How to get them to sleep more than 10 hours

[5amisstillnighttime]

I have two kids, DC1 who turned 4 in August and just started school and DC2 who's 8 months. I'm currently on maternity leave.

Both of them are great at bedtime and go down with no issues - DC1 at about 7 or just before, DC2 at around 7:30. But both are awake by 5. I don't think either are getting enough sleep at night - so a later bedtime meaning they wake up later won't work as it just means the same amount of sleep, in fact the last few days I've done slightly earlier bedtime for DC1 so she gets an extra 15 minutes. I also really value the time I get in the evenings while they're asleep. I'm less worried about DC2 as he naps and can catch up in the day, and as much as I'd love more of a lie in I can cope with not having one. I think the hard thing is getting DC1 to lie in bed quietly (or with her yoto) if she wakes up early as she can tell I'm up with DC2.

We had parents evening yesterday and her teacher said she seemed really tired in the afternoon so they let her sit in the quiet corner and listen to an audio book during the free play time rather than encourage her to do other activities. They could be an end if half term thing though?

Any tips on extending sleep? Im dreading the clock change if they're both up an hour earlier 😩

Some kids just need less sleep, mine have never slept for more ten hours only when they were really young babies. I would push your dc2 bedtime to 8 so theyre getting up a bit later.

Are you serious? You want your children to sleep even longer than 10 hours?

She's half term tired.
10 hours is fantastic -some children just don't need oodles of sleep - mine never did.

Two kids both sleeping a full ten hours every night is amazing!

If she's exhausted by the afternoon then actually the same amount of sleep but shifted later might help. If she wakes at 5 she's been awake 9 hours by 2pm. If they're waking naturally then it probably is the right amount of sleep for them. It would obviously be more convenient if they'd go to sleep early AND sleep in late, but realistically you're likely to have to pick one or the other and if picking the early night is leaving her really tired then it might be time to try shifting it later.

I have a 9 yr old and a 6 yr old and I’m wondering the same. They’ve never both slept through for 10 solid hours on the same night. I guess it ain’t going to happen for me.

10 hours? It's amazing.

10 hours is perfectly fine for your 4yo. They're tired in the afternoon because they're waking up so early, not because they don't get enough sleep.
Putting them to bed before 7 is mad to me. Try more like 8 and give them a few days to adjust.

Goodness, if I’d put mine to bed at 7pm during any point of their childhood they’d have seen it as a napa and be up again 2 hours later 😅. I don’t think either has slept 10 hours in their lives and they are 12 and 15 now. 10 hours unbroken sleep is loads, you are incredibly lucky. I work in a primary school and nearly every child is pretty knackered by the afternoon, especially at the beginning of their first year. 4 is incredibly young too. I’m in Scotland so ours can be a year and a half + older than your dc and plenty are still flagging in the afternoon, especially towards the end of terms. Putting to bed later for a later wake time should help though as there would be less time since they got up to the end of the school day. I wonder if you could use the clock change to try and adjust that a little ?

Really normal to get tired at the end of the half term, especially for the youngest in the class. It doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not getting enough sleep and 10 hours is within the normal range for her age. I wouldn’t accept 5am wake ups though. Get a groclock and set it to 5.15 then send her back to bed until it goes green, when she’s managing not to get up until 5.15 make it 5.30 and so on to you get to a more respectable time. And I’d also combine with bedtime at 8pm so you get the 10 hours 8-6 rather than 7-5.

You might be able to get the 8MO sleeping longer but you’d need reexamine the naps and feeding routine. Honestly though 10 hours is pretty decent and there is an ease of having them on the same schedule as the eldest so if it were me I’d just edge the current routine gradually forward by 15 minutes each time until you get them doing 8-6.

Your expectations seem out of line with reality.

10-13 hours is normal for age 4.

An 8mo would be expected to have naps.

You can't make any human sleep longer than they naturally need to.

With the clock change start today, adjust by 15 mins each day.

10 hours is completely normal for those ages. It's also very common to get tired in the afternoon, most adults do!! We found an earlier bedtime did actually work for our 12 month old, we brought it forward to 6.30 and she sleeps longer now. But she barely naps, only 2 tiny naps usually.

Do you feed on waking? The key to getting my babies to sleep until later is to set their hunger to kick in later to delay waking them. So when they wake, let them fuss, get them up when too unsettled to stay in cot, then distract distract distract, might just be 15 minutes is all you can do but keep doing this. We pushed back wakes from 5:30 to past 7, might take a good few weeks to couple of months but worth it.

For clock change I would do a split feed the nights you are trying to push them later, so normal bottle then 30-45 mins later see if they will take 2-3 extra Oz. Helps push the morning wakes. Don't force it though. With a 2oz split feed top up it could get my son to go to 7/7:30 even with a 18:30 bedtime from around 8/9 months. So 8oz 17:30, 2oz 18:15. I was severely iron deficient and anaemic on mat leave and dead on my feet, so it was a life saver getting some extra rest. Wasn't overfeeding as stayed at 50th centile.

My children have been high sleep needs though, or we probably encouraged them that way! My 20 month old currently does 18:30/18:45-7ish with a 1.5-2.5h nap.

4 year old has an Amazon equivalent of a gro clock which is set to 7:30 for sun rise. She can wake any time 6-7 but will stay in bed and rest, which she needs now she is at school.

Probably a bit of micromanaging but I'll take it for a 12+h night for both my kids 😁

They sleep TEN HOURS and you want them to sleep more?!