How to deal with 5yo who fights bedtime and springs out every few mins?

[wastedtwenties]

He's always needed less sleep than most of his peers.

He wakes happily at 7 and is energetic throughout the day

Currently settling to sleep between 9-9:30

It's really difficult to not give him screentime as I am so exhausted by then but trying hard to reduce /eliminate in the few hours before bed

The worst bit is constantly coming out of his room for something or another. I tell him I will check on him after 5 mins but he's usually out of bed before that

We are still sitting with our kids until they fall asleep. There are some good sleep noises on slumber (waves etc) and stories on Calm - both apps - which I would recommend downloading. Slumber has more free sounds.

Classical music or audio book. If he leaves the room you do the Super nanny back to bed routine. It will be seriously hard for a few nights then he will get the message. Absolutely no chat or attention though.

How old are your kids please?

Same age and issue here, we do audiobooks and I have resorted to waiting until they are asleep before leaving room - really not ideal!

Same - I think we just have to go with it for now but I'm wondering at what age it'll stop?!

Ds 5 is the same, although definitely not a morning person. He has a tonie player and we let him listen to it with the light off. There are some older books, but he likes Octonauts and the various Paw patrol ones. However they do last about 45 minutes so you have to make sure you don't start it at 9.30pm. I did read to him and laid with him tonight until he was asleep as it was late.

We have audiobooks. Audible and CDs for the older one and a Yoto for the younger. They share a room so both are playing at the same time 😂

We have a baby too so there's no way I could sit with them until they fell asleep. They just wouldn't actually sleep I don't think.

I tell them they're not allowed back out of the room or there will be consequence (ie the story gets turned off) they do sometimes come out but generally are good at staying in.

My DC2 used to be exactly like this. Audiobooks etc weren't about then but I tried night lights, sitting outside their room so every time they came out I could take them straight back in, laying down with them until they fell asleep. I can't remember what actually worked in the end but safe to say it did eventually. I remember thinking how lovely it would be to have a chilled out evening on the sofa. It does getting better though.

Can you remember roughly what age?!

I can recommend the Supernanny technique. My DS went through a phase aged about 2.5, once we took the bars off the cot, of getting out of bed. The stay in bed technique worked very quickly.

DS is now 3.5 and has a Tonie box in his bed. He loves listening to it as he falls asleep (not often he's awake for the whole thing, and the longest we have is only about 25 minutes!). If he ever gets up once tucked in and I've left the room, he gets the stay in bed technique again and it works every time!