5 year old insomniac?

[whethergirl]

My ds is 5 and a half, and his bedtime has always been between 7.30pm - 8pm which he has generally been ok with although sometimes he has periods of not being able to fall asleep, which might last for a couple of weeks and then he's back to normal.

This current period has lasted about a month and not sure if he's ever going to get back to normal. We get up just before 8am, and he won't fall asleep til about 10pm ish - is this enough sleep? Am I putting him to bed too early? For the last few nights, after an hour of being in bed he claims he is hungry, so have been giving him toast (even though this is after a big supper at about 6pm).

He does seem tired sometimes but on the other hand coping remarkably well for what i consider to be very little sleep. Is it possible he just doesn't need as much as sleep as I think he does?

Ah, food keeps mine awake (heck, food eaten too late keeps me awake, and high protein food like milk is the worst). Food for DC is BANNED in our house from 8pm (I aim for a 8:30pm bedtime). And in reality with a 6pm tea and a 6:30pm pudding, DC forget to eat after that so basically they don't eat after 7pm usually.

What time does he get up? At that age DC are sleeping only about 10 hrs (9.5-10.5 hrs) a night and that really was enough. I am an insomniac myself so am able to roll with it, but the food ban is a big help to settling down at night I found.

Also fish oil supplements, may seem unrelated, I tried it for behaviour (no effect) but I think it might be helping with sleep issues (friend says the same of her DS).

Thanks ragged, I did think about the food link. It's just that my ds is always hungry, but maybe what I should do is give him an early dinner and then light snacks afterwards until a certain time.

Mind you we also eat at about 6pm.
The late night toast is only a new thing, the last few nights when he has claimed he is hungry at 9pm and that's why he can't get too sleep (apparently).

Personally I could eat a whole block of cheese and go straight to sleep no problem.

He gets up anytime from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, normally about 7.45pm. But after looking around on the internet, I realised that I still thought he needed more sleep than 10 but actually it's sufficient for that age.