3 yr old sleep problems

[Scousemouse5]

Has anyone got any advice on how to tackle my 3yr olds sleep please?

He has a lovely dark room, runs around all day, and a regular bedtime time and routine. He is regularly waking early though, around 5am and is tired and cranky on wakening. He also has short periods (5mins or so) of crying out waking in the night so has some periods of disturbed sleep also.

His long term sleep time when he was younger and having naps was 6pm. We found we couldn’t keep him awake much later and when we did try to progressively put him to sleep later we found he was consistently waking even earlier, and was more tired again…so it’s a vicious circle.

Hes dropped his daytime nap over the past month or two also. Just flat out won’t have one, despite the fact we can see he’s tired. He’s still falling unconscious at 6pm and is tired in the morning and throughout the day.

We know the sweet spot for bed would be later in terms of getting him to wake up at about 6 but we are really struggling to achieve it. He’s getting progressively more worn out and the sleep is going to pot even more.

Any advice or words of hope that it gets better?

Similar to what happened when mine dropped naps. He sounds like he may be overtired. Sounds counterintuitive but have you tried putting him to bed 15 mins or so earlier?

He might need to catch up on the sleep he’s lost by not having naps, then it could even out a bit. Nice quiet afternoons as well so he’s not too active and tired early on.

Solidarity. Sleep issues are a nightmare and I’ve found the only way to fix them is to experiment with all the tips and tricks you see floating around until something clicks.

Thanks a million. Will give that a go. Did you just bring bed forward for a while? Let them catch up a bit and then start trying to push it back but by bit?

Exactly that. Once they’ve started seeming less tired at the earlier bedtime, and settled more during the night, push it back 10-15 mins at a time every few days until bedtime and waking time are at a more acceptable time. Hopefully it won’t take more than 1-2 weeks. I don’t mind seeing a 6 on the clock but 5 is a tad early for me! Best of luck, you’ll get there eventually!

Did you try earlier bedtime? My LB goes to bed at 7 and wakes at 5 a lot and he's so tired. Also won't have a lie down nap in the day unless it's in the car or falling asleep in his lunch at nursery. I'm so tired and fed up.

So we are about 4 days in to an earlier bedtime and overall it’s defo working better. Moved him forward 30 mins. We have had one night that was a bit ropey…still got 10 hours though and the other nights he slept for 11, 12 and 12 hours. Still not noticing much of a difference in his over tiredness in terms of topping up his sleep but we are just going to keep going and hoping we will get there soon x

My 3 yo still naps but struggles to get to sleep at nap time and at night event though he is exhausted. I’ve started telling him stories (made up!) of us going for walks in interesting places and eventually we sit down or lie down somewhere in the story and do some deep breathing.. he never comes back from that 😂 seems to work well for me. I start the story with us holding hands, laying down in his bed, and I won’t say any words if he has his eyes open. So he keeps them shut to keep the story going! An idea if you’re on your last legs 😁 good luck xox

I'm tempted to try this but 6.30 seems so so early. I am sure it will backfire into 4.30am wakes 🙃

Just to make you feel better my 30 mins forward has moved us to him being in bed for 5.30. It’s INSANLEY early. We couldn’t keep him awake previously past 6pm. He’s asleep the past 4 nights usually by 5.45, and all 4 of those nights he’s gone through until just before 6. One of them he had a weird half asleep tantrum in the middle of the night that cost us an hour but he went back to sleep and then woke at 6.10. Our plan is to get him topped up and then when he’s rested juts progressively move the sleep time back again. Nearly clock change too so they are going to be going to bed earlier anyway which made me feel a bit braver about doing it x

Sounds like you’re going in the right direction and getting more hours of quality sleep. Stick with it for a week or two, I’m hopeful things are going to improve for you all!