2004-02-25 You are getting sleepy

She goes to bed every night at 8:00. For one or two hours before she actually falls to sleep, she is in her room...either playing or yelling down that she can't sleep, asking if she can come back down. This happens almost every night without fail.

When she wakes up at 7:10 every morning to get ready for school, she is a big grump...and that's putting it kindly. She takes her sweet time eating, getting dressed, doing her hair etc. I used to let her watch tv while she was getting ready but, it took her even longer so I took that tv away in the morning before school. She complains about having to get up("Call me when breakfast is ready Mom" "Do I have to get up?" etc),and like I said, when she does get up, she takes forever to get ready. On top of that she whines and cries about everything...what she is served for breakfast, me having to use the hairdryer on her hair, what I have packed her for lunch etc. It's not like I make her eat something she doesn't like for either breakfast or lunch but it always seems like whatever I do make is just "not what she wants." She wants to buy lunch everday which I don't agree with(at least when I make it, I know what she is eating) so, as a compromise, I let her pick one day each week that she can buy.

I am thinking that maybe this whole situation is due to lack of sleep. We used to put Katherine and Emily to bed at the same time(7-7:30) but, because Emily is older and doesn't need as much sleep as her sister, and as a special treat for Emily we changed her bedtime to 8:00. I was hoping that this would be an exciting thing to Emily, but also that keeping her up a little later would help her fall asleep quicker.

It's not working.

Me being me, I researched a little online to find out what the general feeling was regaring how much sleep a 6 year old needs. According to everything I have found...the average 6 year old needs 9 to 11 hours, with no nap.

Apparently, Emily is on the lower end of the specrtrum...needing only 9. She usually doesn't fall asleep until sometime between 9:00 and 10:00. If she wants to play in her room for a couple of hours while she is up there, I really don't have a problem. Soon, most of her toys will be downstairs in the playroom (which is in the process of being organized) so maybe she will just get bored and fall asleep. I doubt it though. No matter what her surroundings are, Emily always manages to find some way of entertaining herself. Under normal circumstances this would be a good thing.

When I have to deal with a grumpy, unyielding 6 year old every morning, it is not.

I don't know what to do though. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to keep her up until 10:00 every night. That certainly wouldn't help with the crankiness every morning sseing as she is up in her room that late anyway. No matter what we do, she almost never falls asleep at a what would seem a normal hour for a child of her age and I can't seem to think of anything that would force that.

I don't even know if forcing would be a good thing, even if I could think of a way.

What do I want? I want her to go to bed at whatever time she feels is right for her(even if it means playing for awhile) and for her to wake up in the morning cheerful. Any suggestions?