2.5 year olds - what time does yours go to sleep?

[IrritableBitchSyndrome]

And when do they wake up again? I really need to get into a better bedtime routine with my DD. She no longer naps during the day, until 5pm! She is then not tired for hours. 5pm seems too early to put her to bed, and is pretty impractical due to the general family routine, and because she wakes often so I'm up and down frequently from bedtime onwards, meaning nothing gets done. However 11pm (her preferred sleeping time after a nice 5pm nap) is waaay too late, and when she stays awake so late she then wants to sleep until 10.30 in the morning! Pre-school starts at 9.15. It's hard to keep her awake when she's sleepy as she gets enraged, extremely upset, and it's pretty impossible to get anything done at all with a raging toddler to manage/calm! What do you do with your toddlers regarding bedtimes?

My youngest is 4 but at 2.5years his day was something like:

8-8.30am wake
2-4pm nap
9pm bed

Now he is 4 he still goes to bed at 9pm and wakes 8am. Naps still maybe one day at weekend if he can. But is at school so can't nap midweek.

The 9pm wasn't fixed however at that age as no school so could go later if he was happy and wanted to.

For us 9pm has always been a reasonable time as we aren't home until 6.30pm earliest, often 7pm so we have time to all eat/ relax/ catch up before bed

My 2.5 year old is generally asleep by 8.30 and awake 7.30 ish or later at the weekend (he's a good boy).

From the ages of about 1 and 7 mine when to bed at 7pm and got up around 7am (though ds was often up nearer 6am).

My nearly 3 year old goes to bed at 7ish and gets up between 6 and 7am usually. He doesn't nap during the day at home (and hasn't since before he was 2) but he will sleep during a car journey or at nursery (staff are magicians!).

Could you try waking her at 7am so she'd hopefully be ready for a nap at 1pm after lunch, don't let her sleep past 3pm then bed time at 7pm?

Bed at 1800 and up at 500 which fits our family routines well. He rarely naps.

Bedtime 9-9.30 ish
Wakes up 8-8.30 ish

Usually has a 1-2 hour nap during the day although he's starting to drop these now, boohooo.....

6.30/7pm wake up 6-7am no nap since 20 months

Asleep at 8, up at 7. Sometimes a 1.5 hour nap from 1-2.30pm, sometimes no nap at all but always in bed at 8.

2.4 DD usually wakes about 6.30, if she's going to nap it's normally about 1.30/2pm and I don't let her sleep later than 4. She's in bed for 7.30 whether she goes straight to sleep or not (like tonight where she's chattering away to herself, but she's usually off within ten mins.) We got her into this routine from about a year old, the only time she started testing the boundaries was about 6 months ago - we had roughly a week of her crying when we put her to bed, but stopped within five minutes of shutting the door. Bedtime is something I won't budge on and it's really paid off.

Bedtime is at 7 and up anytime between 6.30-7.30 am. She naps about every other day at the mo from 1ish and I don't let her have more than an hour and a half else she takes ages to drop off at night.

bedtime 9, up about 7-7.30. nap 1-3.

Ah, that just-dropping-nap stage. Tricky. We used to get this after DD had normally dropped her nap when she'd fall asleep on the school run, bedtime at any civilised hour was then off. And with DS when nursery decided he needed to nap. Mine generally sleep a bit less than average, but with a nap at that age it would be past 10pm bed, without a nap 8.30 or so, getting up at 7-7.30.

1. Have very tiring mornings then go for long buggy walks/drives in the early afternoon so she naps? But I guess if preschool isn't tiring enough you can't do much about it.

2. Jolly her through somehow till the earliest bedtime you can manage. Some quiet time if not a nap in early afternoon might help her make it through.

Bedtime 7pm, no nap, up between 6 and 7 but usually towards 7am.

Does she sleep in the car? Could you get her up early on a sat morning and engineer a trio in the car around 1pm to reset her body clock? Or go swimming in the am? Anything to completely knacker her and bring forward the nap? Would only take a couple of days to get it going.

