Let DD9 sleep in?

[TalkToTheHand123]

DD9 can be a nightmare to get to sleep. I'm trying to get her in a better sleep routine for school. On a weekend or holidays, I let her sleepin, but wonder if this makes it worse?

It probably does make it worse. If the sleep schedules slide during the holidays it's a real pain trying to get my two back in to a routine for school.

I do let them stay up later at the weekend but sometimes wonder why I do.

Aww. This morning wasn't too bad thankfully. She was up about 10am and woke up herself. I'm getting a bit better with the routine, so should be ok if I try keep to it as best I can.

I think 10am is crazy for a 9 year old to wake up, no wonder she isn’t tired at bedtime! I’d wake her up at 7.30 every day and she’ll soon be in bed at a reasonable hour.

My 9 year old wakes up between 6 and 7 every single day 😴

10am?! What time is she going to sleep?!

She gets to sleep about now. No such luck tonight. She's jumping about winding me up.

I let my 10 year old sleep in during the holidays, but she still wakes at 8.30/9. And goes to bed 9pm. You loose a lot of the day if she's not getting up until 10 or later.

We have a lie in at holidays and Saturday- we breakfast at 9am.
Latest bedtime is 9pm for our 11 yo at Friday/Saturday/holidays. Later doesn't work for her/us.

So does my 10 year old, no matter what time she goes to sleep

Anyone any ideas how to get her to sleep?

What's your current routine?

Usually let her colour in then sleep. She won't go to sleep by herself and I don't usually have the energy to argue so lay with her until she falls asleep. I've had enough of this now though so going to power through regardless of how drained I get and hopefully can stick to it.

Okay, but what time is bedtime - i.e. when do you go up, and when is lights out etc? What do you do to wind down before bed? What time is dinner, and does she have supper? When does screen time stop? When she goes up, what happens - do you read together etc?

Obviously you don't have to answer all these if you don't want to! I just feel like it's quite hard to give ideas on how to get her to sleep without knowing what the current situation looks like.

I have one that will sleep till gone 10am at the weekends and holidays, but gets up nicely for school independently. Let her get what sleep she needs on Saturdays and at the beginning of the holidays but then towards the end of the holiday i start to wake her earlier each day so that she gets to sleep easier and it isn't such a shock

Hello again. I think I'm sorted. The main issue has been she wouldn't go to sleep by herself. I usually give up trying to get her to do this when I have no energy left, but believe it'll be worth the sheer exhaustion to not give in for a few nights until she gets into the routine. Pretending I'm going to sleep in my room seems to make her realise I'm being serious and stops her messing about thinking I'll eventually return.

On a morning I will do a little tidying in her room to wake her up gently so she doesn't sleep too long as there has been times she sleeps to 12pm. She sometimes won't sleep until midnight. Quite confident of this plan. Hopefully will do the trick.

I think sleep can be a big issue for some children. You can't make a child sleep or eat or use the toilet, especially if they are ND.

In our case I have my 5 year olds alarm set for 7am and we get up by half past every single day, school day, weekend or holiday.
I hate never having a lie in, but I've argued a tired child out of bed more than once and it wasn't fun for anyone.

He does have books and music in bed but if he's still awake at 8pm I offer to take them away if he's distracted from sleep and usually he puts them away and sleeps soon.

I think the consistency was the really important bit. And that's going through to meals too, so breakfast and dinner are over at a similar time every day, to make sure the body clock is working well throughout.

But what works for one doesn't work for all! Good luck.

Try swimming in the evening, OP. Supper of a banana or unsweetened porridge when you get home. 5 evenings of that will tire her out.

More time outdoors will help regulate her circadian rhythm. It goes without saying, no screens after dinner.

She's a nightmare for swimming so that's a nono at the mo. She doesn't like porridge. I have been taking her to the park though, but she is still full of energy regardless.

She is a very slow eater so I make sure food is made asap and plentyful so she can't winge on for food late at night.

I do need to start wind down time earlier, but again my pretending I'm off to sleep in my bed seems to be a very good method to get her to sleep which I tried for the first time last night.

She didn't need much prompting this morning to get up as we needed to go out early. Had to bribe her with her ipad but it was only for a few mins.