For the past two nights, my 4 1/2 year old has resisted going to sleep at bedtime, staying up 2 hours after we put him to bed and then briefly waking up in the middle of the night. The first morning after his fitful sleep, I woke him up for Preschool at normal time; he was grumpy but got up, dressed, had breakfast and seemed to be ok. Well, half way through his school day, I get a call to pick him up (he threw a major temper tantrum). I picked him up, brought him home, and made him stay in his room without any of his favorite toys (which will not be returned until the weekend if we see good behavior). He ended up falling asleep for 4 1/2 hours straight. This morning when we went to wake him for school, it was like a repeat of yesterday. Instead of forcing him up, we let him sleep in and miss preschool.
Has anyone else had these issues? How have you resolved them? I know we cannot keep him from going to school because he's a little sleepy but I just couldn't handle a repeat of him throwing a fit at school and having to go pick him up. Please help-thanks!
Is he getting sick? My son used to do that all the time right before he got sick. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong he just felt off and didn't know how to deal with it I think. Good luck.
He may be getting sick. check his temp. look at his throat. sometimes little ones can't verbalize well what the issues are. head hurt? tummy hurt? see what you can find out and if need be head to the doc.
If he's still napping during the day, keep it to a minimum, ~20 minutes. My daughter was in pre-school/day care, and at age 4, and the teacher still had the class taking a 2 hour nap. It was interfering with her sleep at night and she'd be up for 2-3 hours after we put her to bed. Getting the teacher to wake her after only 20 minutes of nap time and find something quiet for her to do for 1 1/2 hours was not easy, either.
i think this is totally normal for a preschooler. they need at least 11 hours of sleep but sometimes stuff, nightmares, growing pains, gets in the way. and sometimes my daughter, 4, gets 11-12 hours of solid sleep and is still exhausted.
when i see that she is tired i remember how hard it is for me to be well-behaved and rational when i am exhausted and i cut my daughter a lot of slack. i try not to put her in situations where she will fail and when she throws a fit and i can rings under her red eyes and she just cannot keep it together i use redirection and snuggles more than punishment. don't get me wrong. i don't tolerate tantrums in other cases but i don't many adults who haven't thrown a tantrum when sleep deprived. it makes us lose control. that's why sleep deprivation is used as a torture tool.
good luck, i'll remember you when i'm rocking my 4 year old because, i'll say it, there have been times i would have like to be rocked when feeling miserable.
Maybe he's just still adjusting to the time change.....
My little girl just turned 4 and it seems like we go through this two or three times a year. As long as I am firm about bedtime it usually goes away after a few nights. One idea is to let him play hard, take him to a bounce house a couple of hours before bedtime and just let him exhaust himself. This has worked well for me the times I have tried it. My daughter also wakes up in the night when she's growing and complains about her knees hurting, maybe he's uncomfortable or achy? He could be going through a growth spurt. Hope these ideas help!
I am always amazed by how daylights savings time can affect my kids. This year we started putting our kids to bed 15 minutes earlier during the week. just to help them adjust, it still has been rough on my youngest. So anyhow, I would watch for a hidden sickness too maybe something he can't describe but don't rule out the sleep disruption.
good luck
I have had some of these issues with my almost 4 yr old and really the only way we were able to resolve it is cutting out his nap (which he also fought) and putting him to bed earlier. He still has a resting time but he goes to bed at 7 every night. If he stays up even a little later we notice the tantrums, he wakes up earlier, he wakes during the night. It takes some tweeking to get the sleep "sweet time" or the right time to put them to bed but if you stick to that it really works. At least it did for us. Good luck!
My little boy has his ups and downs too. Some of the time I think it is growing pains. He complains about his feet and wants me to rub them. Sometimes he doesn't tell me and I just start massaging his legs and feet and he relaxes. I would say too that other than school he doesn't get a nap and I always try to get some good physical activity in. Taking his toys aways for days at a time at that age may be a little tramatic for him. He may not understand entirely what is happening and have more of a fit because of it. Boys need a lot of hard play! If they don't get that energy out that is usually where the behaviors start to come out.
