VOTE: Later bedtime YES or NO?

[TS123]

I need to take a poll. I want my 13 month old DS to wake up later in the morning than 5:30am. He takes one nap now and it's usually at 11am for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. He's knackered by 6:30pm so I usually just let him go to sleep then for the night. Will putting him down later really help him sleep in? YES or NO?

YES. Imo, it will take a bit of time but it should eventually happen, unless he's being woken by a specific noise - milkman etc.

Set the heating to come on at 4.

could you push the day time nap to after lunch? which might mean he could last a bit longer into the evening?

Yes. Could you let him have his nap after lunch one day he may last even a little longer in the evening and you may be able to push his bedtime by 10 or 20 mins each night, adding on a half/hour in a few days?

Ha! Hatwoman!

No.
If you push them past when they seem tired and ready for bed, you're looking for trouble on two counts. Putting an overtired child to bed is often more difficult and research shows that stretching out bedtime does not result in later waking. Read Dr Marc Weissbluth's book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", which I found excellent. He gives some interesting information on why later bedtime more than likely won't equal later waking. Well worth the read.
All I can think of is to try and push that nap a little later. At that age DD was going down at 11:30, but she was sleeping 2 -3 hours, which makes all the difference I suppose, compared to the 1 to 1 1/2 hours your DS is sleeping. Is he in his bed in a darkened room for his nap?

I would try moving nap first as well.

Agree with those who say push nap later.

ds doesn't go to bed until 9pm - it wouldn't work any earlier - and wakes up usually between 6.30 and 7.30, which I can live with. He has a nap - 1-2 hours usually - any time between about 11 and about 2.30. Sometimes, when he has his nap very early, he will start nodding off around 6 or 7, which in our case only means he'll be awake again half an hour and refuse to sleep until 11 . So we do our best to keep the nap late-ish (but not too late as we're then in for a very wakeful evening). We've found 12 or 1 is the ideal time.

oooohh I have this exact predicament with my 16 month dd2! Its exactly the same!
I put her down at 7pm last night and she managed til 6.15 this am.
This is a vast improvement as it has been 5, 5.30 ish for the past week or so.
I moved her cot yesterday though...she was too near the radiator and I was wondering if she was getting too hot.
Try making sure the room temp is comfortable in the mornings...it might help?

p.s...I'm going to try and push nap time later too...I have found that by lunch time she is absolutely knackered...she falls asleep in her high chair if she has missed an earlier nap.

So the consensus seems to be to move the nap later and he will naturally be less tired in the evening and be able to stay up until at least 7pm. I agree. Although to some extend I think I have to let him set the pace. At 13 months he is just now dropping his morning nap and keeping him awake more than 6 hours before his nap may be too harsh. As he gets older he'll probably be better at this. I tend to agree with Jambot to some extent -- an overtired baby will sleep worse, and I think this applies to naps as well as bedtime. Do any of you find that if you wait too long to put them to bed - they get wired and fight sleep and wake up prematurely? This is definitely so with DS so perhaps I'll just have to go really really slow on this.

Yes, go slow, move the bedtime and nap maybe 10/15 minutes back at a time.

My dd used to have 3 naps at that age, morning, early afternoon and late afternoon. The last one was shortish and meant that she could go down at 8pm, until 7.30am.

My nearly 1 year old doesn't go down for the night till nearly 8PM!

Neither does the 3-year-old.

They sleep till 9.30 or so.

We are night owls and DH works till 11PM or midnight most nights. As he looks after them during the day, this suits us better.

Plus, I get more time w/them when I get home around 5.30PM.

So I would say, one nap in the morning and another one after lunch.

Hate to be a pessimistic voice but with my dd nothing much worked with early wakings, later to bed, less naps, shorter naps, naps at different times! She sleeps til 7am on a good morning now (she is 2.7) but is still inconsistant.

I do think making a few changes can help some people though so definitely give it a try!

3 naps is a lot for a 13 month old. I think your problem is that is routine is out by about an hour. Currently he is:

5.30 up
11-12.30 nap
6.30 bed

Whereas it would be preferable to have
6.30 up
12-1.30 nap
7.30 bed
or even shifting all that half hour later.

So I would try to gradually shift the nap and bed times in the hope that the morning wake up will eventually fall into place. I would shift it by 15 minutes a week, so taking it really slowly.

my dd is 14mths and i think its to do with feeding times, we all know that if you're full you are more likely to sleep. she has her lunch at 11.30 and then nappy change and then bed she sleeps til about 2.30 and then goes to bed at 7.

meant to say she wakes at about 6.45- 7.15

Alot of really great advice thanks so much. At the end of the day, I do have to wonder if LittleSarah isn't right though I have a feeling that with some kids early waking is a reality (not just parental pessimism!) and only they decide when they will change. I think I'll go with the 15 minutes per week suggestion - he should be able to handle that.

TS123 I think that lovemygirls makes a good point about meal times though, so if you are jiggling with sleep times make sure that meal/snack times also move to coincide. Although that will probably largely happen naturally.

I will make sure to shift all parts of his daytime routine and cross my fingers - thanks again!