How much sleep does a three and a half year old need?

[Currie30]

My son is three and a half and goes to bed at 7.30pm each night. He falls straight to sleep. However, he wakes up between 4.30 and 5.15 each morning and that is him awake for the rest of the day. How can I get him to sleep an extra hour? Should I put him to bed later? He is exhausted at 7.30 though.

he would be exhausted at 730 though, because he has been up for 15 hours. try putting him to bed just 15 mins later each night for a few nights until you get him going down at maybe 830, that way at least your day won't start until 530-615. it's a toughie. aren't the clocks going forward soon? just keep to the same routine, (putting him to bed at 830 when the clocks change) and you'll have done it!

dont think there is a way of getting him to sleep longer though am afraid.

could give him a really late night - he'll sleep in and then hopefully his clock will be reset.

unless he would pay attention to one of those clocks that does a 'thing' at a set time, like a sunshine popping up, for eg. you tell him not to come out of his room until that happens, then reward him for complying. he might TRY to stay in his room, then fall back asleep

i got my ds this
when he was a similar age. I set it for 6.30am and he knew not to get up until the bunny had opened his eyes.

I wouldnt put him to bed any later, in fact I would put him down a bit earlier (7) as he probably isnt getting enough sleep atm.

hth

ime, keeping them up later doesnt work. They still wake at the same time in the morning!

I find that sleep encourages sleep so you might find that if you put him down at 7 he might stir at 4 but then go back into a deeper sleep until later.... worth a go?!

Sorry no solutions here, just commiseration. My 2.4 DS is exactly the same. I'm gobsmacked at how little sleep he needs. But if he naps in the day and therefore goes down later he gets up even earlier. Keeping him up later sans nap doesn't achieve anything either.

I am resigned to it at the moment, and we get loads done in the day because of it.

Partly am resigned to it because I did it myself and know there was no solution beyond time. I shan't tell you what age I grew out of it, it will only depress you.

We moved our dd (3.5) bedtime back a hour in preparation for Xmas and gradually put her to bed later and later, now she goes to bed at about 8.30 and wakes at about 7.30

We did this partly by moving everything back a bit, so she had snacky tea at fourish then supper at 6ish bath at 7ish and so on.

However I suspect we'll be buggered come sunny mornings

If you decide to put him to bed later it does need to be a longer-term thing. One late night won't cut it. But a sustained gradually later bedtime might.

Coupled with blackout blinds perhaps and some agreed behaviour on waking perhaps using one those bunny clocks, there are a couple out there and you can set the audio to silent so that if by some lucky chance he doesn't wake at the time you've set he won't be woken by godawful alram sound.

Don't know if these make sense but...

I think I read somewhere that you can try waking him earlier (just briefly disturbing him) so that he may resettle for longer-i.e disturb at midnight. Don't know if it works.

Or can you let him nap for half an hour in the day but still put him down at roughly same time? I think the idea is that he does not immediately fall into'deep sleep' because he is so tired, instead has 'light sleep'/chill out time and sleeps longer.

Age 2.10

Most children of that age need about 11-12 hours sleep. Although you do get the odd child he needs much les, and others who need more.

Some children will sleep later if they go to bed later (my DD is one of suh children) biut others this doesn't work for.

TBH I think a 7:30pm bedtime is good, it is the morning time you need to work on as 4:30am really is now an acceptable time to be up and awake.

Can you smehow persuade him to remian in bed even if he is awake, occupying himself with books, toys, etc?