My daughter is 3yrs.8 months old and ever since she was little, she never seems to need or want a lot of sleep. I keep reading that it’s normal but sometimes I wonder if there’s something wrong with her that she’s really this active.
On a school day she wakes up 6.30 am, starts at 8.30 and finishes 16.30 pm and she still doesn’t seem tired most of those days. We come home have our routine and I put her to bed 20.00-20.30pm and I can still hear her awake at 23.00 pm as alert as ever.
On another occasion, we went to a kids play park for 4 hours straight of running around and left around 19.00 pm came home had the usual bed time schedule and she was still awake at 00.30 am though laying in bed playing with the stuffed animal she sleeps with.
There’s the rare occasion that she’ll sleep if she’s tired. At the moment there is a compulsory nap at her school in the afternoons, sometimes she’ll nap. I know if she hasn’t slept when I pick her up and behaves like the devil but still refuses to sleep when we get home.
My sister suggested waking up at 6 am every day but I tried and she still does not care to sleep much. Is this normal? She’s not physically hyperactive but active with a lot of verbal hyperactiveness, having pretend conversations with herself and/or her toys always wanting to draw or have stories read to her even at midnight.
My children don’t sleep much, never did even from babies. They are never physically exhausted. They do three hours of hard slog at gymnastics or a full day at taekwondo competitions and they look and act as fresh as daisies! It’s crazy!
Here are the things that worked for me I banned naps at Kindy/ school. I told the teachers that if they let my kids sleep I will ring them on their personal phones at whatever time my kids actually fell asleep at night to let them know how much it affected my life :biggrin: I could tell exactly how long my kids were left sleeping at kindy because they would go down exactly that number of hours later!
I put them to bed at 8:00 every night even if they were not tired ( I have since moved this to 7:00 because they are up at 5 am) sometimes they are not ready to sleep so they read for up to an hour. Then I turn out the lights. I figure quiet time in their rooms is resting for their bodies even if it isn’t sleep.
As they have gotten older and their physical activities are much more demanding they sleep better. They sleep longer and deeper. They still don’t sleep as much as most kids their age.
Someone told me when my children were babies that smart kids don’t sleep. It seemed to fit with all I knew my kids were doing ( their brains just didn’t stop!) so I think that thought kept me sane :biggrin:
I also played alpha and theta music in their rooms as young children. It’s relaxation music. It drops the brain waves into a lower pattern like sleep. It’s relaxing if nothing else
I would take a sleep diary for 2 weeks and add up the total sleeping hours. Then compare them to the average and decide if you need to see a doctor. You may be surprised at the total hours once you add in naps.
At 3 years old she should be getting more sleep, about 12 hours. Maybe the problem is she is over tired? I know that when children get too tired they seem active and not tired at all. If she wakes up at 6:30 then she needs to go to bed at 18:30, so she will have 12 hours of sleep each night. If she shows you that she has missed sleep because of her behavior, like you mentioned after school, then she needs you to keep her on healthy schedule. Not enough sleep can be harmful in other areas, not just feeling lethargic. She may not eat as well, have behavioral issues, and will definitely keep her brain from working at it’s best. Good luck, and let us know how it goes
At 3 years old she should be getting more sleep, about 12 hours. Maybe the problem is she is over tired? I know that when children get too tired they seem active and not tired at all. If she wakes up at 6:30 then she needs to go to bed at 18:30, so she will have 12 hours of sleep each night. If she shows you that she has missed sleep because of her behavior, like you mentioned after school, then she needs you to keep her on healthy schedule. Not enough sleep can be harmful in other areas, not just feeling lethargic. She may not eat as well, have behavioral issues, and will definitely keep her brain from working at it’s best. Good luck, and let us know how it goes