Bed time hell

[freedom]

every night we have the same fight getting emlyn to bed

 

one he is not tired

 

two it's not dark even when it is

 

3 he makes him self ill to get to stay up 10 mins later

 

he does every trick in the book and most night he will not be asleep till 12 mid night later on some occassions

 

to top it off he will never sleep in and is up around 5.30 to 6.30 every morning

 

he just dont know how to sleep or even when he is tired never stops

 

any ideas as we have tried everything to make things easier but still its a fight to get him to bed at night

[venus]

Sorry cannot help but am going through same thing at the moment, Owen gets to sleep at about 10pm and I am shattered ,I don't think I could cope at all with midnight.He wakes up having night terrors at the moment.How lovely it would be just to sit down at 8.00pm and watch the tv and to sleep all night.

[Cariad]

LOL I just replied to your other post, I'm not stalking you honest..

 

T is like this, he doesn't like sleep, he's "allergic" to it he says

 

What I found helped is activities where they can bounce on a trampoline or run or anything which will tire them. Then the same routine every night, sit on the loo with a Dr Who magazine for a number 2 (a typical man he takes up to an hour), then a warm bath to relax, his comfy PJ's and dressing gown. Then we have some toast and warm milk, then a quick story and a night light on. The night light took months to get in his room as he was scared of the dark, but the light made him even more awake when brightly shining in his face.

 

T does call down for about an hour for silly things and is still awake until around midnight, he will eventually drop off with "planet rock" on the radio as he likes background noise. He is up around 5.30 - 6am as he could hear a pin drop in his sleep and has never slept in.

 

So my advise is try a routine and stick to it, or if you are desperate try melatonin from your GP, not all GP's like it though and aren't convinced it works. It worked for T for a while then had no effect.

[freedom]

sleep all night OMG now that would be lovely lol

 

forgotten that one

 

he has got better he used to only sleep 2 hours a night so he is up to 5 now so maybe by the time he is 18 he may sleep all night lol

 

only 8 more years to go lol

[bikemad]

Sorry no advice to give as we have the same battle here unfortunately. <'>

[jo4themo]

N goes to bed at 8 but is often still awake at 10 in the summer - slightly better in the winter months - but her younger sister and brother also take a while to get to sleep when it's light outside. N has a midsleeper which is right by the window so she tends to open the curtain to get more reading light!

We used to have a blackout blind in their room at our old place but when we moved we lost the bits to attach it to the wall and haven't got around to buying a new one yet. Keep meaning to though

[freedom]

LOL I just replied to your other post, I'm not stalking you honest..

 

T is like this, he doesn't like sleep, he's "allergic" to it he says

 

What I found helped is activities where they can bounce on a trampoline or run or anything which will tire them. Then the same routine every night, sit on the loo with a Dr Who magazine for a number 2 (a typical man he takes up to an hour), then a warm bath to relax, his comfy PJ's and dressing gown. Then we have some toast and warm milk, then a quick story and a night light on. The night light took months to get in his room as he was scared of the dark, but the light made him even more awake when brightly shining in his face.

 

T does call down for about an hour for silly things and is still awake until around midnight, he will eventually drop off with "planet rock" on the radio as he likes background noise. He is up around 5.30 - 6am as he could hear a pin drop in his sleep and has never slept in.

 

So my advise is try a routine and stick to it, or if you are desperate try melatonin from your GP, not all GP's like it though and aren't convinced it works. It worked for T for a while then had no effect.

 

lol toilet now thats all 3 men in this house lol 2 kids one male ummm i call it the reading room as they live in there

 

he has a rutien but still messing around we have a night light with dimmer on as he wont sleep with out it on anf he has mr cuddles, big bear, and brown bear they all protect him from japs ??????? ( he is army mad)

 

he is still up now woundering around doing the 50 times a night toilet thing and thats an hour and half now oh well.........

