4.5yo not getting enough sleep?

[Fluffymonster]

Not sure what to do!

Dd1, 4.5yo always seems to have dark circles and bags under her eyes, and it seems that no matter what we do, she looks tired.

On average, lights out is by 8.15pm, after a bedtime story, but she will probably lie awake chattering to herself, and fidgeting until almost 9pm ,before falling asleep. She wakes up between 7-8am. If we get her to bed earlier, she still seems to lie awake until a similar time. She never sleeps beyond 8am (not on weekends or school hols anyway - on a schoolday we might have to wake her up!).

Occasionally when she is at home, we can persuade her to have a nap in the day - and she will sleep heavily for at least 2hrs, but often wake up quite grumpy and then find it even harder to go to sleep at night.

She has asthma, and eczema - seems to be a highly sensitive sort, really. We've recently started using soya products with her instead of dairy, after a particularly bad flare up of eczema, and that has improved it greatly.

I'm wondering if it's not a sleep quantity issue, it's to do with diet instead, or something - feel like I'm grasping at straws here!!

She gets decent fresh air and exercise as I don't drive and we walk a fair bit etc., she has a fairly healthy diet - homecooked stuff mostly, drinks water with meals, eats fruit, she has sweets but not that many, and usually has a soft'n'chewy multi-vitamin once a day. In theory she should be quite healthy, but the dark circles and bags never seem to go away.

Sounds to me like she is getting enough sleep.....even with her not going straight to sleep she is still having 11hrs per night which is normal for a child of that age. With the nap she is probably over-sleeping hence why she is grumpy and doesn't sleep well at night, I would not encourage her to nap in the day unless she is sick, tired etc.

Sometimes people just have dark circles and bags under their eyes, it is more a genetic predisoposition, does anyone else in the family have this? rather than anything to do with lack of sleep or diet, you seem to be doing all the right things regarding diet,exercise, lifestyle. As long as she is happy and energetic I wouldn't worry so much

Thanks for your reply bakingaddict. Not sure about a genetic predisposition - I look tired and have bags under my eyes, but that's because I am tired.

There are days when she definitely looks more rested than others, but there seems no way of making it consistent.

When she doesn't nap, by late afternoon she gets a bit grumpy, and sometimes will even say "I'm tired" (like today after lunch out). However, if we so much as suggest taking a nap, that changes her tune and she says she's not tired after all. Then she seems to get an energy surge a tea-time, and that's it - bouncing around come bed-time, acting silly etc.

We've had concerns with her sleep for ages - she used to have frequent night terrors from 2yo to 3.5yo - even now they haven't completely gone. If she has a particularly full-on day, she usually has a disturbed sleep, screaming in the night etc.

On the whole she is happy and energetic in waking hours though. I just wish she didn't look so pale and exhausted! Are there any sleep remedies for children? I was wondering about using a few drops of lavender oil on her pillow, and in the bath as well.