4 yo playing after being put to bed

[Pico2]

DD1 says she has trouble falling asleep. She "reads", plays in her room etc after she has been put to bed, normally in her room. Tonight I discovered her in her playroom an hour after I'd left her in bed.

Any ideas to get her to go to sleep once she is put to bed, preferably easy?

No ideas I'm afraid but I am interested. My dd is 2.5 and still sleeps in her cot. She can often be awake for 1 to 2 hours singing, reading and generally mucking about. It makes her more tired in the morning. But as she naps it feels inpossoble to resolve at the moment.

Is your dd causing a worry by doing this? Is she playing quietly?

Has she previously been allowed to play quietly in her room before bed? It might simply be that she doesn't truly realise this is not acceptable.

Is she getting enough/too much sleep? What time is bedtime, wake up time, any daytime naps?

What are you currently doing to discourage playing at bedtime?

I gave mine a clock and showed her when the big hand is on that number its light out. I then go up and tuck them in and turn out the light (she's in with DD1 whose 6) it largely works quite well. If they really take the piss one night they don't get the chance the next night.

We've not really made much of a fuss about it so far, provided she stays in her room. But she does get worked up sometimes when she can't get to sleep easily.

We take her up to bed at 7.30 and leave her at 8. It was 9 when I found her playing tonight. She generally wakes up at 7 or 7.30 as she is allowed on my iPad after 7, and we are strict on that. She doesn't nap. Apart from being a bit bolshie at times she doesn't seem tired. But I can't imagine that 10 hours sleep is a good idea for a 4 yo.

Oh, and she's rather scared of the dark, so I'm not sure we could turn the lights fully out without her being really upset. Her room has a dimmer switch as her nightlights were casting scary shadows.

If it was me I'd hang around upstairs after putting her to bed. On every occasion she gets out of bed, immediately take her back to bed and lie her down "night time now, so time to sleep" (or something similar). It's called Rapid Return. If you are consistent and don't let her get out of bed at all after bedtime, then she will soon enough get it.

Actually, now I think about it, I have been upstairs settling DD2 in our room most evenings and DD1 pops in to say that she can't sleep. I just tell her to go back to bed. Is there anything I can suggest to her?

Pico2 dh used to go and tell ours the start of a jolly happy story ( usually involving telly tubbies, balloons and lakes of pink tubby custard- yes it was a while ago) . Always with lights off and thrm in bed, with instructions to close eyes gently, let their bodies go floppy and watch " pictures of the story on the inside of their eye lids" .

After starting the story off he would stop at a cliff hanger ( eg tinkywinky dropped his handbag in the custard with a ginormous splash of pink all over the noonoo then......) and they had to keep the story and pictures going in their head.

It generally worked. Often they said they dreamed that the handbag turned into a fish and swam down the drain into the sea or similar in the morning.

Ive to idea if focussing your mind really influences dreams but it gives them something interesting to do as they wait for sleep. Better than the scary times I remember hiding from the faces in the half light in the cabbage roses on my grandmas wall paper!

A 4 year old might do a sticker chart?

Sometime like if you have stayed in your bed while I put DD2 to bed then you get one sticker. If you stay in your bed without getting out all the time until you are asleep you get two stickers. Then a small gift at the end of the week if she has, say, 8 stickers.

something, not sometime.

Theas - that's an interesting idea. I've been telling her to tell herself stories in her head, but she might find it easier if it was modelled like that.

Fate - she can be bribed, definitely. We will also consider a sticker chart.

Hello, Im having this exact problem! I have just started a thread on here to see if anyone has any ideas! Have you come up with a solution? Everything with my little one seems the same as yours, except I put her to bed at 7 and let her have a film on until its finished, unless she asks for it to be turned off sooner! She just seems to be playing or coming out of her room to ask me silly questions, or to go for a wee or poo even though I make sure she goes to the toilet after shes brushed her teeth!
Im interested if you've tried anything different?
:)