Preschooler Having Problems Napping at School

When I taught preschool and we had certain kids who had a harder time falling asleep, but still needed that down time, we moved them to a less distracting part of the room, had them bring a blanket or stuffed animal from home and spent some extra time rubbing their backs or playing with their hair, gently rubbing on the bridge of their nose always helped too, not to mention the soft lighting and music in the background. Talk to his teachers and see what they suggest doing to help!

I solved this problem by quitting my job. Our income fell in half. Wasn't pretty, but we did it. No vacations, no manicures, no restaurants. The whole deal.

The bottom line was that pre-school/daycare was not where my child needed to be or wanted to be, and she wasn't getting the loving care (lack of naps, sunburn, etc., mean children) that she would have gotten at home.

So I swallowed my pride and quit my big-deal job.

Sounds like he needs to be in a morning only class where they don't have to nap together. If he's in daycare, maybe he could to go to one with less kids so is not distracted, or the teachers can encourage him to sit with the nappers and not include him in the activity.

Good luck! Non-sleepers are rough!

Have you tried slowly sending him to bed earlier.

I had that problem with my youngest. He seemed to grow out of nap time before he was ready. Can you wake him up when you get home and have quiet time for a while after his preschool? I'd get my son home about four and put him in his room. If he had fallen asleep in the car. I would wake him up and give him a quiet activity to do while he rested. then it was to bed at seven. Are you sure he'd be up at three in the morning? My son would go to sleep right after supper and still wake up at his usual six o'clock am.

I sympathize with you. Our daughter was in a class at school and hardly ever took a nap - they bumped her to the next level and now every day she naps - 1-2 hours! She seemed to just need extra brain stimulus - something I didn't even realize until she got bumped. She is so much happier and on top of that still sleeps 10 hours at night - see what the teachers at your son's school say - our daughter would read and help with "projects" when she would not nap in the other class but now she naps every day. Gotta' keep that brain in active mode I guess.
Good luck!

I can totally sympathize...my twins did the same thing when they began preschool. My suggestion is to buy a Leapster for your son. It'll keep him occupied while you drive home ad he'll have some down time in the process. Those school days can be so overstimulating at times, and he probably just needs to rest his mind. The Leapster has helped both of our boys to just chill for a half-hour as we get home, and it's nice for mommy to have a quiet ride too!

Out growing naps doesn't happen overnight. He needs his bedtimes adjusted accordingly to not have the crash outs in the car or on then he gets home. When my son was three he wanted to stop napping, his bedtime was close to 7:30 with naps, we changed it to 6:45 when naps stopped and it took a few days of the grumps around dinnertime but he adjusted.
There is not much you can do to enforce a nap at school and he is old enough to stop them now. You can have him give them all together or just on those days keep him up but put him to bed earlier. Or maybe talk to the teacher and ask if the kids that aren't napping can go into another room maybe?

I actually had to pretty much force the change for my daughter when she was in preschool as she was tired at naptime but then stayed up too late or didn't sleep well.
I say try adjusting his bedtimes and try skipping the naps on the weekends to help with the adjustment. Say move his bedtime thirty minutes earlier, then tell him he can skip a nap the next day or wait and have him skip the nap then a 45 minute earlier bedtime and see if that helps.

When I put my 4-year-old in preschool/daycare, he had "outgrown" naps (I thought). But they told me that state regulations require kids 4 and under in a full-day program (more than 5 hours I think) have a nap time. So even the kids who don't nap are supposed to lie down. My son started taking naps again and was even happier! (I don't know what your state's regulations are, I live in Utah). So they may be not following the rules.

At the very least, they should provide a darkish quiet are with no distractions. So if there are some kids who don't nap they need to be in a different room so that they aren't distracting the kids who do need to nap. Talk to the preschool and ask why they don't do this.