6yo NOT TIRED at bedtime...

[CountessDracula]

Not sure what to do!

DD has never needed lots of sleep.
Everyone promised me when she started school she would change. She didn't.

She goes to bed at 8pm. She is almost always still awake at 9.45 (unless she is ill).

She isn't a problem per se. She stays in her room. When she is tired she calls down good-night to us.

Do I need to do anything?
I mean you can't force someone to sleep can you?!

She gets up fine in the morning and is not grumpy (usually!)

my ds1 is like this, he is now nealry 11. He is never grumpy in the mornings. There is n't a darned thing you can do. My biggest problem is ds2 does need 10 hours sleep and ds1 invariably wakes him in the morning...

Sounds fine to me, if it is constant you could maybe even consider moving her bedtime to 8:30 if you want? If not as long as she is not grumpy in the morning then she must be fine.

DS1 who is 6 is like this although a bit earlier. He goes to bed about 7.30, reads until about 9pm then he'll go to sleep. He's very obviously a night owl, sleeps until 7am most weekdays, sometimes longer at weekend. He's not grumpy in the morning, doing well at school.

If your dd is the same I wouldn't worry. It just creates conflict and I know with Ds1 if we try to get him to sleep earlier he tosses and turns before the light goes on again and he ends up sleeping even later.

My DS is six, and is exactly the same as your DD, Dracula. I have decided that he's obviously getting the right amount of sleep for him, and there's not much to be done about it (so long as he's not keeping DD awake!)

Sounds good to me. She is actually resting by staying quietly in his room.

argh
this is getting worse
She just won't sleep - last night she was awake til 10.30

Tonight again awake for hours
She gets up and calls down goodnight to us then stays awake

Tonight she stood on a drawing pin when getting up after 9

I just want to shout
IF YOU WERE ASLEEP YOU WOULDN'T DO IT

Then she sent a paper aeroplane note down to us which dh just found saying

"You don't know how sad I am mama!
I'm really sad"

Why is she sad?
We are really worried that she is staying awake because she is unhappy or something.

She is an only child (not through choice) could this be making her sad? She just can't sleep and I don't understand why. She gets lots of exercise and has friends round/goes to friends a lot. I don't think she's lonely from the way she talks about her life but notes like that make me wonder

and of course we are shattered and so we are grumpy with her about being awake
which compounds the misery

Is everything 100% okay at school? She may have friends but is there some other dc being unkind to her?

She may just feel left out because of the dynamics of being an only?

My dd who is a similar little sleeper has improved since having neuro developmental therapy, apparantly she had too much adrenalin which was part of the problem.

and how do you stop yourself reacting adversely to it?

through very gritted teeth?

afaik school is fine, she is doing well, is always happy to go in without fail etc

I had a younger brother but he was a good sleeper and had his own room so I never had any company at night.

I can remember my parents getting pissed off with me regularly because I was up late and saying I just had to stay in my bed

I don't remember being unhappy about it particularly though

the too much adrenalin can be hereditary, I am a poor sleeper too & need very little sleep if it's unbroken. I am much more sympathetic to dd than than dh is.

I used to read for hours & hours & hours

My mother said that once I got to 8 or 9 i was fine

I sleep for England now and have done for years

I just don't want her to be unhappy about it. Or us. And it seems that we all are

yes me too
I would read for hours

ds1 (same age) is exactly the same (only read OP), I have the occasional night when I insist that he goes to sleep (well that he doesn't put the light on, and he can't do alot in the dark) - but only when he is noticably getting tired, maybe once a fortnight.

CD my DD is exactly the same - she's now 9 and it looks like it will always be this way. She is also expert at inventing reasons to have long heart to heart conversations at bed time, and at coming up with distressing ideas like "No one likes me". She does so many extra curricular activities (gym club, netball club, ballet, modern dance, cello group, string group, orchestra, choir) you would expect her to be exhausted. She's not. Oh and I was told the old "once they are at school" chestnut too. And I will kill the next person who tells me she must be the next Margaret Thatcher because she needs so little sleep. Aaaarrrrgh!

omg what a terrifying thought!!

Am feeling rather better about it this am. I had a long chat this morning with dd and we have agreed that from now on (mainly due to father xmas coming and needing to know she is asleep early but also because she might be too tired to learn properly at school and mummy and daddy need their time) we will

1. Go to bed earlier
2. Eat earlier
3. Have a bath and straight to bed
4. Have a story and then all animals will go under her desk apart from her favorite 4 (i had to concede on this is that ok do youthink)
5. If dh or I get in after bedtime she won't rush down the stairs screeching but will wait in bed for a cuddle and a quiet chat
6. No more making up things to delay bedtime
7. I will do a new star chart today so she can show father xmas how good she has been

Oh and she assured me the note was about her sore foot

will she read to herself or is she not quite up to that yet? I find I sleep better/faster if I've read before I go to sleep.

BAD LUCK though - my 6 year old is fast asleep by 6.30-7

she is anaemic though - have you tried excluding certain essential nutrients from her diet so that she is exhausted all the time?