Parental Advice Sought: Bedtimes

[omahas]

I'm a bit at my wit's end regarding this issue. For several years now, Elf and I have been putting Yamaarashi-chan and Kouryou-chan to bed at about 9 pm, for a 6:45/7am wake up (6:45 for Yamaarashi-chan, 7 for Kouryou-chan). In the mornings, Yamaarashi-chan wakes right up. Kouryou-chan does not.

This has led me to believe recently that Yamaarashi-chan could go to bed later, say 9:30. We tried that for a while, but unfortunately had problems with Kouryou-chan constantly getting out of bed to see what her sister was doing.

In the past couple of months Kouryou-chan has been exhibiting bedtime behavior that is driving me nuts. She refuses to go to bed, regardless of whether her sister goes to bed with her, constantly gets up and harasses us or her sister, and generally behaves like she is not tired at all. In the morning, she continues to act like she is sleepy and tired. But now I'm wondering whether her morning behavior is "sleepy" behavior or "I'm not a morning person" behavior

Tonight we tried something different. We allowed both to stay up until 9:30. It resulted in them staying up until 9:45, actually, because they were both catching up on some chores. It's a little after 10, and Kouryou-chan is *still* acting like she isn't tired, getting up and saying she is bored, wants to find a toy, needs water, etc. I am so sick of this I'm ready to just tie the kid to the bed and ignore her for the rest of the night!

What experience do you have, if you are a parent with a child near Kouryou-chan's age (8 years old), with bedtimes, specifically with how long your children sleep at night. Do you think that the 10 hours we give Kouryou-chan is enough? Too much? Should we ratchet it down to 9 hours? Yamaarashi-chan could easily, I think, go to sleep at 10/9:45 and have a good night's sleep...but I don't know about Kouryou-chan. The two year difference can be a big one.

Any advice/thoughts welcome.

Comments

[tbclone47.livejournal.com]

Orion's been a challenged sleeper since day one. When I try to get him to bed on a school night by 8:30, it still ends up being 9:30 before he's asleep (sometimes later). Tonight I let him stay up later (no school this week). Sometimes he seems to nodd right off, sometimes not. But we have got a system down, a night time ritual (pjs, teeth, night time potty, reading in the "reading chair" (unless it's gotten way too late), and bed. I also generally will lie in bed next to him for a while because he really likes it, and personally, I don't mind the time relaxing. Sometimes I'm tired enough that I drift off with him. For whatever reason, even though he might not get to sleep right away, he is quiet, and (as he says) just hangs out until sleep overtakes him.