[Zosmum]

Sorry no advise here either but same problem

I don't know how she does it, I collapse from shear exhaustion and she still keeps going

Awake til stupid o'clock and up with the larks (also stupid o'clock)

[freedom]

i look back when he only slept a few hours a night and i do think how am i still standing here today

 

the doc's just keep saying he will grow out of it they have said that for the past 6 years and i am still waiting and waiting and waiting

[Sooze2]

I have one like it here too, I did a post about sleep a week or so ago so know where you are coming from <'> <'>

 

He went to sleep by 10.30 two nights in a row without coming into the front room 10 times or spending an hour in the loo reading and I thought we'd finally cracked it but it's not going to happen tonight I fear because he's been in a terrible mood all evening.

[jo jones]

we have same trouble wiv blaine,,late goin the in my bed from roughly 6 am,,,, nitemare ,,,we use an egg timer to tell him its bedtime,,and he will go upstairs but will then come back downstairs constantly,, psych said he is getting roughly 6 hours which is plenty for a child of 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah well what about the parents then????? im bushed when i come in from work at 10pm,,,,,,,,,,

[morgan and alexandra]

Ah Freedom

As you know I'm public enemy No1 in hubbys family at the mo and this is one of the reasons why....lol. DD just will NOT go to sleep but it's all my fault, no one elses. Have tried everything, it doesn't matter what time she goes to bed, she just will not go to sleep. At the weekend DD was having a bad day and we were at a family meal and hey presto up comes the remark " well perhaps if u got her into a bedtime routine blah blah blah" .

 

We are getting some help in July so hopefully will get some tips and if we do and they work then i'll PM you and let you know. Nice to see I'm not the only one having night time woes. <'>

[freedom]

emlyn has been to CAMHS behavioural charts, treats, star rewards things taken off him the lot nothing seems to work he just keeps doing it

 

don't stress over what out siders say about your parenting skills they only say things cos thier world is black and white ours is full of colours and various shades of them. !!!!!!

 

like to see them cope for a week then let them preach about what your doing wrong lol they will be dead on thier feet after 24 hours and look like fouls

[morgan and alexandra]

Hi Freedom

I have thought about doing that...lol they just wouldnt cope, I KNOW im a good mum just wish they would keep their noses out if they haven't got anything constructive to say..

Hey ho, will tell the woman on wed what we have done, the effect its having on family etc and give her the full picture and see what she can come up with, just hope it works.

[oxgirl]

The important thing for us was to get Jay to stay quietly in bed and entertain himself until he went to sleep. He's very good at this now. We put him to bed, read a story (yep, still doing it at 14!) and then it's 'night, night', we're officially OFF DUTY! He stays happily in bed reading or just making his noises and playing with his cuddlies and generally it's a chill-out time for us all. After a couple of hours, if his light isn't off already, we come up for a last kiss and turn the light off and he's usually asleep half an hour or an hour later. So for us, it's not so much the emphasis on whether he's asleep or not, but whether he is happily entertaining himself and not continually coming down and bothering us. When he's stressed he does do this, it's up and down the stairs and we have to keep taking him back up to bed, but usually it work well. He knows that, generally, once he's in bed that's it, it's up to him what he does, as long as it's quietish and doesn't disrupt the whole house. We can't make him go to sleep but we can insist that it's 'bed-time'.

 

~ Mel ~

[pookie170]

My Cal is like Oxgirl's Jay now too, I swear though, the later he goes to bed, the less time he sleeps!!?? He has got to the point where he can safely entertain himself, and it did used to be a nighttime ballast of trips in and out of his room- water, toilet, complain, toilet,complain,faked illness,water,toilet,complain.... Drove me crackers, I don't do well without sleep and I've still got the eye-bags to prove it!!! But now, unless somethings up, he goes in and stays in. Still takes him hours to drop off, and he often wakens in the wee small hours, but I think that as he gets older he's becoming more comfy with himself.....he rather appreciates his quiet time!

I do sympathise though- no amount of star charts, tears, loss of priveleges etc would have worked in the past- that's just how it was for him. Tough cookies to anyone who criticises you, M&A, as Freedom says, if they were in your shoes they'd get a reality check! Just smile sweetly, it ain't worth the hassle of a huge row, I don't think. You know whats best for your child. <'>

 

Esther x

[freedom]

lol sorry not a funny subject but we are all saying and doing the same all the time lol

 

emlyn's sleep has just started to take a turn for the worse again home schooling he loves it but everything different does this to him so we are now back down to around 4 hours a night and screaming sessions every night lol