How much sleep?

[amberprincess]

My 3 year old does not have an afternoon nap despite being at nursery full time. She seems to function on 5 hours sleep a night and is slowly tiring me out so much that I have to have an afternoon nap while she is at nursery to catch up on my sleep! Is the 'normal'???

No nap is normal but only 5 hours sleep at night is not enough. Blimey you must be wrecked
Has it been going on for long? Sometimes the transition from nap to no nap is a nightmare...

That sounds tough - you must be shattered. Does she have a set bed time and time when you all get up in the morning or do you tend to get up when she does? I think life can just be too much fun for the little ones sometimes.

That sounds tough - you must be shattered. Does she have a set bed time and time when you all get up in the morning or do you tend to get up when she does? I think life can just be too much fun for the little ones sometimes.

Is she waking up around midnight, or keeping herself awake until really late?
Has she always had such little sleep or is it a recent thing?
Eitherway it can't go on. Perhaps speak to your health visitor.

5 hours sleep a night is not normal, no

does she ever have days where she catches up? what is her routine like at home? lots of tv etc?

I put her in bed, read a book and then it's lights off. but she'll sing to herself sometimes for an hour! And she is bright eyed and wide awake at 5am and eager to go to nursery.
Having said that she is asleep now cos she had an extra couple of hours at nursery today.
I have just recently seperated from her dad and am wary of saying anything about anything to the health visitors in case they whisk her away to him!!

She's a curious child who always wants to keep herself busy - gets it from her dad! It's a good thing that I work from home & catch up on my sleep during the day!

what time does she go to bed then? 11pm?

My 3 yr old is rubbish at settling if she's had a lazy day. Lots of fresh air helps but if yr daughter is at nursery I'd imagine she's tired after a full day? What do nursery say?

So what time do you put her to bed then?
It might be worth you trying putting her to bed earlier. You sleep in cycles throughout the night and when you come out of REM sleep into a lighter sleep it's usually nighttime enough to go into another deeper sleep. If she's coming into a lighter sleep and it's nearly morning/getting light/birds singing etc then she's more likely to wake up properly instead of having the more sleep she needs. Shifting bedtime to earlier might help.