2yr10 months.. Wakes about 7am.. A nap around 12/12.30 for an hour.. Sometimes longer (sleeping no later than 2pm) Lights out at 7pm after story etc. Works for us and DD1 (6) still has the same routine minus the nap

Mine were always bed by 7 and up at about 6/7. I'm a morning person and dh and I like our evenings together so were happy with that.

FreeButtonBee she used to nap around 1 but now powers through until 5. Sometimes I can jolly her through as catkind suggests, but she's pretty assertive about her sleep needs. We are a no car family. She will sometimes sleep in the pushchair but these days is more likely to insist on walking, generally very slowly, examining every leaf and garden...

My twins are 3.1 now but at 2.5 sleep looked like this...

Wake 8am
Nap 1pm-3pm
Bedtime 7pm

They no longer nap but bedtime is 6:30pm and they wake around 8am

My 3.3 yo DD goes to bed at 6.30. She doesn't nap generally, on the very odd occasion she does I don't let her sleep later than 4 and then she'll be asleep by 7.30. She wakes around 7am. We've had this routine pretty much since she turned 2. When she first dropped her nap we still encouraged 'quiet time ' where she would go in her room with a warm drink and I'd read her a story and then leave her. Sometimes she fell asleep, sometimes not. If she didn't she'd play quietly with her toys or look at books. If she wasn't sleeping I'd go get her after about 45 mins or sooner if she got upset (rare). If she fell asleep I'd leave her.

Now she is just a tired little ratbag from around 5 and we stretch bath and bedtime out as long as we can!

I'm relieved to see that 9pm- ish is not a massively uncommon bedtime for a toddler though. I have been feeling very guilty that I am failing DD by not having her in bed by 7pm sharp!

DS1 at that age - more often than not, up till 9/10pm at 2.5, no nap as too busy at playgroup, unless totally knackered when he'd sleep from about 3-4pm - he wasn't a good sleeper though, often woke in the night (famished - had an emergency banana by the bed for him), until suddenly he was (at about 4) and now he goes to sleep no fuss, with his little brother at 7:30 and doesn't wake until 7. So even if you have no luck for a while, it can totally get better soon!

DS2 is 2, he sleeps 7:30-7, has a nap if he needs it at about 11 (trip around the block in the car till he drops off), or at the weekend a bit later (if we're on the way back from somewhere) - but we make sure he's awake by 5pm or like yours he won't sleep. He's always been an awesome sleeper though (I think he has the stomach capacity so that he doesn't get hungry)

Earliest bedtime we'll do if knackered is 6:30 or he'll wake again before morning.

7pm-7.30 if we've been at home all day or not done much and she's had no nap.

8pm if she's had 45mins/1hour at lunchtime.

9pm-9.30pm if she's had a longer nap.

Tends to wake up between 7-8am regardless of bedtime.

I find she can go 2-3 days without a nap then needs to catch up, either a mammoth 3 hour nap or a few days of 1-1.5 hours. If I think she needs a nap I'll engineer the day so we are in the car around lunchtime.

My 2yo sleeps basically 7-7 and currently for up to 4h in the day. She is duper tired at the mo. Normally you can shave 2h off there approx

Goes to bed 6.30 to 7, wakes 6.30 to 7am. He has just dropped his daytime nap, which means some days are a real slog by 5pm and he can get really grumpy. I've tried getting him to nap some days when we're at home, but he is having none of it now.

He's 2.7 years old.

2.4 DS:
7am wake up
12.30-2.30 nap
7.30 bed

We royally screwed it up when DD (4) started school as we moved his nap to after the school run...he slept till 6pm went to bed at 7.30pm and woke up at 5am ... every single day.

We reset him a couple of weeks ago and now he sleeps!

WutheringFrights it's fiddly isn't it? Glad your reset worked Interesting that there seems to be quite a bit of variation in responses - quite a relief!