How can I get my 4 year old to sleep?!

[lularoo]

Hi everyone - this is my first Mumsnet post so apologies in advance if I do anything wrong!!

But please help!

My eldest DD is 4 1/2 and is driving me to dispair with her inability to fall asleep. She is frequently up for 2 hours beyond her bedtime - inn and out of bed, shouting and crying for me to lie with her, jumping around her bedroom, playing with toys etc etc and I honestly don't know what to do with her.

We have always had the same bath time routine since she was a baby - bath, story, bed. But even as a young baby she could quite happily gurgle away to herself for well over an hour.

We have tried so many different things - more stories, lying with her (she just fidgets and plays around), skipping bath incase it winds her up, reward charts, punishments - but she just won't consistently settle down.

A couple of weeks ago I promised her a dressing up outfit if she went to sleep properly for 7 nights - we put a chart up and she did it no problem! And, her behaviour was so much better because she was getting a proper nights sleep. This week, she said she would like a new Charlie & Lola book - so I told her to sleep for 8 nights and she could have it - we're using the same chart but she just refuses to go to sleep.

It is totally wearing me out and I have run out of ideas of what to do with her!

It's having such a negative impact on our whole family - does anyone have any ideas of what we can do??

Thanks

I would suggest you watch some Super Nanny episodes.

Tell her she will go to bed in 5 mins and that will be the end of it. She will stay in bed and sleep.

Of course she won't at first, because she is used to jerking you around. Tell her that is over. Get angry with her (obviously not suggesting aggression here, just a stern voice).

She will get used to the new rules, as long as you are consistent. You are the parent. She is the child.

Hi there

At 4 and a half I think she is old enough for you to sit her down and explain why she needs to sleep and why her continual playing up at bedtime is making you unhappy.

Tell her that she can read/look at books in bed if she is not ready to sleep but she is not to keep coming up and down the stairs, making noise, disturbing everyone.

We have always been very strict about this. If it goes on for longer than 15 minutes I stand at the bottom of the stairs and shout 'Bed. Now!' Cue lots of scampering around on the landing.

Be firm and stick to whatever method you use.

One question, why did you change from 7 nights sleep to 8 nights sleep?

Oh, and I have found that in the heat mine have been much more restless that usual at bedtime.

Thanks for the suggestions - I've always avoided Super Nanny in the past - that's obviously where I've been going wrong!

The reason I upped it from 7 to 8 was to try and extend it out - but I think that was too much too soon. 8 seems to feel like a very big number to her!