# Toddler sleep



## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

My son's new thing is to wake up at 5 am, instead of sleeping in til 7 am like he used to. Does anyone have any sleep secrets to help a toddler sleep in later? He has the same bedtime routine each night and is in bed at 8 pm. He usually naps at around 11 am for about an hour to hour and a half. He eats a lot throughout the day, so I don't think he is waking up hungry, but not totally sure. He has a noise machine, dark curtains, and a small night light as well. I can't think of anything else to help him sleep, so I'm wondering if anyone else can think of something to help?


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

How old is he?


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## unbelievable (Aug 20, 2010)

Put him to bed later or reduce nap time. What time does he eat supper? 8-5 is nine hours. If he eats last around 6:00pm, that's 11 hours without chow when he wakes up. I might consider cutting out some snacks throughout the day so he's hungry at supper. Feed him a decent meal shortly before bed. You might get him outdoors and let him run around and wear himself out later in the afternoon.


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## Anon Pink (Jan 17, 2013)

unbelievable said:


> Put him to bed later or reduce nap time. What time does he eat supper? 8-5 is nine hours. If he eats last around 6:00pm, that's 11 hours without chow when he wakes up. I might consider cutting out some snacks throughout the day so he's hungry at supper. Feed him a decent meal shortly before bed. You might get him outdoors and let him run around and wear himself out later in the afternoon.


This is pretty much it in a nutshell.

Are you are morning person or a night person?

I am a night person and need mornings to progress rather slowly. I always put my kids to bed later so they would sleep later giving me mornings with at least 1 cup of coffee alone! I would much rather deal with them later in the evening than early in the morning!


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

Putting them to bed later never worked for me. My kids were always early to sleep and early to rise. Some "experts" will tell you it's better to actually put them to bed earlier to get them to sleep longer. My kids went to bed at 6:30 as toddlers. It was both their natural bedtimes, and we did not complain!


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

Anon Pink said:


> How old is he?


He'll be 2 next month. 



unbelievable said:


> Put him to bed later or reduce nap time. What time does he eat supper? 8-5 is nine hours. If he eats last around 6:00pm, that's 11 hours without chow when he wakes up. I might consider cutting out some snacks throughout the day so he's hungry at supper. Feed him a decent meal shortly before bed. You might get him outdoors and let him run around and wear himself out later in the afternoon.


He eats dinner at 5:30 or 6. Bath time at 7:30 ish, a snack before bed(oatmeal, peanut butter sandwich, banana, or something else filling), brush teeth, read a story, turn on the white noise, say good-night to different things in his room, then say I love you and kiss him good night. The kid has plenty of energy and will walk 3 long blocks to the park, run and play there, and walk most of the way back. He definitely gets plenty of exercise. He has more energy than most of his friends his age. They tend to get tired and stop, while my son continues to run wild.


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## meson (May 19, 2011)

We have three kids that did the same thing. We shifted the bedtime to 9pm which worked for two of them. Our youngest didn't want to go to sleep and wakes up early to this day and he's 15 now. We focused on having him play quietly until we got up once he started to crawl out of the crib.


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

SecondTime'Round said:


> Putting them to bed later never worked for me. My kids were always early to sleep and early to rise. Some "experts" will tell you it's better to actually put them to bed earlier to get them to sleep longer. My kids went to bed at 6:30 as toddlers. It was both their natural bedtimes, and we did not complain!


I have heard that sleep begets sleep, but can't seem to get him to sleep well no matter what. If I try to put him to bed earlier, he just takes longer to fall asleep and will not fall asleep before 8pm. We have tried a 7pm or 7:30pm bedtime, but he always stays awake until 8 pm. I just miss when he would sleep until 7. 

He has also gotten worse because he was sick with bronchitis the other week, so I was staying in his room while he fell asleep to prevent coughing fits and now he won't go to sleep unless I am in the room. He is having really bad separation anxiety. I didn't want to start that bad habit and we're having a hard time breaking it. He is health now, but I'm going on to week 3 of being sick after catching what he had. I'm exhausted.


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

I know you said you have dark curtains, but what about room darkening shades?

