Why does it take kids to fall asleep so long?

Question

with mine it's "Friday Night Fights" everynite!

Answer 1

Well, my girls 3 1/2 and 5 yo can go to bed late on Friday night like around 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. During the school weeknights they have to be in bed by 7:30 p.m. or else my oldest one will have a hard time getting up. Usually I wake up my oldest one around 6:30 a.m. to get ready for school.

If you wake them early enough, they will definitely be tired at the end of the day. How old are yours? What time did you get them up? Also, if you feed your kids good food and give them time to run around, I gaurantee you they will be sleeping by 7 or 8 p.m.

When you give your kids good nutritional food with out the added sugar and some play time to run around they will be sleeping like a baby.

It's not a rocket science.

Answer 2

This is similar to the problem of why it takes so long for water to boil: because you're watching. If you weren't watching and were truly a disinterested third party, it wouldn't seem to take so long at all. You'd give your kids a bath, get them ready for bed, and read them a story and bing-bang-boom they'd be asleep. But, because you're waiting for the little darlings to go to sleep, it seems to take forever. It's all about perception. Try to take a step or two back from the kids and the evening routine and see if it helps - it did me with mine. ;)

Answer 3

Some kids do, some kids don't. My three - year - old gets VERY hyper before bedtime; he's practically bouncing off the walls! Then, he just all of a sudden falls asleep. It's rather amusing to watch.

Answer 4

Some kids are morning people; some are night owls. Just like the rest of us. Because of this, there are no ways to force a kid to go to sleep, but there are things you can do to improve the process.

First of all, make sure you're doing all of the obvious things:
1. Eliminate any sugar or caffeine in the latter part of the day. Don't be afraid to disallow cokes and candy for the entire afternoon.
2. Don't watch scary or otherwise emotionally stimulating TV shows or movies prior to going to bed.
3. Make sure that your nightly routine is very, very consistent so that your kid knows what to expect. (Don't stay out until 10pm every other night and expect the child to go to sleep at 8pm on the other nights.)

Given the consistency and the lack of stimulating foods and activities, you'll want to make sure that you are starting plenty early and setting the child's expectations about what is going to happen next. In our house, we have an 8pm bedtime, and our bedtime routine starts a full 2 hours earlier - at 6pm! Here is how we normally do bed time:

The first thing we do is eat dinner. This is a mostly peaceful activity where we eat together as a family, talk about our days, and enjoy one another's company. After dinner, we all take our dishes to the sink and then we play mostly quiet games, read books, or do any left over chores (like cleaning our rooms).

Regardless of where things stand at 7pm, we take a bath. Bath time is where we really work on winding down. Bath time can be slow, but it cannot be raucous with a lot of splashing and loud play.

After bath time, we usually have a choice: you can either go to bed now (a choice that is never selected!) or you can read books quietly in your bed or Daddy can read to you. No matter what the choice, it is time to be quiet.

About 5 minutes to 8pm, we start going to bed. We pray together as a family and the kids get in bed. The lights go out and stay out. Each child knows that he does not have to go to sleep, but he has to lay in his bed and he has to be quiet.

In the mornings, we get up at a reasonable time. We do not "sleep in" or use the snooze button. We try to play and think a lot during the day so that we're ready to sleep the next night.

For the record, our daughter is a night owl and stays awake for a long time - sometimes until 10 or 11pm - after her bed time. That is ok, but she still has to get up at the same time as everyone else the next morning. It doesn't take too long for a consistent schedule like this to pay off, and the kids appreciate knowing in advance what to expect.

Answer 5

I keep my kids on a very rigid sleep schedule with very little sway unless its the weekends or vacation time.
Maybe you should look at their nap times if they are younger, maybe move them up a bit or not let them sleep as long.
Also take into consideration what kinds of foods they are getting. Are they getting caffeine? Refined sugars close to bedtime?
Have you tried a bedtime routine? With my little ones, after dinner is bath, then story and then they get tucked in. Water or milk is all that is allowed after 6 pm.

Answer 6

Because kids are very active than the audlts they like to play for long time and like to watch tv specialiy cartoons. They sleep on when they are tired and when they have eaten their meal there is an other way. Put your foot down and tell them go to sleep. Dont be a nice one, you have to be firm. repeat it every night until they understand. You have to be patient too.

Answer 7

Because you want them to---I actually like when it takes my brother a long time to go to sleep sometimes because it means he wont wake me up so early the next day.

Answer 8

Cuz their brain takes alot more to shut down like adults and teens they dont worry or think as much as children and twerps jk !!!!!

Answer 9

Put your foot down and tell them go to sleep. Dont be a nice one, you have to be firm. repeat it every night until they understand. You have to be patient too.

Answer 10

Because they are not aware of the happenings around them and they are not mentally mature to do something and understand.