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Yes, it's me again, the mom of the 5 year old with temper tantrums. This is another issue, so I made a separate thread.
For a long time now, he has been very resistant to going to sleep. He fights like anything to stay awake, even when I know he's very tired. He will talk and sing and try to get out of bed. We have a bedtime routine (jammies, teeth brushed, pee and stories), then the light goes off and one or both of us stay in there for a little bit. But he almost always take at least an hour to fall asleep. He is 5, and is often not asleep until 10pm, when I'd like to be sleeping! I get him up at 7 for school.
Tonight after dinner we went to the store, and he fell asleep in the car on the way. He acts tired (tantrums) and I really think the kid needs more sleep. We tried starting an hour earlier, and that just made the whole ordeal one hour longer. We don't let him watch tv right before bed, so he shouldn't be overstimulated.
I can try to get him up at 6 when I get up, although he is hard to wake up sometimes.
Yes, it's me again, the mom of the 5 year old with temper tantrums. This is another issue, so I made a separate thread.
For a long time now, he has been very resistant to going to sleep. He fights like anything to stay awake, even when I know he's very tired. He will talk and sing and try to get out of bed. We have a bedtime routine (jammies, teeth brushed, pee and stories), then the light goes off and one or both of us stay in there for a little bit. But he almost always take at least an hour to fall asleep. He is 5, and is often not asleep until 10pm, when I'd like to be sleeping! I get him up at 7 for school.
Tonight after dinner we went to the store, and he fell asleep in the car on the way. He acts tired (tantrums) and I really think the kid needs more sleep. We tried starting an hour earlier, and that just made the whole ordeal one hour longer. We don't let him watch tv right before bed, so he shouldn't be overstimulated.
I can try to get him up at 6 when I get up, although he is hard to wake up sometimes.
Ugh.
I spent my entire childhood hating to go to bed and hating to get up in the morning. Some of us just aren't MORNING PEOPLE. Unfortunately, the rest of the world is.
What about, instead of trying to force him to sleep, you simply give him a few rules. He must stay in bed and be quiet. He may look at books. Turn out the lights but give him a dim nightlight of some kind. Tell him (ahead of time) if he doesn't follow the rules and/or he keeps getting up and bothering you, the light goes off and the privilege ends. My guess is, once it's not a battle to be forced to actually fall asleep on demand, he'll fall asleep pretty quickly.
Oh, we don't force him to fall asleep -- there is no possible way to do that, anyway. Right now he is in his room, and I check every once in a while to make sure he's still in his bed. If he didn't act tired, I wouldn't be concerned and would just think he doesn't need that much sleep.
If he didn't act tired, I wouldn't be concerned and would just think he doesn't need that much sleep.
The strong, willfull child can be dead on his feet, about to collapse, look you right in the eye, and say, "I won't go to sleep". And he'll fight sleep just to prove you wrong.
Lucky you. I'm with MM. Fix one and the other will happen.
The trick is, letting him believe he's in control. Give him a little feeling of control while controlling the environment to encourage sleepiness (no bright lights on, no getting out of bed, books only etc etc). You eliminate the battle, allow him the feeling of controlling something and at some point, he WILL fall asleep. But you MUST be consistent with following through if he breaks the rules. He musn't get out of bed and playing with his army men with the lights on.
The bonus here is hopefully he'll view reading as a wonderful opportunity for himself.
This kid sounds really really over tired at this point. You need for his age to start a bedtime routine at about 630-7pm, When our kid starts acting with all the blow ups a few days of earlier bedtime to get them on the right track made them all nice again. What time is dinner and then going out to the store? Unless dinner is at 5 and the trip to the store short one can't it be done at another time?
I'd say melatonin, but this along with the other thread really makes me think he needs a full eval ASAP.
BTW the sleep issues could be making the other issue worse.
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I'm with MM. Fix one and the other will happen.
