How to Help Your Child Sleep In

Why not just let her get up and sit in front of the TV. She will probably fall asleep again. At 4, she should be okay to watch TV alone.

My mom put my brother and I to bed at 7 every night and without fail I was ALWAYS up at 5am. It did not have to do with me needing to pee. I was just wide awake and did not need more sleep. I seriously doubt my mom could have made me sleep longer. I was always a morning person and still to this day it is easy for me to wake up early. Does she seem tired and like she needs more sleep? If you think this might be the case you might need to put her to bed a bit later and also make sure she has room darkening curtains (the light block out material). When I was a child I was allowed to quietly play or watch TV without waking anyone up until 7am. Starting at Kindergarten or 1st grade age I would get up and even make both my brother and my lunch boxes. I even learned how to start the coffee for my mom. I would feed myself breakfast (cereal and milk...my mom put the milk low in the fridge in a cup so I could pour it myself). I was awake for hours before anyone else! Then I would watch cartoons as soon as the TV did not have static anymore. For my mom it was worth it to keep putting me to bed at 7pm bc she liked to have her evenings free of kids! I don't blame her!

We use a timer on a nightlight. Until the light goes off, it is still nighttime and he has to stay in his room (unless he needs to use the bathroom). He's been pretty good with following that direction (with some hits and misses). I don't know that it is much different from the clock you have, but maybe it provides more of a visual clue. Another alternative is to start having consequences for coming out of her room too early, or (on the positive side) maybe have a special "morning toy" that she is only allowed to play with in the morning before the cow wakes up.

The thing that has helped my kids when they start waking up to go to the bathroom at night is to take them before I go to bed, about 11:00. once they get used to that time, then I start taking them 15 minutes earlier every 2-3 weeks until they are finally pretty close to bedtime. It helps train their little bodies to hold it just a little longer. But also prevents them from waking in the early morning hrs just to go to the bathroom. cause the last thing you want her to do is ignore that!. I also put a clock in their rooms and make a picture of what it looks like when it is time to get up. when they match, its time to get up! In my 3yrs room right now, he has a hand clock, and I just put tape on the face to match 8:00. I like the face clock better, cause they can tell that time is moving and changing and getting closer to the match. Some times if I peek in at him, he is sitting on his bed just watching the clock! LOL :) So as soon as it matches he comes out. It works really well. there are still those days, where I keep needing to tell him "its not time to get up yet, its still sleeping time" But they are far apart. On those days, after he comes out the 2nd time, I also tell him he can look at his books quietly if he just cant sleep.
He also knows that we don't eat until its time to get up, so there is no point in getting up really early!
Good luck,
E.

i wouldn't let her watch tv, that's a reward for not staying in bed as she's told, plus you never know if the channel might get accidentally changed or she hits a wrong button and can't get it back (not to mention what might be on that time of morning). also she might get bored and be up wandering around, unsupervised. i think the alarm clock is a good idea - but you have to enforce it. i would not give her any attention at that time of day - straight back to bed. no talking, no playing, no positive anything. teach her (not meanly, but not nicely either - firmly and unhappily) that it is NOT okay and mommy is NOT happy and fun to be around at 4 am. four years old is plenty old enough to know that it's not time to get up yet. (and kudos for you thinking "sleeping in" is 6 am - i thought by your title you were going to ask how to get your child to sleep till 8 or 9 lol..)

Well, I'm not quite sure I have an answer for you, but try and think about it from her perspective. If she's asleep from 7:30 pm to 4:00 am, that's 8 1/2 hours of sleep. It's not a full night's sleep at her age (unless she still take naps), but it might feel like enough if she had to get up to pee. Sometimes if I have to get up to pee after 6 hours of sleep, I have trouble getting back to sleep. She might really be having trouble falling back to sleep.

When this happens to our boys (and I think it happens to all of us now and then), I usually take them to the living room, get them a drink and snuggle with them on the couch. Sometimes I'll play one of their shows. Sometimes it's the news (or something else that they would consider boring). There are some times when we just don't go back to sleep. That really sucks, because of course I'm tired the whole day and sleep begets sleep so they are usually a pain in the butt to get to sleep that night as well. But usually they are back to sleep in 10 or 15 minutes. Then I just carry them back to their bed and go back to sleep in my bed.

have you tried darking the room and putting stuff in the windows so the sun is not shinning through ? that helps

Limit her liquids starting at 4:00 PM. At dinner, have her eat supper first and then she can have one glass of whatever it is you offer her. If she doesn't finish it, don't force her to finish. If she wants a drink before bed limit it to an ounce of water and no more.

Then I would make absolute certain that she empties her bladder before she goes to bed. I would also keep her up a little later, maybe 8:00 PM, especially if that means she's more likely to pee before going to bed.

For morning time make sure that the house is as dark as you can get it with curtains closed not letting in any daylight, although if she has a soft night light that's fine. No talking. No eye contact. No conversations. Does this sound familiar? Like when she was a baby? You have to do the same thing now. And absolutely do not put on the TV because the light mimics daylight and it will wake the body and brain up no matter how you coax her back to bed. Put black curtains on her windows if you have to.

It sounds like this has become a habit so this is going to take some time to correct. Don't expect it to work right away. Her body clock has reset itself and it's going to take some time to reset it again. 21 days to break a habit, 21 days to make a habit. Give it three weeks whatever method you choose before deciding that it's a failure.

I have found with my kids that the later I put them to bed the earlier they get up. My kids went to bed at 7 at age 4. For the potty issue, we put a small potty in my daughter's room with a night light. She would go and then go right back to bed.

I would see if you can get her to be VERY active during the day. ;)
As much as you possibly can.

Also, at age 4, I would change her bedtime to 8:30pm since she is consistently waking up early. Sounds like her sleep pattern has definitely changed & she needs to go to bed later. That should do it.

Hang in there & try those changes. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you.

I have a 4 yo and 5 yo - they share a room and go to sleep at the same time, between 7:30 and 8 every night and they wake up between 6:45 and 7:30 every morning. They don't get any drinks other than milk or water with dinner, except rarely if we go out to dinner, and they get a fruit punch or something with their meal.
They do not nap anymore - occasionally, my 4 yo also takes a nap.
Making sure they pee right before bed is key.
Making sure they are active enough during the day so they're nice and tired is also important.
And have a nightlight in her room and in the hall and bathroom, so she can get up and go to the bathroom and go back to bed.
Maybe put her to bed a little later also.