Do you have a four year old? What time is bedtime?

[jimmychoos]

My Ds is just four and has been waking up in the night and early in the morning. I'm wondering if he's going to bed too early. He was a good sleeper until 3.5 but now he wakes up in the night and comes into our bed wanting 'a cuddle'. We take him back to his bed and he falls asleep quite happily again. This sometimes happens two or three times a night. He's also started waking earlier - 5.30 this morning. He goes to bed at 7.30. Is this too early? Any idea how I can stop the night time wanderings?

JC my 4 year old goes to bed about 8.30/8.45ish, but then she doesn't have to get up for anything in the mornings so sleeps in till she's ready. Could you keep DS up a bit longer or is he dog tired by 7.30?

Our DS is newly 4. Bedtime is 8pm (alwys asleep by 8.15). He sleeps through most days until 7 to 7.30am.

He's ofen really really tired and overwraught at the end of the day, especially on the days he's at nursery or if we've been busy. He needs to get up three days a week to get to nursery. How long does your daughter sleep for?

Ours has always been a brilliant sleeper (4 and a bit) but quite often wakes in the night wanting a drink/cuddle. This started when she was about 3 and a half-ish. She tends to go through phases of it. She is in bed by 7 or 7.30 most nights - sometimes even 6.45 if we've had a particularly active, tiring day. If she comes in at 5.30 wanting to wake up she is told NO! and that she must go back to bed until we say - which, luckily, she does! Anyway, I don't think putting them to bed later helps - just makes them more tired in the long run which often makes them sleep poorly.

Is he getting enough exercise?

jimmychoos - dd also is waking much earlier recently. My diagnosis is that it is light so much earlier on these long summer days, so she thinks it's time to get up when it isn't. It was 5.30 yesterday......

doesn't sound too early to me - my dd is 4.5 and goes to bed at 6:30 during the week - she gets up at around 7. Children that age are supposed to need 12-13 hours sleep a day. Does your ds still have a nap? Also, blackout blinds helped delay waking-up time by an hour for us. And then there's always the option of star charts for not waking you up! It sounds like a habit that he needs to get out of - my dd1 also goes through these phases of nighttime cuddles and 'needing to tell me something' at 1am. Bribery and punishment (no telly for the day) tend to work.

For a very long time, ds (now 4 & 3/4) as been going to bed between 8 and 8:30. He normally sleeps thru until 7:15 ish, occasionally an extra hour, about which he is totally unpredictable (altho' it never occurs at a weekend ).

I believe that spending time with us in the evenings is valuable in helping him to expand his vocabulary, and allows him to spend time with daddy, which he can't do in the day while dh is at work.

ooohhh, geekgrrl - no telly for the day? That would be as much a punishment for me as for her!!

My dd gets up at around 7.15 (when my alarm goes off!) BTW.

I have to say Geekgirl I think you're right about the habit. I think we've always thought that it was a phases (have found most of his annoying behaviour corrects itself after a while) but this one has continued. It's also been linked to him saying he's scared/ needing a nightlight which I'm sure has affected his sleep too (he used to be a Gina baby in the pitch black).

Nancykominsky - love the name...he does get loads of exercise - bombs around all day. We were out with friends in an adventure playground from 11.00 until 4.30 yesterday - he still woke once in the night and was up at 5.30.

Does he have a nightlight? Mine was a Gina baby too - maybe they come off the rails when they get older, rebelling at last

Nance - yes he does have one. We've also bought him a clock but the little b**r moves the hands round to seven o clock so he can get out of bed!

dd1 is almost 5... we went thro a spate of nocturnal wanderings.. (up to our room coz of alleged bad dream)..
what has worked for us (to stop it0 is a smiley face chart... every night she stays in her own bed she gets a smiley in the morning... at end of week if she has 7 smiley's she gets a pound (ie pocket money!!!)
so far touch wood she has bought into it.... Good Luck

Can I just say that we tried that b**y bunny clock and it was a waste of money. Being strict worked for us - I now refuse to get up to get a drink of water - she has one by her bed when she goes to bed, once that has gone thats it. Also as I have said she is sent back to bed if it is too early. But I do relax if she's had a bad dream or in a pickle for some reason. Had to be strict as her waking phases seem to coincide with our teething toddler and getting up 9 times a night was seriously damaging my positive take on life!

Ok I'm going to be strict. You've all convinced me. Thanks!

Jimmychoos ... very sympathetic to your plight. My DS is 4 and a half and was a GF baby and was the perfect sleeper from 16 weeks till he was 2. Since then he has had phases of sleeping well and sleeping badly. I can't tell you how many times we have sleep trained him to have a few months of good sleep and then something happens to set us back again. There was a time about a year ago when he would creep into our room when we were asleep and he would climb into bed at at our feet. I would wake up with this dead weight on my ankles and DS would be there snoring away ... it was like having a pet dog
The latest has been a fear of the dark ... and with a 3 month old baby in the house I was not too pleased with being up all night with one or other of them ... so we bribed him ... 6 stickers (ie 6 nights of not calling out) and he got the toy of his choice ... (within a certain price obviously) ... and he did it and we are now back on track.
He goes to bed between 7 and 7.30 is usually asleep by 8pm and has always been an early waker - anytime between 6am and 6.45am is a good day. We have a bunny clock ... when he wakes up he is allowed to put his light on and play but he mustn't come into us until the bunny wakes up (7am) ...

My 4yo DD goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps through to 7.00/7.15am (sometimes have to wake her).

We started the stickers last night. sadly DD chose last night to scream the house down at 12.00 and woke him up - but he slept thorugh until 7.30 this morning.......certainly not counting chickens yet.....

We've recently tried a light on a time-switch (cheap version of the bunny clock principle) - and it seems to be working. It comes on at 7pm which means its time to get ready for bed, goes off at 7.45 - time for being in bed and then comes on in the morning at 7.30. She knows that if she wakes up and the light isn't on she should go back to sleep. It made me laugh though that on the first morning of the new system - on waking to discover the light on and her two-year old sister still asleep we heard "come on, it's time to wake up now". Now she knows that the light being on doesn't mean you have to get up, just that you can if you want to.

My little angel is nearly 4 and has turned into a little devil at night time, last night he didn't get to sleep till 2 am then he was awake again at 7 grrrrrr. Up until a couple of months ago he used to sleep 7 till 8 every night now nothing works he goes to nursery and we go for long walks and spend hours at the park but nothing works. Just has so much stamina unlike me.