My 3.5 year old sleeps 9-7:30/8 and it works for us.

i agree with the people who say try to find some quiet activity for your kid to do in the morning so you can at least sleep til 6:30. Summer is tough because kids are naturally synched to wake as the sun rises.

my suggestion: give him the pbs kids app on a tablet or your phone, have a bottle of water ready for sipping if he's thirsty, and enjoy your extra hour of sleep.

OP here with an update. After yesterday’s 5:30 wake up and no nap, he had multiple epic tantrums and watched TV to calm down when nothing else worked. We stretched him to a 7:30 bedtime in the name of moving it later per the advice on here, despite him being exhausted from being up since 5:30.

He fell asleep immediately and….woke up at 5:30 again. My best guess is he has to pee and it wakes him up early and he can’t go back to sleep (he wakes up with a dry Pull Up every morning and immediately pees at 5:30, but needs my help to do so). So now it’s 10:47 am and he’s already had two tantrums today where he was screaming so much he almost made himself puke.

I can’t tell you how sweet and amazing this child is when he simply sleeps enough!! It’s ruining our home. I feel terrible for him and want to scream at him all at the same time. I don’t know what else to do. I’m at my wits end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12 hours of sleep is a very normal thing to expect at this age without a nap.

Until it doesn’t work anymore…

Well 10 hours definitely isn't enough. That's what my 6 year old does. The bedtime isn't the problem.

It’s possible not all children have the exact same needs as your child. This is why doctors often offer ranges of normal.

Op's child was previously sleeping 12 hours, now is sleeping 10. That's a large decrease. Typically low sleep need children are consistently lower end of the range over time.

Too early of a bedtime can lead to not enough sleep pressure to make it through the night to the desired wake time. And that early morning wake time is not always reflective of a kid’s overall sleep needs per day. My son does this all the time so we have to be really vigilant on when to push bed later. Our daughter isn’t nearly that sensitive and always just stays up later on her own so we follow her lead for when to set bedtime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12 hours of sleep is a very normal thing to expect at this age without a nap.

Until it doesn’t work anymore…

Well 10 hours definitely isn't enough. That's what my 6 year old does. The bedtime isn't the problem.

It’s possible not all children have the exact same needs as your child. This is why doctors often offer ranges of normal.

Op's child was previously sleeping 12 hours, now is sleeping 10. That's a large decrease. Typically low sleep need children are consistently lower end of the range over time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:12 hours of sleep is a very normal thing to expect at this age without a nap.

Until it doesn’t work anymore…

Well 10 hours definitely isn't enough. That's what my 6 year old does. The bedtime isn't the problem.

It’s possible not all children have the exact same needs as your child. This is why doctors often offer ranges of normal.