4 year old's bedtime 7pm...doesnt sleep until 10pm. Help please!

[LaDY]

LO has always slept at 7am however this has become a problem recently. He wont stay in his bed, he does everything but lays in bed. Just now i have been in his bedroom and he is still playing in his bedroom.

He is starting school in September and i really want him to go back into his routine...but how do i do this?

Any advice appreciated x

 

[karlilay]

Oh god i cant help you hun, but Madis started doing this too. She goes up at 7 and still awake at 9.

 

[Ali33]

My daughter did that around that age and I had to set her schedule back. I woke her up at 5am and made her stay up. She just got back into her regular schedule. Don't let him sleep in, wake him up early and he should be ready for bed by 7. That's what worked for me..

 

[RachA]

I would say that as long as he's not being too loud and disruptive then leave him to it. One he starts school he'll be really tired and will drop off to sleep alot earlier. Daniel did this both before starting at Playschool and school. Once he started he went right back into his old routine.

To encourage him to sleep I'd maybe make sure his room is dark. I'd also keep out of his room unless you really have to go in. We also gave Daniel an amount of time he could stay up for. We showed him on the clock the time we'd come back up and check on him.

I probably wouldn't wake him up early to get him to sleep earlier. Mainly because he'll carry on waking early as he's used to it.

 

[sabby52]

Dec does this to, we just leave him to it, as long as he stays in his room and isnt to noisy then its fine. I am hoping once he starts school in September he will just slip back into his routine naturally.

 

[smelly07]

all children are different and need different amounts of sleep ...........i think setting a bedtime and sticking to it is the important part and dont worry too much about when they fall asleep x

 

[isil]

My son goes up at 6:30, we have stories and then he plays til he falls asleep. This can be any time between 8:30 and 9:30. He tends to get up between 6:30 and 7:30. I'm hoping he starts to sleep a little more when he starts school in a couple of weeks too

 

[Annie77]

I agree with you that this needs to be sorted before school. It is difficult to establish a night routine bringing bedtime forward but what i would do is this.

Work backwards from 10pm (if that is normally when he is going to to sleep) so start off with tidying away toys after supper. Followed by bath at 8.00pm, last drink if he has one, teeth done and in bed by 9.00. Story then lights out by 930pm. Keep bringing each aspect of night routine forward by 15-30mins per night until he is having bath at 6.30, story and lights out by 7.15ish.

I was lucky in that my girls never strayed too far from this until last year when 6&8 but I just did the above and it worked fine. Luckily they have no toys in the bedroom so it is sleeping is their only option! However I have worked with families with young children, some of them with special needs and this works well in getting a good bedtime routine sorted, either for the first time or after summer holidays tc.

 

[LaDY]

Thanks for your advce ladies...we re slowly but surely getting him to bed a little ealier, day by day. Hopefully school will tire him out x