Is he a young two or an old two (almost 3)? How verbal is he? Would he understand if you bought a digital clock and then drew the number 7 on a piece of paper above and told him he's now allowed to get up until the number on the clock matches the number on the paper? (You could cover up the minutes on the clock so he does not get confused). Set up a reward system to help him want to comply?


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

meson said:


> We have three kids that did the same thing. We shifted the bedtime to 9pm which worked for two of them. Our youngest didn't want to go to sleep and wakes up early to this day and he's 15 now. We focused on having him play quietly until we got up once he started to crawl out of the crib.


He is in a toddler bed, as he repeatedly climbed out the crib at 19 months old, so we had to switch so as to not risk him falling onto the hardwood floor. When he gets out of bed, he immediately runs to our room and tries to wake me up(tugs on my arm, pokes my eye, etc.). I've tried just bringing him into our bed, hoping we could sleep a little longer, but he is a horrible cosleeper. He would toss and turn, kick/hit me, push me off my pillow, "play"(tangle/pull) with my hair, and so on. It never worked. I also tried putting him back to bed, taking him back to his room. He would just toss and turn in bed, then sit up and point stuff out(point at his toy truck and say "guck", point at plane and say "pain", and so on). Then he would climb out of bed and ask "go out", to leave the room. 

I have just been getting up with him at his 5 or 5:30 wake up and going to the living room to quietly watch cartoons. I used to try to sleep on the couch while he played, but now don't feel safe doing so because he is such a climber. He climbs onto the kitchen table or kitchen counters. I've constantly had to remind him to stay down. He is very agile and can get into a lot of things, even though we have baby proofed our house. He's a smart kid.


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

SecondTime'Round said:


> I know you said you have dark curtains, but what about room darkening shades?
> 
> Is he a young two or an old two (almost 3)? How verbal is he? Would he understand if you bought a digital clock and then drew the number 7 on a piece of paper above and told him he's now allowed to get up until the number on the clock matches the number on the paper? (You could cover up the minutes on the clock so he does not get confused). Set up a reward system to help him want to comply?


I'll have to look for some of those room darkening shades for his room. I just need to find some that won't cost a ton. 

He is still 1, turning 2 next month. He is a typical boy, in that he is not very verbal and just very physical. He's also learning 2 languages, so he doesn't speak much, but he does seem to understand a lot. I don't know if he would understand the clock idea. I think that is a little advanced for him right now. It would work better if he were older.


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

Anon Pink said:


> This is pretty much it in a nutshell.
> 
> Are you are morning person or a night person?
> 
> I am a night person and need mornings to progress rather slowly. I always put my kids to bed later so they would sleep later giving me mornings with at least 1 cup of coffee alone! I would much rather deal with them later in the evening than early in the morning!


I am more of a night person, but my husband and I also like to have our alone time after he goes to bed. It's nice for it to be just us from 8pm til we go to sleep. 

I may try an 8:30 bedtime tonight to see what difference it might make.


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

Anonymous07 said:


> I'll have to look for some of those room darkening shades for his room. I just need to find some that won't cost a ton.
> 
> He is still 1, turning 2 next month. He is a typical boy, in that he is not very verbal and just very physical. He's also learning 2 languages, so he doesn't speak much, but he does seem to understand a lot. I don't know if he would understand the clock idea. I think that is a little advanced for him right now. It would work better if he were older.


He sounds too young for the clock idea, I agree.

How about switching him back to the crib and getting a crib tent? My son was in a crib/crib tent until at least age 3. I LOVED that thing.


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

SecondTime'Round said:


> He sounds too young for the clock idea, I agree.
> 
> How about switching him back to the crib and getting a crib tent? My son was in a crib/crib tent until at least age 3. I LOVED that thing.


We tried putting him in his cousin's crib that has a tent and he freaked out, so I don't think that's a good option for him. He is pretty good with his toddler bed and goes to sleep well in it. It's just the early morning issue.

I just put in black out curtains and he's napping right now. I still need to break the bad habit of me having to be in the room when he falls asleep, which may take some time. I just wish it'd happen soon, so I can sleep and get over this dang cold! This is the longest I've ever been sick.


