3 year old sleeping problem?

Question

I have a 3 year old girl. We have been battling up and down to get her sleeping in the right patterns. I have tried ALOT. Sometimes it works and she goes back to normal for a couple weeks but then boom shes back at it again. She will fall asleep at what I think is a normal time for a kid (9PM-10:30 PM ish) but then will be right back up at midnight or 1 AM then stay up until 5 AM. Ive tried, after those nights, letting her sleep until 9 AM then waking her up....but then she will stay up all day and start wanting to fall asleep again at like 7 PM. Its fine and dandy to say keep her awake from 7-10 or so, but it gets really hard to do allllll the time. Plus sometimes it doesnt help, shes right back up in the middle of the night. Sometimes those things work. But it seems like they dont work permanently. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Maybe she is not getting quiet time before going to sleep? What do you do when she wakes up at midnight or 1am? Do you keep your house dark or are there lights on? Is she waking up crying or sad, nightmare? Try to keep her in her bad and rub her back or tummy or snuggle by her to show her that when its dark it is time for sleeping. If you keep a routine that might help. I heard once that you can give them warm milk and a cracker or peanuts? before bed and it holds them over through out the night. I think it is the protein...let me check. This site will give you some good ideas...maybe it is the room is too busy...bright paint on the walls, too many things in the room, too much on the walls for decoration? Good Luck!

Answer 2

I have 2 boys ages 6 and 4. Everyone has certain issues with their kids but my kids are excellent sleepers - bedtime is very easy in our house so I feel like I can give advice on this.

I think you need to put her to bed earlier and create a standard routine for her every night:

7:30p Quiet bathtime

7:45 - 8:00p Dressed in jammies, brush teeth and a last pee pee on the potty.

8:00-8:15p 2 good books - I prefer story books that really keep their attention and relax them.

No later than 8:30p lights should be out and the house should be quiet. I put fans in their rooms when they were younger and ran them on low to diminish any other noise in the house.

We don't say prayers in our house, but we send good wishes to people we care about. A nice little chat and lots of extra hugs help to reassure a small child that they are loved and that it's ok to be away from mommy and daddy during the nighttime. Then it's ok to be firm and expect that they go to sleep and not get out of bed. Reassure them that tomorrow is another fun day if they are rested. If she does get out of bed, do not encourage that behavior by letting her watch more TV or playing with her in anyway. Take her right back to bed and be firm about bedtime.

At age 3 she should be growing out of her naps. If she's napping for 2 hours during the day, that will definitely interfere with getting her to settle down at bedtime and sleep through the night.

I wish you luck. I know that I'm always happy to see my kids in the morning after we've all had a good night's sleep!

Answer 3

My 2 year old son won't go to bed......? Same thing with my 2 year old. He was doing great then all of a sudden he went nuts when it was time for bed. I set up a nightly routine with bath and he picks out 2 books. I read them we say prayer and then I get him a glass of water and some toilet paper. I would tuck him in and sit near his bed. If he started talking I would ssshhh him and tell him it is night night time. Every 4 days I would move myself closer out of the room. First 4 days by his bed. Second 4 days by the door. third 4 days down the hallway and that really helped. I don't do any of the sitting anymore. I just check on him about every 10 minutes and he does great. It seems like a lot but it really helped me out!!!! Good Luck because I know how crazy it is!!!

Answer 4

10:30 pm is way too late. My boyfriend has a 2 year old and she is usually in bed by 8:30pm - 9:00pm at the very latest. She usually sleeps about 2 hours in the afternoon, usually from 2pm to 4pm. Do you have bedtime routine for your child? That might help too. For example, with us it is bathtime around 8:00 pm and she usually stays in the tub and plays for about 20 minutes, then we get her out, get her dried off and dressed for the night, and she usually plays with her older siblings for about 15 minutes or so, and then she is the one to ask to go to bed. We give her a sippy cup filled with cold milk and put her down. She usually sleeps until 7:30am - 8:00 am. I do believe that having a bedtime routine helps.
Hope this helps
Good luck to you.

Answer 5

My 3 year old also goes to sleep around 9 or 10pm. I was told not to worry as long as he's getting enough sleep a night and still napping. He normally gets up around 7am and takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.
What i think helps my son is having noise in the background (I sleep the same way). We normally leave the tv or radio on for him.

Answer 6

Her bedtime is extremely too late. She needs to be in bed by 8pm at the very latest. Your child is overtired and as illogical as it sounds, she will fight sleep even though she seems exhausted. She also still needs an afternoon nap of at least an hour and a half. Sleep begets sleep. Keeping a child awake longer in hopes that they will sleep better later is a sleep myth and sets children up for serious sleep issues as they get older, even adult insomnia. She needs to go to bed earlier and nap during the day.

Answer 7

Get her up at the same time each morning - preferably rather early - 6 am or 7 am. She may well be miserable at first but will get into the habit of going to bed on her own when she is tired.

The rule is that she can stay up as late as she likes but must stay in her crib/bed/room and be quiet BUT she has to get up at the same time each day.

If you let her nap (more than usual), sleep in or lecture her, the lesson will be lost.