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3 year old and sleep
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Does anyone else have a child who has an internal clock that makes him/her wake up at a certain time no matter what time they fall asleep at night?
Or does anyone have a child who at 3 slept less than 12 hours at night (and didn’t nap)?
I don’t know if I’m getting my DS to bed too late but he’s still wanting to wake up at the same time every morning anyway – or – if he’s in a transition period where he is needing less than his previously-normal 12 hours. He has begun having nights where he sleeps 11 hours instead (and even a few at 10 1/2 hours).
If you have a child that wakes up at the same time no matter what is there a way to change that or do you just change bedtime to get the right amount of sleep in?
(By the way he hasn’t napped in a year and has done better without them. Naps are not something I want to try to reintroduce at this stage. I’d rather work on nighttime sleep since he does better that way.)
TIA!
Dana
My dd, who is now 9 was just like that. She still is, but to a lesser degree. She would get up early even when put to bed quite late. I tried to “switch her clock” a couple times (for various reasons that are to long to explain. this is not something I would have tried for just any old whim or anything) but it just did not do anything to change her wake up time. We eventually had to just make sure she was getting to bed early enough and put rules in place to keep things quiet in the mornings when she woke. She is just now starting to grow out of this. She still wakes up early, but will be able to sleep in (just slightly) if kept up late for some reason. She still has a pretty early regular bedtime.
This is just part of who she is! HTH.
My 3 youngest are this way…..they each stopped napping cold turkey right about 2 years old and they are up by 6 nomatter what time we put them to bed…..whether it be 7 pm or midnight……..we put them in bed about 7:30 each night, they never fall asleep right away (we let them lay in bed and listen to books on tape or music, no toys in bed just a stuffed aniamal….most nights they will sit in bed and talk to their animal, sing to them etc….it is usuually 9 or 9:30 before they fall asleep but that is just all they require…….my hubby is that way too though…….
mom on the other hand commonly gets about 6 hours a night (sometimes less) I function well but if given the chance I could enjoy sleeping until 9 or 10 am…..I could prob use more sleep but have just become accustomed to less over the years…..
I think if your little one seems happy and well rested then just go with what works…..Even though mine don’t sleep I do require they get in bed for mommy and daddy’s sanity
As long as your child is happy and healthy and not cranky all day, they are probably getting enough sleep. In my opinion you are very fortunate if your child sleeps a full 12 hours straight. Mine never have. 10-10.5 has always been the best I could possibly hope for, 9 is about average.
Our oldest son stopped napping at 18 months, but still wouldn’t fall asleep much before 10pm or even 11 pm and would be up for the day as early as six or seven. Now that he is ten he rarely gets up before 7:30, but will occassionally sleep until 8 or 8:30 if he’s been very active the evening before. He did not sleep through the night until he was three.
Ours ds6 is usually asleep between 8:30 and 9:00 lately (it’s still light out until about 9:30 here now adays) and will be up any time between 6am and 7am. Occassionally he will sleep later if he’s had a string of later nights or been very active the night before. He will still wake through the night — sometimes because he is cold (he tends to move alot in his sleep and seldom stays covered for long) or because he has one of his frequent nose bleeds. Both our boys are in bed between 8 and 8:30pm.
Thanks everyone! Actually he’s ben cranky and uncharacterisically emotional. Seems like he would sleep later then. But to accommodate this 6-6:30 wake-up time we put him to bed at 6 last night. He slept a full 12 hours and has been happy all day so far without the behavioral issues we’ve been dealing with lately. So I guess lack of sleep was it. He has always prefered to get up early. My dad is the same way and I’m a little like that although not quite. Anyway, unfortunately it is very hard for us to get him to bed so early and it cuts out practically all evening activities for us but we’re figuring out how to do it and hopefully he will continue to feel better with enough sleep. He must have been feeling so terrible! Thank you for all your help! Who knew a child could have a wake-up time preference and would stick to it no matter what!? But this is who he is. 🙂
Another thought — is his room kept dark? With the sun coming up earlier it may be waking him, and he figures if he wakes and the sun’s up he should be, too. We’ve put dark sheets over the windows at night to keep the room darker longer in the morning (or earlier on the evenings they are in bed before the sun has fully set). It does seem to work pretty well. Or at least even if they wake earlier they are more likely to stay in bed and fall back to sleep then get up and expect the whole household to get up with them.
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