Bedtime for a year 2 child

[mummyosaurus]

DD is 6.6, yr 2. Normal bed time is 7 pm with reading until 7.30 pm

This term she is having terrible trouble dropping off to sleep and I am wondering if a later bed time would be the answer. Say 8 pm lights off. She will be up and down the stairs and sometimes not asleep until almost 9 pm. She then lays in, which makes for a chaotic morning, but doesn't seem unduly tired in the day time. I don't think there's anything underlying, tonight I found her crying silently and she says she misses me when I'm downstairs. I gave her plenty of time to tell me if there was anything else, without pushing. She is happy going to school and loves her teacher.

One of the issues if she shares a room with DS (she has her own room but wants to share), he is just 19 months younger, just started reception and needs the 7 pm bed time - he's asleep by 7.01. I don't think I could get away with her going up later, she'd have to read for longer.

What time does your 6 / 7 yo go to bed?

Any ideas on implementing staggered bedtimes?

Thanks

My son is 6.5 and goes to be 7-7.30pm. Some nights he would be asleep sooner if he didn't have noisy siblings.

My dd's share a room 3 and 6 yr2 , they both go up at 7-7.30 if dd1 is tired. If not i let dd1 stay up until 7.45 and we read downstairs before she goes to bed.

DD1 was 8pm from as soon as she learnt to settle as a baby until it slipped later around age 9/10.
I tried occasionally to conform to the 7-7.30 norm, but she simply wasn't tired and would be up and down till gone 9.
At 8 she was ready for bed and no great bedtime ritual was needed she'd just clean her teeth and go to bed.
DD2 might have gone to bed a touch earlier, but since DD1 is about as quiet as a herd of elephants she's always gone up at the same time.

I know it sounds cruel, but perhaps don't allow her to lie in in the mornngs so her "body clock" stays the same and she's truly tired for 7.30?

Bash that might work, but I've always been an evening person. Even as a child, getting me up early makes me grumpy, but It's generally worn of by the evening. I won't necessarily want to go to bed any earlier.

Our dd(6.6)goes at 8. She is the youngest of 4, which tends to make the bedtime later probably went at 7.30 at that age.

My dd has always needed more sleep than her peers, was always in bed for 7 and we had to move it forward when she started school as she was still tired, however, even she has recently started to need much less so is now 8pm and usually awake before us (our clock goes off at 7). She reads in bed so that we can put the 2 kids to bed at same time during the week. (have ds aged 4).

ds is 5 and has lights out at 7.45pm during the week and 8.30pm at the weekend. DD is 8 and has lights out at 8.15 during the week and 9pm at weekends. They dont share a room though.

We've been at about 8 to 830 for our eldest (depending on if 1 of us is doing bedtime or two of us). She doesn't share but we tend to go with last born first to bed if possible (we have to cut the nap of number 3). By the time I get number 3 down so we have a quiet space for us to listen to the other two read we end up them down. I would say from 6.5 our eldest wasn't ready for bed until nearer 8 giving her about 11 hours. The other day DH got bedtime mixed up as his watch was wrong and tried putting them down early and he just had wandering about and general fidgety behaviour. The last 2 nights they've been put to bed when tired and they go straight to sleep.....

dd is 6 and goes to bed at 7.15-30pm (when her younger bro goes). We then allow her to look at the pictures in a book read because i am very happy to encourage her to bedtime reading. I think she is often still awake at 8pm but asleep by 8.30pm depending on the day she has had.

My sil had two girls who share a bedroom and she allows her 8 year old to read in another room for a further half an hour longer. Would that work?

DC (3.0 and 6.5) go to bed at 7.30 - 7.45.

DS (6.5) does not always drop off straight away but he is in bed with lights off. He wakes up between 6 and 7 am.

DD (3.0) drops off straight away and wakes up between 5 and 6 am and still has a nap.

DS is 6.9 and bedtime is 7.30, although in a bid to encourage reading I've been turning a blind eye to reading in bed up to about 8.

DD, 7, (Y2) and DS (5.5, Y1) are in bed by 8pm, DS goes to sleep pretty quickly, DD is usually awake and reading for a good 30-45 mins. Awake then around 7.15.

DS (6.3) has 7.30 bedtime with reading til 8.

