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My son will be 4 next month. He's slept only 9-9.5 hours since he was 2. Lately it's often only 8-9. The odd day he sleeps closer to 10 and he is so much happier and better able to cope with his emotions. He's sick quite often despite healthy diet, exercise and fresh air, I think it may be from lack of sleep. He hasn't napped since around 2.5years, and even then it took 30-60mins to get him asleep for a nap and then that long at bed time too. And when he napped 3 hours he'd sleep only 6 at night! He is an early riser, awakening at 4-4:30 in the winter (since he was an infant) and 5-5:30 in the summer. He just can't get back to sleep once he awakens. We have often tried lying in bed for an hour with no luck. If it's a big day he's up even earlier - Christmas was 3:30am - and we were opening presents! He always has bags under his eyes, but when he is sick, and still does not sleep any longer then he has double bags under his eyes, and has an even more difficult time dealing with his emotions. If we try putting him to bed earlier he just gets up even earlier... Sometimes I feel like he only needs 9 hours, but then he is so emotional, and sensitive, and I think his health is suffering as a result. Any suggestions for how to get my little man to sleep more?

It has been a long sleep road for my DS3 too. You are not alone in that. He/ we coped with sleep terrors early on through until almost his 3rd birthday, and woke several times per night until a couple months ago when he started sleeping through more nights than not. He is sensitive to food and drink needs, and now will wake if he needs to use the toilet, or because he's hungry or thirsty. Our nighttime routine includes snacks now, and is fairly routine (run or jump on the trampoline, bath, snacks and books) so he can be prepared for what comes next. He still takes between 45m and 2 hours to go down at night wanting to play talk games or play so we've built that into his schedule. He too hasn't taken naps at home since his 2.5 summer. I too worry about not enough sleep, but there are nights (few, sigh) that he will tell me he is tired and will put on his pjs very early and go to bed. He is still an active sleeper/ dreamer (often talking or moving around in his sleep). We do not have animated videos before bed (sometimes we'll watch something like next gen star trek..). One thing that I think helped was installing some low light remote control solar system models so it wasn't totally dark. He can control them from bed and it provides for isolated focus. Hang in there. Sadly, no magic solution to share - just a smile for you in your struggle.

I've been there, done that with an awful sleeper, and I feel your pain.

Is he waking up because he's kicked his covers off and is cold? Is his room fully dark even when the sun comes up? Have you tried melatonin? Have you read Sleepless in America?

Our son has also been a poor sleeper. However, around the age of 3 we started having a bit more luck. I think a big contributor to this was putting a canopy over his bed (one of the Ikea stargazer tents). He has also always had a very difficult time shutting down. The canopy seems to shut out external stimuli and allow him to relax. At the same time, we also gave him a couple of nightlights (a moon and a twilight turtle) and he controls them. He also has a music box at his side. All of these have been useful because when he wakes at night, he uses these to soothe himself back to sleep. And beyond this, we also leave books in his bed. So, if he does wake in the night, he can calmly read for awhile before falling back asleep. Many people might think that this is too much "stuff" to crowd his bed with. *But* it does help him get himself back too sleep (as opposed to waking us to do it for him). This may not help for your situation but I thought I'd share just in case it does. Good luck!

Ah... my 18 year old (PG) did not sleep through the night until she was 5. I think of it as just another of her sensitivities (noise, food, etc.). She did go to sleep reasonably well. ANd when she got up she didn't stay up, just "needed company" at about 1 or 2 am every night. So we played musical beds and went back to sleep with one of us cuddled with her someplace. When she was 5 we moved out of the city to a house in a pretty rural, quiet area. And got her a bigger bed (double) -- figured if we were going to be laying down to get her back to sleep we might as well all be comfy! A few weeks after moving she started sleeping better.

She was not a cuddly, social kid at all when she was awake. So we figured that if this was the time when she wanted to be close to us, we could deal with it for a few years as long as everyone got a reasonable amount of sleep.