5 1/2 year old won't go to sleep

[marykat2004]

She just keeps getting out of bed ans screaming "I can't sleep."

Any advice?

I mean AND screaming.

Encourage her to quietly look at some books or play calmly on her bed?

My 5 year old is a problem at nightimes too - during the day she's as good as gold. As soon as the bedroom light is off she's up and down like a jack in the box, keeps coming out of her room, won't do as she's told etc.

DH manages to get her to stay in the bedroom by popping up to see her every ten minutes or so - she still doesn't sleep though - because she thinks sleep is 'boring'

Is this just a one off with your DD or a regular occurence?

getting worse. I know it's been hot out but tonight it's cooler and she still won't sleep.

i tried doing those relaxation things, saying relaxing words, but she didn't like it.

We have not been the kind of parents to stay in her room til she goes to sleep btw. She started settling herself to sleep around 18 months. She really can't sleep with someone in the room. Plus I guess I am a bad mother because I never had the patience to lie with her for 3 hours while she goes to sleep, past the baby age, that is.

I just want to know what to tell her to help her. she seems really distressed about it. I know from being an insomnia sufferer myself that the worst thing you can do is "try" to sleep. You are more likely to fall asleep if you TRY to stay awake.

She lies down and gets up a minute because she's not asleep yet.

thanks

We're the same as you, DD has always slept in her own room, and we've never stayed with hr until she falls off to sleep, so I didn't want to start at thie age either!
At first when it started happening I turned it into a battle between us, I would shout at her, she would shout and scream etc etc.

SO, we've tried a different tack. She gets reading time and then bed, if she comes out of her room we return her straight away, without loooking at or speaking to her. DH pops up each 5 mins, then 10 mins, then 20 mins etc and this seems to stop the coming out of the room etc.
What time does your DD go to bed, and what time does she go to sleep? Does she sleep through once she has fallen to sleep?

Make sure she's as physically worn out as she can be at bedtime and give her a warm bath even if you don't think she needs one. A glass of warm milk might help if she's a milk drinker. Is she scared of the dark? A night light, the door open and reassurance that you haven't forgotten about her just because she can't see you might help. And if none of that works then tell her she can play quietly in her room until she feels sleepy. Good luck.

We have this with dd1 just 6yrs. I find that she has more trouble if she is over tired.

We do the warm bath, warm milk. Story in bed and then we put on her story CD which seems to seetle her enough to drift off to sleep.

My DC (3 and 6 ) have always been brilliant at bedtime. Until 4 weeks ago. Aaaaaargh!

I think here its a mix of light outside, hot nights and end of term-itis.

Being over-tired makes it worse, yes. At one point I moved her bedtime to 7:30 and that was much better than 8 pm. By 8 she goes into overdrive. But with it being summer, so light out and so warm, its hard to get her in bed by 7:30.

She sometimes doesn't fall asleep til 10 pm! But once she is asleep she usually sleeps through the night. She also has a dimmer switch because the night light was still too dark for her...

its nice not to be alone in this, thanks!