3 Yr old Bedtime

eileenmcgoo

Bedtime has always been pretty easy for us, but all of a sudden my three year old is being really difficult and won't stay in her bed/room. She says she's not tired. Could we be putting her to bed too early? What time does your 3 yr old go to bed and what time do they wake up?

valeivegas

When my son was 3 (he's 4 now..) we tried to get him to sleep by 8:30 (some nights it was closer to 9pm), and he gets up at 6:30am during the work week to go to school.  (On the weekend we let him sleep in as long as he wanted - but usually he was up before 8am.) 

What time are you putting her to sleep?  Is she getting enough energy out after dinner - maybe take her outside, or to the park - let her run around before bath time.

But as you can see in my previous post, it comes & goes & they go thru these phases.  Just keep putting her in bed & tell her it's time to sleep.  My son's sleep habits got a lot better when he turned 3, and now he's able go straight to sleep, but he still wants one of us to lay with him for a few minutes..

Bigboobsmcgee

I agree with PP above that you have to just keep putting her back in bed and telling her it's bedtime.

My 3.5 year old goes to bed around 8pm. Sometimes he lays in bed for up to an hour before actually falling asleep but he has books, cars and some stuffed animals to keep him occupied until he's ready to sleep.

This probably is a phase but you have to stay on top of it for her to understand that she has to stay in her bed. Take her back to her bed 100 times if you have to. Stay consistent.

jesselayne8

My 3.5yr old goes to bed at 7:30 and falls asleep instantly but she no longer naps. Does your LO still nap? Maybe it's time to give up nap if you want to maintain an early bedtime. She wakes up between 7-8am.

eileenmcgoo

Okay so I'm not way off base. She's usually in bed at 8. No naps. We've been consistent about putting her back in back in bed; I just wanted to make sure I was being reasonable. Thanks!

Latina211508

We put all our kids to bed at 8:30. They don't get up. But when my son was 2 and getting up constantly we would just keep putting him back in his bed until he got the hint. My 2 year old still naps everyday for 2 hours.

patriciahomol

We still bed share in this house(soon transitioning), but I lay down with him around 8:30, he will fall asleep by 9.

Par13

DS will be 3 next month and he goes down around 9pm and sleeps until 7:30am. He also takes a nap from 2pm-4ish daily. 

Like PP said, maybe some more/different activities before bed. Possibly a bit later bedtime (assuming she doesn't need to be up super early for pre-school or daycare).