not enough sleep | Imamother

precious

Mon, Jun 25 2012, 9:58 pm

my 4 year old goes to bed at 7:30 and falls asleep right away. he wakes up really early in the morning, sometimes 5:30/6/6:30, and he is wide awake. he will NOT go back to sleep or rest in bed.
then, he cries all day long. every little thing sets him off - he is EXHAUSTED. he will not rest. the only way I can get him to lay down is if I sit next to telling him a story "only if he's laying down", but I have other kids that need my attention, and if I move for a minute, he'll pop right up.
How can I get him to sleep later or agree to rest during the day? I'm going nuts from all his crying!!!

ra_mom

Mon, Jun 25 2012, 10:03 pm

Anyway you can put him to bed earlier? 6:30pm or 7:00pm bedtime is still very normal for a 4 year old.

precious

Mon, Jun 25 2012, 10:09 pm

my other ones are all up and not ready for bed yet, so he would complain that he's going to sleep first. (now I put the younger ones in at the same time)
also my husband comes home at 7, and he usually puts him in.
But the real problem is that everyone else is still up.
Do you think if I put him in earlier he wouldn't get up earlier?

ra_mom

Mon, Jun 25 2012, 10:12 pm

precious wrote:

If he really needs more sleep, and you start putting him to bed 15 minutes earlier for a while, then 15 minutes earlier than that for a while, it should work. (If you just try to put him to bed an hour earlier one night, it won't.)

But that's if you can work it out, as you said the main problem with this is that everyone else is still up.

Bliss

Mon, Jun 25 2012, 10:19 pm

He might not need that much sleep, some kids just don't. And the way to test that is by putting him to sleep early enough so that he has 12 hours ahead of him available to sleep. Do this for a few days and see after how many hours he wakes up. If you'll see a pattern, say 10 hours every day you'll know that this is enough for him. (This is Dina Friedman's method, btw)

Hashemlovesme

Mon, Jun 25 2012, 11:12 pm

your post could be mine! She is so tired & there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it.

precious

Tue, Jun 26 2012, 9:26 pm

Bliss wrote:

He always has 12 hours available. The reason I think he's not sleeping enough is cuz he is SOOOO cranky during the day - he'll cry from ANYTHING - and I can tell that it's exhaustion, out-of-control.

imaamy

Tue, Jun 26 2012, 10:37 pm

My 21 month old is about on that schedule except he is usually up at 5! And he still gets up at least once during the night. He does nap in the day but sometimes not long enough and is cranky as you describe your son. It is so frustrating. If they would just sleep enough they'd be different kids!