Stuck in (lack of) sleep purgatory

[tudorqueenie]

My daughter (aged 3 years and 7 months) has never really been a good sleeper. Currently, her sleep schedule is the following as believe it or not, this is the way she gets the most amount of sleep, however, it clearly is not enough at all.

• wakes up at 5am
• no nap
• falls asleep at 6.50-7pm

so she gets a total of 10 hours of sleep overnight. She starts the day cranky, and she is cranky all day. Clearly she needs more!

you might say hey, she needs a bit of naptime, right? Wrong. Even if she takes literally a five minute nap (no matter when! Doesnt matter if it is pre or post noon!), she will not be able to fall asleep at bestime until well after 9pm. However, she STILL wakes at 5am!

i do not let her wake up fully at 5am. We keep things dark, low stimulation, etc.

how on earth do you get out of this. Does this ever end (I mean I know obviously it does when theyre teenagers but you know what I mean)

she cannot be her best self with not enough sleep but also, this seems to be the only way to get even this much sleep :(((

It's so hard when you know they need more sleep but can't seem to get it!

At that age my DD needed plenty of physical activity (loads of time outside whatever the weather) to make sure she had a full night's sleep.

5am is just too early to start the day. I really feel for you. I wonder why she wakes then. Hunger maybe? What time does she eat dinner?

I'd let her nap and accept bedtime is 9pm

I think you partially need to reframe thing. She is sleeping 10 straight hours. That isnt a poor sleeper.

You want her to wake later. Is she warm enough (likely at this time of year), is the room dark enough? Does something happen at 5am - neighbour going to work? Boiler switching on?
Is she hungry? Can she have a snack just before bedtime?

Still waiting for this "teens all sleep til lunchtime" thing to happen. My 14 yr old has been up for an hour. The 16 yr old awake for half an hour.

Thank you everyone!

she eats dinner at about 5pm (just because we do have an early bedtime). She can absolutely have a snack closer to it and she most often does.
nothing happens at 5am, it is completely quiet and the room is nice and dark.