4 year old waking at 3 or 4 am for the day!

[Anonymous]

Why is my 4 year old (note: 4 YEAR old, not 4 month old!) waking up at 3 or 4 am and not able to go back to sleep?

[Anonymous]

Black out curtains saved my sanity when my kids were young. I still use them for Spring summer.

1. Out up curtains.

2. kid awake for an extra hour before putting him/her down.

3. Repeat each day until you get them back on schedule.

I'd leave the curtains up until at least late July, if not later--the light just really messes with sleep schedules.

[Anonymous]

lol-"P"ut and all the other mistakes, sorry

[Anonymous]

Don’t get too hung up on it. It’s a phase and the time change is coming anyway!

[jsmith123]

OP can you post his current schedule? That may help troubleshoot.

[Anonymous]

jsmith123 wrote:OP can you post his current schedule? That may help troubleshoot.

Asleep at 7:30. When she sleeps all night, she wakes up around 6:30. Otherwise, she wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep.

[Anonymous]

This is OP again. No nap.

[Anonymous]

Does she have a color “clock” that let’s her know it’s time to start the day? I have one for DS so if he wakes up and the light’s not on, he knows to go back to sleep (or at least stay in bed).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does she have a color “clock” that let’s her know it’s time to start the day? I have one for DS so if he wakes up and the light’s not on, he knows to go back to sleep (or at least stay in bed).

+1 to this. We recently got one for my kids shared room (4y and 2y) and it's been a miraculous change. My 4y does better with the sense of control (or there being a rule she can follow), I think.

[Anonymous]

Definitely get a color clock. If she’s up at 4 am she can lie in bed until the clock changes.

[Anonymous]

My 4 yr old did this. The thing that worked was just giving it time. She’s six now and sleeps in. What finally worked for me was just giving in. After weeks of me getting no sleep (I also had a 6 yr old and newborn at the time) I just put the iPad in her room before I went to sleep. I needed to sleep when I could. Bad parenting, I’m sure, but I have to sleep at some point. I tried the clock and that worked on keeping her in her room watching the iPad until it turned yellow. Without the iPad she would cry initially, say she was scared, play loudly in her room (on purpose and accidentally bc she was 4), say she was bored, etc.

[Anonymous]

do the color clock AND set it right now for it to go green at 4:30am. Leave it that way for 4 or 5 days, then move it to 4:45am, then every 3 days move it up by 15 minutes until you get to 6:30am. Because right now, if you set it for 6;30am, which is the time you want it to be ultimately, and she wakes up at 4, she has 2.5 hours to lay there, and believe me, that's too long and she'll fail.

so start her off with a short wait, then increase it - the idea is that she will sleep later and later since she has to "remain in bed until it goes green."

See if that works.