Does anyone else have a child whose brain is so active that it just won’t turn off at night? Or maybe you also have this problem yourself, as I do. I haven’t found a solution for myself yet though, let alone for my 7-year-old, who reminds me very much of me as a child in a lot of ways.
I remember night after night of being put to bed as a child and just lying there for what seemed like hours as my mind churned away, processing everything I had thought of or seen or touched or smelled that day. I couldn’t stop it. During the summer, I’d lean over my platform bed, as close as I could to my window, and read until I couldn’t see anymore (I wasn’t allowed to read once I was in bed). That, at least, seemed to help quiet my mind, but typically, I’d be awake long after I was put to bed.
I don’t know if it’s just the way my brain is wired or if it has something to do with being a night owl, but I still have trouble with this now as well. My brain seems to fire itself up at night and if I go to bed too early, which is actually incredibly late for most people, I will just lie there with my mind spinning through everything that’s going on in my life, unless I am drop-dead tired. I haven’t figured out how to get myself to sleep at a reasonable hour either.
Cody struggles with this too. I put him to bed at a decent time, even early, but he’s often awake for 2-3 hours longer. He reads and draws while lying down (I have always let my kids read in bed as long as they want because I think it promotes sleepiness), but most nights, it’s difficult for him to wind down. That little brain is constantly going, going, going. Consequently, mornings are tough for him (boy, do I understand that!) and it takes me about 10 minutes of rubbing his back and gently coaxing him out of bed to get him downstairs because his body is demanding more sleep.
So, if you and/or your child have problems with getting to sleep at night due to a very active brain, do you have any tips on how to help kids settle themselves down and get to sleep at a decent time? Unfortunately, this world doesn’t typically operate on a night owl’s schedule, certainly not for a school-aged child, or this could be workable.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Sarah, my dear –
And here I thought I was the only one who had this problem. All my friends have no problem going to bed and promptly falling asleep at 9 p.m., while I sit alone until the wee hours of the morning just waiting for my brain to shut down for the night. Sometimes it doesn’t at all, and, after I’ve managed to pass out, I wake up – hourly or often more frequently. And yes, mornings are a drag. But nothing helps. Reading, writing. I even tried letting the TV put me out, but that was no good either. Let me know if you come up with any solutions.
Thank God for homeschooling! I’m a night owl myself, and both of my older boys, ages 9 and 12, seem to have slipped into a night owl pattern as well. They’re perfectly happy to go to to their rooms at “bedtime” (8:30/9 pm), but then they: read books, listen to books in tape, play with legos, draw pictures, sort baseball cards, dream up businesses, process emotions and listen to music. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they don’t do that stuff during the day, but they don’t.
Thankfully, they live a life where they can sleep in til 9 am!
You’ve won a Lemonande Stand Award! Thanks for all the great parenting tips.
Jenny
http://www.bloggingboutboys.blogspot.com
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*I* am that kid. As a child, as an adult. The only thing I can do is to put on a BORING movie and the sleep timer…the conversation keeps me out of my own head and I fall asleep.
I hate to sleep bec. it is so tough. So tough, in fact, that I can name nights where I slept particularly well. FWIW, I can only think of three nights in the past 20 years. I’m sure there were more, but those nights were blissful.
Bec. I am like this, I let my kids read til all hours. I know it’s tough.
I wrote a blog post about this yesterday: http://blog.franklingoose.com/2010/01/sleeping-routines-for-your-children/
I can tell you as an adult, I read a book called “The Power of Now” and it completely stopped me from having the problem you are having at night. I used to lay awake for a half an hour to 45 minutes but after reading that book and understanding that the important thing is the moment I am in and not what happened that day or what is going to happen tomorrow it was sleep altering for me.
Also, I have found seriously that ritual is really important. My body and brain know that when I start doing my bed time rituals it is time to start shutting down. For me, that is reading my facebook on my iphone, and then reading a few pages out of a book, with a flash light (not as bright as a book light). I never make it more than 10 minutes (which stinks for my book reading but I do sleep). Good luck!
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Wow, can I relate Sarah. This is how I am, and have always been and my 3-year-old daughter is doing the same thing. And yet she rarely sleeps in the next day so she’s tired. We’ve really gotten strict with a bedtime routine, which has helped. But then I’ve got her trying something that I now do: visualizing the highlights of the day you’ve had and visualizing the day ahead — one or the other is fine. I find that when I’m vividly daydreaming about the day ahead and all the energy and success I’ll have, I fall asleep before I get to the end. With my daughter, I’ve just said “Lay still and make up stories about all the happy things in tomorrow.” That, and we’ve got her in a late gymnastics class to try and wear her out. LOL