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## scatty (Mar 15, 2013)

I just kept putting my kids back in their room and telling them it wasn't time to get up yet. With my third, who has ADHD, I had to do this literally 30-40 times per night/early morning. Persistance paid off, and he finally gave up. (After about two weeks of both of us (and his dad) crying and thinking we were zombies.)


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

scatty said:


> I just kept putting my kids back in their room and telling them it wasn't time to get up yet. With my third, who has ADHD, I had to do this literally 30-40 times per night/early morning. Persistance paid off, and he finally gave up. (After about two weeks of both of us (and his dad) crying and thinking we were zombies.)


I may have to wait until I'm healthy to try that. I'm barely making it through the day as it is, with being sick, so I'm in survival mode for now.


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## NobodySpecial (Nov 22, 2013)

Anonymous07 said:


> My son's new thing is to wake up at 5 am, instead of sleeping in til 7 am like he used to. Does anyone have any sleep secrets to help a toddler sleep in later? He has the same bedtime routine each night and is in bed at 8 pm. He usually naps at around 11 am for about an hour to hour and a half. He eats a lot throughout the day, so I don't think he is waking up hungry, but not totally sure. He has a noise machine, dark curtains, and a small night light as well. I can't think of anything else to help him sleep, so I'm wondering if anyone else can think of something to help?


Nope. Just sympathy. I remember active toddler. Kinda. I may be blocking.


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## SunnyT (Jun 22, 2011)

I don't think my youngest ever actually slept. He was up every morning when I got up. I taught him at about age two to use the remote for the tv. I'd turn it on his cartoon channel before I went to bed, and he'd turn it on in the a.m. I had his blankie and pillow on the couch and he'd snuggle down for awhile. Since he was the ADD child from hell, I was lucky that this worked! But he REALLY loved "Bug Bun".

Also, at nap time....if I was sleepier than they were (for whatever reason) I'd bring my pillow into their room and nap on the floor blocking the closed door. So whether they napped or played, I'd get some kind of rest. 

I did run them around...in the yard or a nearby park...after dinner to tire them out.


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

jesssmart said:


> how is it now?


It's kind of hit and miss. 

For the most part he does "okay". He'll go to sleep between 8 and 8:30, then sleep til 6:30 ish, but at times will wake up in the middle of the night and/or wake up at around 5 am for the day, refusing to go back to sleep. 

Last night he went to bed at almost 9 pm, woke at 3 am, then up for the day at 6 am. 

I don't know if he will ever be a good sleeper, so I'm just kind of accepting that now. He is just a strong willed/spirited kid, who does not sleep well. Never has, maybe never will. I'll be napping with him today because I'm tired.


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

Anonymous07 said:


> It's kind of hit and miss.
> 
> For the most part he does "okay". He'll go to sleep between 8 and 8:30, then sleep til 6:30 ish, but at times will wake up in the middle of the night and/or wake up at around 5 am for the day, refusing to go back to sleep.
> 
> ...


I saw something on FB the other day and I'd find it for you if I could remember who posted it, but it was a photo of a clock, a regular clock with a white face. The hours from like 4-6 were colored in (think like pieces of pie) with a red marker. Then 6-7:30 was yellow, then 7:30 - 8:30 or whatever was green. So the toddler is told that when the little hand is in the red zone it means "go back to sleep!" Yellow, "OK you can be awake but stay in your room and be quiet!" Then green, they can get up.


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## Anonymous07 (Aug 4, 2012)

SecondTime'Round said:


> I saw something on FB the other day and I'd find it for you if I could remember who posted it, but it was a photo of a clock, a regular clock with a white face. The hours from like 4-6 were colored in (think like pieces of pie) with a red marker. Then 6-7:30 was yellow, then 7:30 - 8:30 or whatever was green. So the toddler is told that when the little hand is in the red zone it means "go back to sleep!" Yellow, "OK you can be awake but stay in your room and be quiet!" Then green, they can get up.


I've seen that one. I also have seen the digital clock version as well, but I'm not sure my son is old enough to really understand. He just turned 2 a couple weeks ago.


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## SecondTime'Round (Jan 15, 2015)

Anonymous07 said:


> I've seen that one. I also have seen the digital clock version as well, but I'm not sure my son is old enough to really understand. He just turned 2 a couple weeks ago.


Yeah, that might be a bit young.


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