5 year olds bedtime quandary

NBirdy

My 5 1/2 yr old goes to bed at 6.45/7pm every night and wakes around 7am. Any less than that and it really shows in her behaviour the next day. She will sometimes play in bed for 15 minutes or so before going to sleep but usually goes to sleep within 5m of getting in to bed.

My problem is that my 4yr old always always fights going to sleep, and is very rarely asleep before 8.30pm - they share a room and the singing/chatting/playing/burbling on is keeping the eldest awake. The little one would lie in given the chance but the 5yr old wakes everyone up at 7am. The result is that they're both getting tired and grumpy!

No idea what to to do when the older one needs 12hours sleep but the younger one only needs 9 or 10!

Does your son seem any worse for staying up a bit later? If he doesn't seem tired or grumpy then I'd be inclined to trust that he could stay up a little later now.

jackomdj

My 5 year old goes up at 7:00 but has the option to read till 7:30 (on her own, in bed). Sometimes she will but other days she says she is going to go right to sleep. This mainly came about as her elder sister goes up at 7:00 but reads till 8:00.

daska

DS2 has just turned 5 and goes to bed at 6. Sometimes he plays happily for an hour or more, but a lot of the time he goes to sleep pretty much straight away. He's seldom awake before 7 and we don't wake him up until 7.15. I figure that as long as he's still regularly going straight to sleep then it's not too early for him.


(And yes, for anyone who remembers what he used to be like, that's a huge change and all down to compression therapy and wearing a tight hat to sleep in. )

Becles

My 5 year old goes in the shower or bath around 7pm, then we have stories and I leave her to go to sleep about 7.45pm-8pm.

She's usually pretty good but with the lighter nights some other children have been playing outside going up and down the street on skateboards or playing football. There's nothing I can really do about that but I know it takes her longer to drop off when there is noise outside. I just leave her and she drops off eventually. Is there a noise or something outside bothering him?

mrcow

Why don't you put him to bed at 7pm, but tell him that he can read a book until 7.30pm then lights out. It's a nice routine to be in.

azzabazza

If he is happily amusing himself for a while before falling asleep I wouldn't adjust bedtime. IMHO 7.00 pm is a reasonable bedtime for a child of that age who has to get up early.

dizziblonde

If it helps - when I was teaching time to classes that age, I'd often ask them to show me on a clock the time they got up/went to bed/school started etc and the bed time one was always interesting with ones ranging from 6.30 to an eye popping 11pm! Then you always had the one or two in the class who hadn't grasped things yet claiming they went to bed at 4am that you kind of disregarded!

I think I was always sent up at about 7pm with the view that I could read or amuse myself quietly until I dropped off from what I recall.

BitterAndTwisted

I don't think it matters whether the child is asleep or not between being tucked up at 7pm and 8.30. What is important is that the adults get to have their quiet-time without any kids around.

I'd keep putting the child to bed at 7 for as long as possible.

beautiful_ravens

As bitterandtwisted said. Id keep to the early bedtime, if he is ok upstairs then no problem.

go_cat

Thank you so much for all your replies, it seems I am worrying about nothing which is good

He doesn't seem any more tired even going to sleep later and appears to be running on adrenaline lol. But at least he is resting even if he is not asleep

Thanks again