DD wants to sleep but can't

[LilacBump]

DD is 4 and always been a good sleeper. she's recently been having real trouble getting to sleep. she goes to bed at 8pm without fuss and then lies awake until sometimes 11pm. i often find her with her bedside lamp on and flicking through a book. mind you, she just does this because she has tried to go to sleep for a while but couldn't. we've tried wearing her out with activities (both mental and physical) in the day. we've started closing her door more so she is more in the dark. i don't think she's hungry, she'd tell me she was. i have got a stickerchart but it is not much use as she is not refusing to sleep, she just can't. i don't know what to do anymore. she has big red circles under her eyes. last night i went to sleep at 11pm and she was still awake. we got up at 7.30. her normal routine is to sleep from 8pm till 8am. she tells me she's exhausted.

bump

We have a story cd on very low, and the room dark, with a little tiny nightlight - DD seems to fall asleep with the soothyness of the story.

she said she was tired tonight. we gave her some warm chocolate milk. fingers crossed she gets enough sleep.

When my DS has trouble getting to sleep he always asks for a head massage and usually conks out within about 2 mins of me starting

Just rub on the temples then over the brow bone in little circular motions. Then stroke downwards from the middle of the forehead right to the tip of the nose. Finally one last stroke down with the hands covering the eyes.

Massages can only be done if the eyes are shut and must be completely silent - or else we stop

Don't know whether it is the massage or the shutting eyes and keeping quiet that does it - but either way it works

Of course you will have to go and have a head massage at your local spa yourself to find out what they do

My dd is an insomniac... but so am I. She will sometimes lie awake for hours & I remember doing the same as a child (still takes me an hour to go to sleep... which is why I had be off soon!).

Sorry, no solutions, only sympathy.

DD also sleepwalks (she got that from her father's side). Which leads to further problems, sigh....

8pm-8am would be too long to sleep at night for any of mine, too. What if you let your DD nap a bit in the day (say 1/2 hour), and put her down to sleep more like 9:30pm? That's how things went with my DD for a while.

Does she have a daytime nap sometimes/ever? They stop having a nap because it's awkward to fit in with nursery school but I think some children still need one so they get seriously over-tired - DD2 was like that.

(In the old days infants used to be given a nap at school!)

i used to be like that as a child...

when older i used to put the radio on and turn it right down... once it's very quiet at night you can just about make it out and it's kind of soothing

what's her bedtime routine like? could you try a nice lavendar bath, followed by snuggling up nice and warm with some hot chocolate/milk... then a story and then bed

also, make sure her room isn't too hot/too cold

Meant nursery/school, sorry!

Oh yes, music is fab - DD2 used to use a James Galway flute cassette, very low, to send her to sleep - in fact we used it so often that if she hears it now her eyelids start to flutter!

she hasn't had a daytime nap since she was 2 apart from the very rare case where she nods off in the car or when she's ill. i tried to get her to nap yesterday, but it was me who fell asleep!

however, she slept really well last night. she went to bed at 9.45 and slept until 8am. every time i checked she was fast asleep. we gave her some hot chocolate before bed and did her normal bedtime routine.

That's good, I bet she's like a different little girl this morning, have you tried using a lavender linen spray to help relax her more, I spray it half hour before I go to bed and the sheets and pillows etc smell lovely