Supernanny sleep clinic: night owl

Preschooler sleep: wide wake at bedtime

It’s a nightmare when your child is bright-eyed and alert when you’re ready to go to bed. How can you ensure she’s tired when you need her to be?

Our preschooler wants to party all night long!

We’re having trouble getting our daughter to stay in bed and go to sleep because she thinks light out is the signal for her to get up and plays with all her toys. It can take hours to get her to go to sleep.

My husband and I hardly get any time together because we’re always getting up and putting her back in bed. If she isn't out of her bed racing around her room, she’s in her bed playing with her stuffed animals, laughing, screaming and kicking the wall. We’re at a complete loss!

Mandy says…

I think your daughter may have developed what we call a late sleep phase – she falls asleep late and wakes late in the morning and it perpetuates the problem.

Start keeping a sleep diary, which will enable you to record what time she does fall asleep, and think about getting her up earlier in the morning to help reset her body clock – I’d say no later than 7.30am.

Even a tired child can cause problems at bedtime if toys are tempting her to play instead of sleep!

If she’s still having a nap during the day think about whether it might be too long or if it might be interfering with her tiredness level because she’s taking it too late. Could you be putting her to bed too early? Children aren’t one-size-fits-all and it may be that she just doesn’t need the prescribed amount of sleep.

Bear in mind too that all those toys must be very tempting for a wakeful youngster! I’d recommend putting them away in boxes so she’s not distracted by them when she should be settling down.

Good luck!

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