Tired and Tested

Exhausted mum Allison Harding laments her daughter’s new night-owl tendencies.

“Good night, sleep tight. I love you,” I say warmly about 7.45pm most nights.

But, lately, I’ve been following up about 30 minutes later with: “Snuggle up, see you in the morning.”

About 8.45pm, I hear muffled sobs or see the bedroom light is back on. I stride into the bedroom: “You really need to get to sleep. Turn the light off please.”

By 9.30pm, I’m rattled: “Oh, come on, you must be exhausted. Go to sleep!”

“But I can’t!” comes the plaintive wail.

And I thought sleep problems would be over by the time children were at primary school.

We had been pretty lucky with Sophie. Oh, she had her phases as a baby and toddler, but generally she was a good sleeper.

But in the past month or so, our seven-year-old has become a real night owl. She is still wide awake at 9pm most nights, swearing black and blue that she is either not tired – or if she admits she is weary, that she simply can’t get to sleep.

One friend suggested we let her flick through little photo albums in bed after she’s read her story; it avoids the stimulation of reading but gives her something to do while her eyelids grow heavy.

I tried it – but it only prompted tears: “It’s woken me up even more!”

Another friend – with three young children – swears she simply says that it’s lights out and no arguments.

That approach is just met with tears at our house at the moment.

I’ve researched the possible solutions. No television or computers for more than an hour before bedtime: check. A good bedtime routine: check. Warm milk: check. Cool, quiet room: check. Nightlight to allay any monster fears: check.

Maybe Sophie simply isn’t physically tired enough at the end of the day, I wondered (although her recess and lunchtime activities sound exhausting to me). So I started introducing some more activity after school now it’s getting warmer – a walk to the park, a kick of the soccer ball in the back yard, a bounce on the trampoline – all to no avail.

Experts say that most children around Sophie’s age need a lot of sleep – still about 10 or 11 hours a night – and that sleep-deprived children will often fall asleep in the car, need to be woken in the morning and seem irritable or overtired during the day?

But I can’t remember the last time she fell asleep in the car during the day, she usually wakes up herself and is rarely grumpy during the day.

Perhaps we just have a future shift worker on our hands.