How do we get our children to sleep more?

Question

Our girls do not sleep the reccomended 11+ hours (saw that on Parent Center) a night. They stay up late (10-12pm some nights - I used to be a third shift worker so they got used to that) and get up early.

They have curtains on their windows and blinds. They have a nightlight so they are not scared of the dark. We tuck them in, bathe them and brush their teeth nightly.

Finally we got them to bed at 9 pm last night (it was close to 10 pm when they finally fell asleep) and they were up at about 7 am to 8 am.

It just seems like they should be sleeping more. I do not like seeing dark looking circles under their little eyes! It makes me sad.

Thanks. = )

Answer 1

Mine have been doing the same thing....maybe you could feed them a little breakfast when they wake up (its very hard to go back to sleep on an empty stomach) and then lay them back down. You could put them on the floor in the living room with some cartoons turned down low. They may fall back asleep for a hour or so.

Answer 2

First of all, how old are they? Secondly, since they are used to going to bed late it will take time to adjust their schedule to an earlier bedtime. Basically just every few days bump up the time they go to bed by 15min until you get them to the time you want.  By bumping it up in 15min increments they are less likely to notice and will eventullay go to bed earlier. If thats what you want. Other than that, I don't know. Good luck!