My 4 (almost 5) year old is such a pain to get to sleep
She is active and bubbly and at full
time school
she is clearly tired by bedtime but spends sometimes hours getting to actual sleep
we are extremely rigid on bedtime so before anyone says routine is the key it's clearly not 🤣
we are home by 3.30 or 5.15 if at aftercare/ activity
Once/ twice a week she goes to the park or a friends for a play date until around 4.15
she walks 1 mile to and 1 mile from school daily or she cycles or scoots
home
home work
relax/ play
watch tv for max 30min and not every day for sure (mainly when not in after school care )
we do bath at 6.30
book etc and she is in bed lights off at 7.15 or at latest 7.30
on a good day after being very tired she can be asleep flat out by 8pm
but more than not it's 9 pm
at least twice a week closer to 10pm
She is up at 7am at latest but mostly around 6.30am she may very occasionally and randomly sleep in until 7.30/45 ish
we have got strict about bedtime years ago and therefore she rarely gets out of bed and if she does she knows she won't get away with leaving her room but she still does occasionally
is this enough sleep
how much are most other 4 year olds getting
I swear most kids at her school are in bed by 7 sleep by 7.30 and some are even asleep by 7 latest or so parents say and get a solid 11 hours minimum
tell me I'm not alone - she does occasionally seem quite tired and definitely has some focus issues and is age appropriately naughty / silly sometimes but hard to tell if it's chronic lack of sleep or Sen (too young to determine according to school) but performs well academically and does more exercise than all her classmates by a mile I would say so I think on balance she isnt suffering too much
is there any way to get more sleep here? I've honestly considered melatonin and similar but always determine not too in the end
no she's not particularly anxious she loves school
she has black out blinds and is the same all year round
im just exhausted by the late nights and constantly worrying because online is says she needs more sleep and I can see she does she just can't seem to manage it