How much sleep for a 5.5 year old?

[Inanufpr1]

My DD is 5.5 years old (year 1) and has always been good at bedtime … will go to sleep reliably around 8pm, happy to fall asleep on her own, stays asleep all night or will settle herself if she does wake so I have no real complaints other than she has ALWAYS, since the day she was born, been an early riser! It is getting ridiculous now though, she’s older and she is still up around 5/5.15 every morning. She has a gro clock set for 6.15 and can tell the time but completely ignores it. She will not stay in her room when she wakes or lie in bed with us or go downstairs on her own … she wants one of us up with her making breakfast and playing etc.

We have 2 younger DC and busy lives so us getting enough sleep is always an issue and I am really struggling with the early starts having been up in the night with our youngest. Any attempt to get her to stay in bed / stay quiet etc results in a screaming match and the whole house awake. I am beginning to think this is actually partly my fault as I am expecting too much sleep from her … how many hours do your kids of a similar age sleep? Wondering if I should move bedtime to 9.30 and maybe her wake time would move to 6.45 ish?! Or should I work on getting her to stay in her room until 6.15 and entertain herself so we still get a few hours on our own in the evening? I just don’t think she gets enough sleep!!

Or should I work on getting her to stay in her room until 6.15 and entertain herself so we still get a few hours on our own in the evening?

Yes to this, IMO. DS is just 5, but has been able to understand for around the past year or so that if he wakes before his Yoto player changes to morning colour, he has to stay in his room and entertain himself.

I've never pushed him to get more sleep as he just doesn't seem to need it 🤷‍♀️

I'd also go with getting them to stay quietly in their room if they wake early, even if it is worse in the short term and takes a few mornings of screaming the rest of the household awake until they realise you mean it. Incentivise it until it becomes habit - a small treat each day they manage it, with a bigger treat every 5th/7th day. Ideally encourage an activity that keeps them cozy in bed, as I've found DCs will often drift back off again after a while if just quietly reading or playing with their teddies under the covers. Invest in a little bedside reading light that is only just bright enough to read by with a gentle warm light (avoid the harsher blue-ish white LEDs), so it isn't too intrusive if they get sleepy again.

At 5yo, DC2 slept 7.30pm - 7am IIRC (she's 7yo now).
DC1 has always had disordered sleep (she has ASD and ADHD) and getting to sleep has consistently been her biggest difficulty once she was out of the toddler years. Before that, getting to sleep was still an issue, but the night wakings were even worse. At 5yo, lights out was 7.30pm but I don't think she was ever asleep before 9pm. This gradually got later and later, which made her grumpier and grumpier and her behaviour was awful. She would wake up 6.30-7am regardless of the time she went to sleep. We found a slightly later bedtime worked in the end - counterintuitive, but recommended on a sleep workshop I did to help her when she was 7yo. She went from regularly finally falling asleep at 11pm (sometimes later) to 9.30-10pm. Introducing an awful lot of vigorous exercise to her week made a positive difference to both getting to sleep and waking time too.
I am not a morning person and pretty miserable to be around if I am woken before 7am, so it was pretty easy to impress upon them the importance of staying quiet until then. Fun, rested Mummy is a much nicer person to spend the day with 😂

My DD is the same age and she sleeps 9.30pm-7am. She's never woken especially early, we have had the alarm at 7am since she was tiny to get her up at that time, and we go into her room to get her up and she wakes up without issue but she hasn't woken up on her own any earlier. It seems to be enough sleep for her and she has plenty of energy, although lots of guides tell me it's not enough. I like a later bedtime as we can spend time playing and reading with her after school and when DH gets home - some parents would hate it though as we don't get much of a child-free evening.