose you have a stairgate across the door ?

I don't think that's teaching your DC much that's good.

DCs will wake up after 7am now, 8am on weekends. However, they now go to sleep anywhere between 8.30-10pm so we've lost most of our evening.

No stairgate, no. She's perfectly happy to entertain herself until it's morning.we have a monitor, I can see what she's up to, some mornings she looks at books, sometimes she goes back to sleep, sometimes she sets up all her toys across the bed and makes them do circle time like at nursery. I think it's teaching her plenty that's good! If she needs us, she calls - this morning I went in at 6.15 to help her with her pullup so she could go to the loo - but she rarely does need us, she's happy to hang out quietly til it's morning.

I'm not being goady, i genuinely don't see how it is harmful to teach your children to play by themselves if they wake before the rest of the house.

Sounds brill!

Mine is 13… still up at 5:30am every day without fail. Doesn’t matter what time he goes to bed or how tired out he is. At least I don’t have an issue getting him up for school! 😂

Mine both sleep until about 7.30/8- 6yo and 2yo. Our 2yo uses a fro clock too and sticks to it.

my 6yo knows she can’t come out of her room until her clock says 7, but she’ll often play until later/likes chilling out in her bed for a while in the morn.

we were quite to the point with both when introducing the gro clock- star charts/put straight back to bed if the sun wasn’t up (always locked the buttons) and we’ve never had any major issues.

In summer, the daylight will naturally wake up a sensitive child around 5am unless you have great blackout curtains / blackout blind plus curtains. Might be worth checking the light situation. If you can’t afford a new ind then a cheap and extremely effective solution is to wipe the inside of the windows with a damp cloth then place aluminium foil over it. It staysnin place (and keeps heat out too).

A lot of people will tell you gro clock, punishments etc but the truth is, none of that will work with a stubborn (or very attached) child.

If the problem continues into autumn try a later bedtime. But I suspect the problem is light.

@CharlotteOH Agree that light can be a problem. DS struggled to get enough sleep in his first UK summer, having been used to shorter summer days overseas. He has a west facing bedroom now so the sun doesn't wake him (I'm on the other side do it wakes me). If you can already get a child to sleep when it's still light at night then moving them to the bedroom that stays darker later in the morning may help.

My son has only just started sleeping later, he is 12.

Although for last few years he would get up and read or play so it's not all bad. Always weird when I would get up at 7am and he was already dressed for school.

DS slept for the first time when he was 14. Years, not months.

Beyond 5.30am I meant!

We always treated anything before 7am as a night waking even as a baby. So made it really dark and boring, with no eye contact or interaction, in stark contrast with daytime feeds. Just carried on with this, introducing a Gro-clock at 18mo. She does wake before 7 especially in summer but has always known not to disturb us until the clock lights up. She's now 6yo and it's set for 7.15 on weekdays and 7.45 at weekends.

We've always made sure she's got something she's allowed to do - she knows if it's down to one star she can look at a book or play quietly but if there's more than one star left she's meant to be asleep.

To whoever asked about food and sleep: I've got a great eater, but crap sleeper.

Some kids need less sleep. It’s going to be hell for a few years, until they can be trusted to play unsupervised but you and your partner need to find a way through it. My dh and and I had one lie in each (sat/sun) and the other days she came into our room and we tried to doze while watching milkshake. Sometimes she was up before milkshake started and those were very sad days. 6am is a respectable time to get up unfortunately. My DD needs maybe 4 hours a night? She’s 16 now and I actually panicked this morning because I‘d not seen her by 8.30am. Staying up late didn’t help. Bring cross didn’t help. She was up from 5 and that was it. I have all the sympathy in the world (there are literal years I can’t remember as I was so chronically sleep deprived) but you’ve been dealt the hand of the early riser. We should have a club! I should also say my dd is hardworking, incredibly motivated and a generally wonderful human (now, at least). She just doesn’t need sleep like we do.

4 hours a night?! That's insanely low, has she got any medical issues?

I only stopped regularly getting up and starting my day at 6am in my early 20s! I've always naturally been an early riser and it's only since starting a job and especially becoming a parent that I've been tired enough to stay in bed till 7am (when toddler allows). Even now I usually wake up before 7 and just browse my phone till I have to get up.

My parents were quite strict that I mustn't bother them before 7, though, from quite an early age I think. I just had to entertain myself until then.

@MolliciousIntent no, not at all. She’s always been ‘spirited’ (this was the euphemism of the day for ‘incredibly challenging’ back in 2006) but she’s very healthy. She dances, so gets plenty of exercise and eats well and pretty healthily mostly. She’s a high flyer academically. She’s also neurotypical before anyone suggests otherwise. My dad has never needed much sleep (family lore has it my nana nearly turfed him out of a window when he was about 4 and my grandad wasn’t pulling his weight with the night wakings 😂) so I assume it’s just a genetic quirk.

See our DD wakes up around 8am but goes to bed at 10pm. She’s been like that since she was 18 months. So as a PP said you lose your evening. We tried a lot of different things including the gro clock but found it easier once we accepted that was her & embraced it. She just seems to be an owl 🤷🏻‍♀️.

This could be written about my DS 18 now, off to Oxbridge in the Autumn, clever funny and kind. But yes "spirited' as a little one and just didn't need as much sleep as we were told he should.

Ive got an early bird. However, he was not allowed to wake the whole house just because he was awake. He could understand this from about 3.5 or so. So he would lay quietly and chatter to
Himself and sing and look at books until the agreed time.

Once they are at school and a good chunk of the way through that first year i found they started to sneak down and put the tv on. Thats life changing for parents as it means you can get another half an hour or so.

Mine is almost teenage years now and still rarely lies in. Although it does tend to start with a 7 now.