Too Much Sleep?

[Joz]

A good friend of mine has a 2.5 year old, who seems to be constantly sleeping. He has just sarted going to a playgroup on Mondays, other than that he has very little contact with other children - my friend loathes mother toddler groups etc so they spend most of the days in the house or out shopping. He plays alot on his own doing jigsaws and watching television. He no longer needs an afternoon nap, however most mornings he does not wake up until 9.30/10 in some extreme cases 11am. My friend obviously thinks that this is great as she has long lie -ins (I'm not jealous - honest!) But is it natural for a child to sleep so long. Bedtime is usually 7.30 - 8.
Both myself and my husband would be worried if our little boy was sleeping so long - could it be that he is bored and understimulated?

I'm not sure whether or not to say anything about this to my friend, but it does concern me.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

That's a tricky one. A friends little boy often sleeps in until 9.00 am. My son (23 months) can go to bed anywhere between 7 pm and 8 pm and sleep until 7.00 am. He can then sleep in the afternoon for up to 3 hours. This is especially the case if he is with his childminder and has been out. On Sunday he slept quite happily for 2 hours until 3.30 pm and still went to bed fine at 7.30.

If the little boy in question isn't getting an afternoon sleep, then perhaps he really does need a long night time sleep. Also, if there is nothing to disturb him from his sleep in the morning then it is easy to carry on. At weekends when our alarm doesn't go off our son will stay in bed a good half hour or more.

It doesn't sound too extreme to me, especially if that is the only sleep he is getting. If he seems lethargic during the day, or appears pale and just not doing the sorts of things you'd expect a normal, healthy 2.5 year old to be doing, then I'd worry.

Possibly the little boy is not going to sleep when he is put to bed, or is waking up in the night or early morning to play. My oldest son has always been a late sleeper. When he was three he would go to bed about 8.30 to 9.30 (late, I know, but there were reasons for this), and not get up properly till 8.30 - 10.30 -ish in the morning. This was encouraged by my husband, who was his main carer, who got up late himself.

If this boy was bored or understimulated, wouldn't he be sleeping badly, and getting up early?

My son didn't attend many toddler groups either. His dad felt too inhibited to take him. But he did have a lot of contact with adults and children throughout the day. It would worry me if I knew of a child who was not socialising with anyone.
But you say this boy is only 2.5. Perhaps see how things are in 6 months time?

Joz, I agree with Emmam. I know my son always took an afternoon nap when he was 2 1/2. That combined with his night sleep usually brought his total sleep time to about 12 or 13 hours. He actually slept a lot less than his cousins when they were that age! I think it just varies from child to child.

Joz, I've had a very worrying thought. I hope it doesn't apply to this boy - This is a worst case scenario. Excess salt in the diet (ie spoonfuls of it) can apparently make children very lethargic and subdued. Years ago it used to be given as a punishment. I've heard of a case where a mother used it mistakenly to 'control' the behaviour of her children. The effects are cumulative and can be deadly. Sorry to worry you.

Thanks everybody for your messages, don't feel so worried now - obviously our son needs very little sleep in comparison, I just hope our next one is a marathon sleeper!. Tigermoth - I am pretty sure that my friend cooks without salt, so thats not to worry abou - but thanks for letting me know that.