None of this 7 - 7 nonsense! Did anyone have a baby/toddler whose natural sleep cycle seems to be late/late?

[BranchingOut]

I am just interested in finding out if anyone has or has had an older baby or toddler who never seems tired in the early evening.

My son won't so much as yawn or seem tired until at least 8.30 pm. He often doesn't settle until 9.30 or 9.45... however, he has thankfully been sleeping through for a while, so am very relieved about that! :)

He generally wakes up around 7.30, however, if he does wake up early for any reason he still does not seem tired until later on. He has a nap either before lunch or around 2pm. I restrict it to 90 mins, but even if it is shorter one day he still seems to stay awake quite happily though till about 9pm.

Sorry - he is 21 months

DD never ever liked sleeping and very rarely napped. She stopped napping entirely at 12 months.

She never, ever so much as yawns before 9pm. Her natural bedtime seems to be around 10pm. She wakes up at 9am though.

Doesn't matter if you get her up early, she never goes to bed early. And if she ever napped during the day, she'd still be up at midnight.

She starts school in September so it's going to have to change though...

Thank goodness I'm not alone!

Doesn't it drive you mad when other people talk about 'bedtime' and 'evenings'?

Bedtime? Evening?

Nope, sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about.

It's easier now she's older tbh. She plays/draws/does jigsaws quite happily in an evening and doesn't need constant interaction. And I get up early and spend time with dh then instead. Plus there's always the chance of a lie in if I want it.

yes - all three of mine were like this. but it didn't suit me to not have an evening so i just wake them up at the time i want them to go to sleep 12 hours later ie.8am if i want bedtime to be at 8pm. generally works although they like to sleep in during holidays so it tends to get later again.

Never works here warthog. You could wake dd up at 7am every day for a week and she'd still be awake and happy at 9.30pm. She just has a rigid internal clock. My Mum delights in telling me I was exactly the same and this is my natural punishment for keeping her up in an evening.

My DD went through a stage of regularly sleeping in. One memorable morning she slept till ten, and nine thirty was not unusual. She was two. It suited me brilliantly as I am a lazy git.

I think my DD is like this. She's 13 months old.
When we first introduced a bedtime routine at about six months I put her to bed at about nine ish. Then I tried to bring it forward and I feel like I've been battling to get her to sleep earlier than she wants to ever since.

This past week I've just been letting her stay up till she seems tired. Generally 9-9.30 but last night it was 10pm. She has started sleeping through which she only did infrequently before. Last night she slept 10-7 then came into bed with me for a feed and went back to sleep till 9.15!

I'm not really sure how to go forward as I'm concerned I won't ever get an evening. Plus DH often works away so I just won't get a break when he's away. But I might get long lies...

My Dd was more often than not still charging around at 1am!!! she just wouldn't go to bed/sleep or become tired.

She now has a bed time of 9.30 as she shares a room with her almost 13yo brother and she refuses to go up without him, so it's the same time as his bed time. It's difficult.

She wasn't asleep tonight until after 10.30 and does not really get tired during the day, usually waking at 7 - 7.30am. She's now 4.6yo.

Yep, dd is like that, she will sleep til 11am easily and got to bed whenever, the only problem ive had is now shes started school she still lays in bed awake until 9.30/10pm! She doesnt seem tired in the daytime though

Even as a tiny baby, DS has always been late to bed and late to get up.
Now at nearly 3yo he goes to bed around 9 and will sleep until 10/11am if allowed.

He is now at a point where he asks to go to bed when he is tired and it's almost always bang on 9pm. Until he needs to be up early to go to school, I can't see any problem with letting him stay up later than considered 'normal'. I'm not suited to early mornings anymore than he is!

DD is a lot like this, which isn't surprising given both DH and I are terrible night owls.

She has to be at nursery for 8.45am so we try and encourage earlier nights (about 8pm) but we hear her playing in her bed and talking to her teddies until 9ish.

She very rarely wakes up before 7.30am, it's usually more like 8 - and she's been like this since she was very small (my friends with small children hate me for this!).

When we're on holiday she'll stay up until 10 or 11pm easily, but then sleep in till 9ish. It's great :)