I introduced staggered bedtimes in the summer holidays as I felt all the DC needed some time with me without the other DC. Our routine is (pretty much) this;

6.00 Bath.
6.15 DD2 (2) Out of bath, pjs on, story.
6.30 DD2 in bed, DS and DD1 (4) out of bath, DS goes down to watch TV while DD1 has her story etc.
7.00 DD1 in bed, DS has his story, reading book etc.
7.30 DS in bed to read for half an hour (or if DD1 is still awake he has his reading time in my bed so she doesn't start moaning about him being awake)
8.00 Light goes off (and DS goes in his own bed if he's been reading in mine)

It was hard work starting the staggered bedtimes and DD1 was pretty peed off that DS was staying up later at first, but I've found they all go more happily having had time with me first and they settle better because there's no one to chat with.

Does DD go to bed later at the weekends? Mine are allowed to watch TV in my bed on Friday and Saturday nights til about 9. Then we all get a bit of a lay in the next day, and I have something to threaten them with losing if they're silly at bedtimes. DS has lost 'Telly Night' once in the summer and since then has gone to bed without a murmur every night.

My dd is 6.8 yrs and goes to bed around 8pm. She reads to me and then I read to her. She is rarely asleep before 9pm, despite having to be up for school by 7am 3 days a week (for breakfast club) and by 6:15 (to go to childminders) 2 days a week. You'd think she would be tired after being up so early but, at least one day each week she is still awake at 10pm and once every couple of weeks 11pm. She used to be up and down the stairs all evening but now she will read to herself or talk to her dolls. She genuinely doesn't seem tired so I don't worry about it. DS (4) used to be the same but since about 2 weeks after starting school he is normally asleep within 10 minutes if not sooner.

Thank you all for your replies, that's very interesting, and it seems a good few 6 years olds manage with an 8 pm bedtime.

So what I'm going to do tonight, is take DS up first and settle him while I sort upstairs stuff out. Let DD be downstairs a little bit later with DH, then once she's in bed let her read until 8 pm.

She is very tired as she was a right pickle last night and was up and down until 12.30, it was like sleep torture, thankfully that is quite unusual.

I am going to get her up at 7 am, that had occurred to me, the only reason I didn't was because of sending her to school tired. But I have to tiptoe DS out the room, it throws the whole morning routine and I get stressed and grumpy, so I think she has to be up at 7 am.

Because DS needs his sleep they usually go to bed normal time at weekends, but if we have a special event they will be later. She wasn't in bed till about 9.30 on saturday night and I wonder if that had an influence on last nights antic. Although they didn't lay in and you;d think she'd be tired after a late night...

Good luck and keep us updated.

My dd1 never slept more than 10.5 hours even as a toddler - thats just what she needs.

So in Y2, she started the year with an 8pm bedtime, and ended the year with 8.30pm. She didn't sleep till 9pm either way!

Now in Y3, she is in bed at 9pm but rarely asleep before 9.30pm....she has a little light she can put on when she can't sleep, and read till she gets sleepy: she's very good at self-regulating, and does turn it off as soon as she's ready to.

She gets up at 7.30am.

Your dd's story sounds soo familiar to me, I think a slightly later bedtime - so she spends less time 'alone' waiting to sleep - is a very good idea!

Quick Update.

DD slept MUCH better last night, after an 8 pm lights out. I got her up this morning at 7.10 am, she wasn't keen on getting up but has been fine all day.

So, just put lights out now (8 pm) for tonight and it's fingers crossed for another nights sleep.

Thanks all for your input.

So how did it go tonight?

Another 8 pm lights out.

One wake up, which is manageable.

I am thinking the 8 pm bed time is the way to go. Waking up at 7 am. She is not unduly tired of an evening. Reading in bed has got to be good. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for your support.

So she's in bed for 7.30 and reading to lights out at 8pm?

Yep, sounds like it's working - and really it's just 30 mins extra added to her old bedtime.

Your little girl is growing up :-)

I had a bedtime (lights out) of 8pm when I was 7yo and then it shifted again to 9pm when I was around 11yo.

My DD is only 3 and still has a light-out bedtime of 7pm so I have all this to come :-)

Still seems to be working nicely, so thanks all for helping me with that one.

Here's to many more peaceful nights sleep for us all!