Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

The dreaded dawn chorus - how do you get them to sleep in?

7 replies

Taffindra · 15/10/2007 10:37

DS is 3 years, has always been a good sleeper, goes to bed happily etc. BUT, and it seems to be getting worse, is a horrificly early riser. THis morning it was 4.45am. Usually its more like 5.45. He will not be persuaded to go back to bed, and we have now unfortunately got into the habit of turning the TV on with some cheerios and a drink and leaving him too it. This morning I was trying to explain to him that TV dosn't even start for over an hour! He's exhausted when he gets up, is bad tempered, and then needs a daytime sleep, which he had pretty much dropped. I don't think the daytime sleep has any effect, he's up early whether he's slept or not.
How can we encourage him to stay in bed? Or sleep for longer? Its driving us mad, as he always wakes DD who is 4 months, and I don't want her to get into a bad pattern either. What do you do?

OP posts:
cornsilk · 15/10/2007 10:40

I could never get mine to stay in bed no matter how early they woke. Could he be waking 'cos it's getting colder? My ds2 did this. I put him in really warm pj's so that if he kicked off the covers he was still warm enough to sleep.

MyEye · 15/10/2007 10:50

if you're serious about it, you'll need to compensate him for what he's going to lose out on (ie telly, milk).

So, talk about how from it's all changing from now on bcs he's getting up too early and he's grumpy all day. Explain that now he's a big boy he has to stay in bed until he hears you getting up, say (or you'll go into him or whatever).

Star charts would be useful here. Let him pick the stickers. Let him help draw up the chart. Involve him in what's happening.

Also, let him pick a new soft toy, explain it's the stay-asleep bear or whatever, it'll help him to sleep in like a big boy, it needs lots of sleep. If he wakes up too early and makes noise, he won't get to keep it.

Give him strategies for when he wakes in the night -- ie, accept he's going to do this, and show him how to cope. Ie if you wake up, use the potty if necc, turn over in bed, stroke sleep toy etc. Give him books to look at, as a last resort.

But don't crack. If he wakes up and demands attention, I'd do rapid return until it sinks in.

And if he manages it, make such a celebration out of it, ring grandparents ec.

Could it be wee related, do you think? Does he have a potty in his room?

fuzzlepelts · 15/10/2007 11:12

The best piece of advice I ever took was from this site and it was to put fairy (or Thomas Tank version!) lights on a timer switch and explain that you can't get up before Fairies (Thomas) wakes up. Together with the advice from MyEye you might have a plan! My DD was 20months when I started it and now at nearly 4 we still use them (even change them to 8.30am at the weekend).

Brontebiscuits · 15/10/2007 11:28

We got the Kidsleep wake-up time indicator which is a sort of nightlight that has an illuminated picture of a rabbit asleep in bed that you can program to change to a rabbit awake and out of bed at the time you want your child to get up. It has worked brilliantly for us (dd is 2.8)and also couple of my friends too. It's not the same as the bunnyrabbit clock that has had a lot of negative feedback on here. You would probably have to change the time gradually for your ds as you can't expect him to go from 4 or 5am to 7am suddenly.

It's not cheap though,but if it works for you it would be worth its weight in gold. It did also take 2 or 3 days for my dd to 'get' that she had to stay in bed, or at the very least her room until the rabbit wakes up. She likes to see the rabbit going to bed at the same time as her as well. We got ours from amazon, but you might get it a bit cheaper on kiddicare.com (sorry I am crap at links!). Although I guess a light on a timer switch is just another version of this!!!

Taffindra · 15/10/2007 13:43

Thanks for your good advice. Am slightly ashamed to say that he's still in nappies at night - with a small baby I couldn't quite face having to get up in the night for him as well - so he's not getting up for a wee. He has black out curtains, so its not due to light. I think nightlight on a timer is a v.good idea, and I guess we'll have to be very strict about absolutely NOT leaving his room before it comes on. Not sure thats going to work, but I guess if we are consistent and keep returning him to bed it might work.....

OP posts:
fuzzlepelts · 16/10/2007 08:56

Hey - nothing wrong with a 3 year old wearing a nappy at night! (not in my opinion anyway ) If he doesn't have dry nappies in the mornings leave well alone. My DD has been out of nappies at night since about 3.2 and rarely gets up for a wee.
Good luck!

bozza · 16/10/2007 09:02

Definitely do the light on a timer. My two have wall lights from Ikea (star for DS and flower for DD). They are not allowed to get up until the light comes on. We have enforced this since they were little (2 ish) and now at 6 and 3 it is well engrained. But I think a star chart as described by MyEye will help ease you in.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page