My 3 year old latley has been waking early (around five) to play in his room. I have even seen his lights on in the middle of the night and told him it's still night time and to go back to sleep. Has anyone experienced this and what did you do? He's always been a good sleeper until recently. So any thoughts would be helpful.
I'm having the exact same problem with my 3 year old boy!! So if you find a solution before I do, PLEASE let me know and I'll do the same for u! :-)
I just take my kids back to bed and tell them it's still nighttime and not time to get up. It's a phase and they will grow out of it (for sure just in time for Kindergarten LOL.) And if you catch him playing in his room do the same, tell him it's not time to be playing it's time for resting, just like everything else you have to do it over and over and over until he understands, when it's dark outside we stay in bed. Mommy needs her rest!
Hello. I have a three year old that doesn't want to go to bed at night, but when he finally does go to bed around 10 to midnight he still wakes up anywhere from 6-7am. I don't know if this will help but have you tried maybe have your three year old taking shorter naps in the day and maybe earlier ones? Also you could keep your child up maybe an hour later and see if that helps. Some kids don't need to much slee. They say the average toddler needs from 12 to 16 hours of sleep a day. Well my son gets to where he only needs the eight hours of sleep and he is ready to go. I really hope that works.
S. Gladwell
http://www.always4myfamily.com
Hi A.,
I'm going through the same thing with my daughter (will be 3 in a couple of weeks)...
She used to sleep 11 hrs at night-now she wakes up after an hour or so (recently she woke us up at 10:30p-3 hrs after going to bed!) sometimes she wakes up around 4:00am (this morning!).
I'm so tired I don't want to do ANYTHING.
I've tried telling her when it's Dark outside we stay in bed and keep our eyes closed. That helps but only for that night :-P. I don't know if I have the endurance to keep doing this Everytime she wakes (which is 3 or 4 times a week the past couple of weeks)...
I'm gonna ask Reba where her friend got that night light...
One thing I just thought of-sometimes when there is too much light in a room she can't sleep...
I wonder if your boy might have too much on in the way of nightlights?? That's all I can think of...
Hope we ALL get a good nights sleep tonight!
Good Luck,
C.
Hey A.,
The light everyone is talking about is the Good Nite Lite and is available at http://www.goodnitelite.com/index.php
I do not have this problem yet but expect it in the next year. Even though I do not have personal experience with this at home, I can tell you that children's night clocks get off kilter when they wake feeling well rested, they have no idea of the actual time. The thing I like about this light is that it provides a visual guide for your little one and therefore is a great tool for behavior modification.
I anticipate ordering some of these lights as my little one ages, so that she will have a visual aid letting her know bedtime has begun by placing one in the play area and then also having run in the bedroom. So if she should wake she can glance over at the nite lite and determine if it is okay to get up. It offers the same principle that we as adults use. Should your sleep be interupted or should you wake feeling refreshed, you would glance at the clock and determine the time. Depending what it says, determines if you rise or if you suddenly feel tired again and return to sleep. Little ones can't tell time so this is a perfect tool to help them. If your little one is stubborn with this, then offer positive rewards of a sticker on a calendar for each night they remain in room and sleeping. At the end of a week if 7 stickers are on the calendar, then offer a treat. The treat can be an icecream, a happy meal, a dollar store toy, just something inexpensive that is okay with your family values.
Hope this helps you and some others. And Please post an update on what worked, as I am about 7 months away from the start of this.
Thanks and Best Wishes,
-MB
I have a friend who dealt with this recently. She found a night light (via the Internet) that she can set. It shows a picture of a moon or a sun. She can determine which picture shows when. Her son knows now he is NOT supposed to be out of bed until he sees the sun picture on it. She said it has worked wonders at her house.
