wwyd-4 yo sleep schedule?

[smellyann82]

dd is 4.5 yo. she typically sleeps from 6 pm to 6 am. but she still seems tired during the day, even in the mornings (if we go for a drive late morning she'll doze a bit) and by about 2 she's all out exhausted. however, if she naps, even 10 minutes, bedtime is pushed to 10:30 or 11. we can put her to bed at 7, 8, 9...she'll just lay there wide awake, calm, but too awake to be left alone in her room without her coming out every 3 minutes to ask us to cuddle. we can't do that. i'm pregnant and tired, and dh has a very emotionally demanding job and NEEDS the time to unwind. we've tried messing with the bedtime a bit to see if a later waking time might help, but she wakes up at 6, or 6:30 at the latest, like clockwork, even with white noise, pitch black room, etc. so, wwyd? is this normal? are most 4.5 year olds tired in the afternoons like this? would you try to get a nap in? should i be looking for other reasons?

[D_McG]

black out curtains? Do you do a down time during the day? DS is about the same age and also can't even close his eyes during the day without delaying bedtime for hours and hours. He sleeps about 12 hours a night and it's enough. But we do have a down time in the afternoon.

[KatWozBlue]

My 4 year old used to get up at 6 and we found it was too early for her, so now she goes 7 to 7. We had to get tough on her about closing her eyes and going to SLEEP! We put a timer in her room and she has to keep her eyes closed first for 5 minutes, then for 10 minutes, then for 15 minutes, we don't get passed the 10 minute timer. Its about them letting go and just relaxing and poof they fall asleep. Nothing is more frustrating than listening to your child keep themselves awake.

I wouldn't let her nap if she will then stay awake, but we did put a clock in our dd's room and if the first digit is not a 7 she is not allowed to get out of bed (except for emergencies/potty of course) and now when she does wake up early and looks at the clock she ends up drifting back to sleep while she waits for it to turn into a "7", we have actually watched her watching the clock and her eyes start to roll back in her head as she falls back asleep, it is hilarious.

I hope these don't sound too mean, she's actually a great little sleeper :-). Good luck.

[smellyann82]

going to sleep is not a problem. takes about 5 minutes. the waking up is haaaaaaard. she's on our floor right now...only our room has a/c and hers is unbearable. but trying the clock thing is a great idea once it cools off a bit...in bed till 7! yeah!

[NiteNicole]

I think going to sleep in five minutes probably means she's over tired so the quality of her sleep is probably taking a hit. What happens if you move bedtime up by fifteen minutes?

How active are her days? What does she eat? My daughter is also 4.5 and every now and then she'll fall asleep in the car but it's usually after a series of long/hard days and it doesn't push back her bedtime by all that much.

[ssh]

If my 4.5 year old has been playing really hard she gets tired in the afternoon sometimes. We just do something quiet like painting, water play or a movie. If she naps it pushes back her bedtime the amount of the nap. When she was younger, from about 27 months until abit after turning 3, any nap meant she was up until really late.

[smellyann82]

well, pushing her bedtime up 15 minutes would mean that we start the routine around 5:30, and then we'd need to eat dinner around 4:45. we struggle to get dinner on by 5 as it is...dd and 15mo ds are both end of the day tired, so i get all the last minute prep done after dh gets home, which is usually around 5. then we eat, and get her ready for bed. we've even shortened the routine--we do baths earlier in the day so she's not going to bed late for that, we don't sing anymore, just books and cuddling. she's definitely overtired, though, i agree. we've actually cut back on big activity during the day because she is sooooo worn out in the afternoon if we spent 4 hours at the park or in the woods in the morning, but then on those days, still, if she naps, she's up incredibly late and tired the next day. although part of me wonders if more time outdoors in the afternoon might actually help--if just being cooped up inside might make her normal afternoon tiredness more dramatic...but of course, that is ds's nap time...noon to 3 usually.

hopefully this is just a funky sleep phase that she'll move on from relatively soon....