Brendon goes to sleep at 8 and sleeps till 5:30. He has to be up by 6 so he can watch Barney and have a cup of coffee. Jacob usually sleeps from 6 (no nap) or 8 (with a nap at noon) and is up at 7. I sympathize with the getting up early. One good thing is that he'll never be late for school on that schedule.
Any suggestions for a 46 pound 6 1/2 year old who goes to bed at 9 and wakes up at 5:30am? He is on his own time zone!
I do not want to do herbs or drugs, he won't drink milk - warm or otherwise. He gets a small non-sugary snack around 8:15 to tide him over.
He is not potty trained, so I bought "overnight" pullups because I thought the feel and learn style ones were possibly making him "feel and awaken."
Night time routine is the same, calming stuff. Cole had some intense anxiety last year when school started, and after two months of horrible, horrible sleep disturbances (accompanied by crummy performance at school and lowered immunity to every passing virus), I gave in and started sleeping in his bed. First time ever in his life.
As of 3 weeks ago, we have successfully substituted our 4 year old for me (free at last!), so they now co-sleep happily.
He wakes up chipper, talking and singing to himself, just little Mr. Sunshine. Does not shut up (wonder where he gets that?
Please don't tell me I have to go to bed at 10:00 so i too can get up at 5!!! Thank you!
I'm having sort of the opposite problem. My son has developed the habit of not going to sleep until about 2 or 3am sometimes later and I can't get him out of be before noon. This is a summertime thing of course. We are taking vacation the week before school starts so we are hoping that it will help to get him back on a better schedule. We are all pretty early risers and sort of early to bed around here. But, especially during the school year his schedule will need to change. He is 5 by the way and still co-sleeps. Anyway, good luck!oh i would LOVE to sleep until 530! we are up between 2 and 4 over here!I have heard about waking a kid up just before he normally awakens. It disturbs his sleep cycle, so he falls back asleep easier and starts a new sleep cycle. I don't know if it would be worth it though -- you still have to get up!My nt 8 year old falls asleep around 11 and is up any time between 4 and 5 a.m. He has done this forever! The ped keeps telling me some people just don't need a lot of sleep, kids included. I have tried every natural trick in the book over the years. No luck yet. I have adjusted as well as I can to sleeping only 4 hrs or so a night. My 3 yr old will go down around 11 or 12 and sleep in till 9 on the days I don't have to get him up. AHHHH to get to sleep till we're not tired any more. How great would that be.What about putting him to bed later? 5:30 doesn't sound bad to me. That's the time our alarm goes off. Your son is getting 8.5 hours of sleep, which is less than average for his age, but not everyone NEEDS the same amount of sleep. Virtually everyone needs 7.5, so I wouldn't worry unless his sleep time gets less than that or if he's always sleepy. What time do you WANT him to sleep until? Count back 8.5 hours from that time and slowly keep him up an extra 15 minutes until he starts waking up later and later, after going to sleep later and later. Good luck.From what I have read, have you tried the opposite - putting him to bed EARLIER? I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it worked with both my kids (one NT and one on the spectrum). My ds had an internal alarm clock that he would wake up at 5:45 (we seriously did NOT need an alarm clock) every day no matter what time you put him to bed. So, we started putting him to bed 10 minutes earlier every night until we got to 7:00 p.m. That is still his bedtime. He sleeps from 7:00 until somewhere between 5:30 and 6:10. As he has gotten older, he has gotten a bit more flexible. For instance, we went to a wedding a few weeks ago and the kids were up until 10:00 - they both slept in until between 7:00 and 7:30.
Marc Weissbluth wrote a book called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and I lived by that book. I did not know my ds was on the spectrum, at the time I read it but it really helped me/us.
It is hard, trust me - and we still put him to bed at 7:00, even in the summer. He is occasionally allowed up later (like for the twins' birthday party down the street) but mostly he is in bed by 7:00 - it makes it much easier on all of us in terms of behaviors! You can tell when he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep - he is in a rotten mood the next day.
My dh has adjusted his work schedule (he thankfully can do that) so he leaves for work around 6:30 (still gets to see ds and often gets to see dd) and then he gets home around 4:30 - so he has about 2 1/2 hours with the kids.
Our social schedule is hard then, but if we can get a babysitter to come right as we are putting the kids down to bed, then most functions don't start until after 7:30 anyway! We haven't had much of a social schedule until now, but now that we live in a new town, that seems to be changing - hurray!
By the way, no TV, video games or movies at least 2 hours before bed - even if the theme of the show doesn't "rev" him up - just the over-stimulation of the TV/video game will do that.
My ds has restless legs syndrome, so we have him do some intense physical activity an hour before bed as recommended by the specialist. He is not on any meds either. If your son is a restless sleeper, this may be why he's not getting a good night's sleep. You may want to check into it, although it would probably involve a fairly expensive sleep study (we were lucky our insurance covered almost all of it) - which involves an overnight stay (for a parent and the child) at a clinic and they are hooked up to all sorts of electrodes. Not a fun time, but that is how we found out ds had RLS.
Just my thoughts - and remember, every child is different so what works with one may not work for another! It sounds like you've already tried a lot - I hope it gets better soon!
By the way, I know you don't want to do herbs, but we have found that taking fish oil has really helped him avoid illness and has improved his concentration. Perhaps it has helped him sleep better since he's rarely sick, I don't know - but I can't make that claim for sure!
Wow - I am all for them going to bed earlier! I feel "guilty" for doing bedtime as late as 9 but you can probably figure out why we thought later to bed, later to rise might work.
Okay, so we'll shoot for 10 minutes earlier tonight and see how it goes. Guess I ought to write down what time he goes to sleep and awakens, just to look for some semblance of meaning.
We have often pondered whether we should do some ridiculousyly detailed diary for Cole...wake up time, every type of food and drink he consumed and when, when the poops and what size, what computer game, physical activity, etc.
Because he was such a preemie, the hospital had us track his sleep, intake of breast milk (too weak to nurse, so I pumped 7 times a day for 7 months!), poops & sizes, meds, intake of baby food calories, etc.
We spent an entire year recording everything! It was such a pain, but they were able to track his growth and functioning more clearly. He cramped up after 2 sips of his bottles and would scream, then avoid drinking. So, we had to feed him tiny bottles 8 times a day for ages, then add melted butter (50 calories/pat) to every single jar of baby food. It worked! Finally got him onto the growth charts!
Does anybody do this psycho detailed recording, and have you seen any paterns emerge that help you help your kid?
You guys are so dear for these ideas. Its not the end of the world, and I hate to complain, but he is another boy entirely when he's rested. Thank you!
Sadly, it doesn't matter what time he goes to bed. Last night, for example, we went to friends for pizza and a movie (one that doesn't rev him up). He'd been up since about 5:45am, and by the time we got home & boys in bed, it was 10:15. He was up at 6:00, (or earlier but we didn't hear him) today.
Throughout the summer, we'd do special activities that had them going to bed after 10, and same thing.
Its just that on occasion, he has gone to sleep at 8:45 and slept until 7. On those days, his communication is great, joint attention and engagement super, no perseveration, no stimming. I mean, on the well rested days I'm like Louis Armstrong singing: " and I think to myself, what a wonderful world!!"
I really would have more energy if I could get more than 6 hours sleep, but I more importantly, he has great days when he's well rested.
I was just reminded that when we switched my youngest son from sleeping in my bed to sleeping in his own bed, getting breakfast in bed in the morning was a big motivator for him (and phased out after awhile). Maybe something like that could be motivating to your son to get him to stay in bed a little while longer?