I know that one important way of establishing good sleep hygiene in children is to have consistent bed and wakeup times, but does anyone know how much variability is considered acceptable ie. it shouldn't interfere with healthy sleep? In other words, how rigid do you need to be about bed and wake up times?
both of my dd's, age 3 and 6, seem to be going through some hiccups in their sleep. My 3 year old has days when she doesn't nap, which I expect at this age, and when she doesn't nap she usually falls asleep 1 to 1.5 hours earlier at night but she usually will have a restless night with occasional night or early morning wakings. If that happens I will usually let her sleep in about 30 minutes, at which point I will go and wake her, but I'm wondering if this is causing her not to be tired at nap time resulting in another napless day and more overtiredness etc.
My 6 year old who has always been a champion sleeper has had some night wakings and an episode of sleep walking recently. she is quite teary and upset when she wakes and resists going back to sleep on her own. She has said that she is scared and she will occasionally complain of hunger. She has been mildly resisting her 8 o'clock bedtime and sometimes we won't get her into bed until 30 minutes later although that is rare and she usually is in bed only a few minutes after her normal bedtime. with her sleep disturbances we have also been letting her sleep in about 30-40 minutes so she won't be tired at school, but can this be interfering with her night sleep?
I don't want to perpetuate their sleep problems but at the same time if they are sleeping past their normal wake times I figure they are tired and need more sleep. But is 30 minutes, occasionally, enough to throw them off?
