Question: My four year old boy has never been an excellent sleeper. He was up every two hours at night till he was almost one. The absolute latest he will sleep in till is about 6:00am. He has always been an early riser.
He has had a television in his room since he was a baby to get him to sleep. Obviously this was the wrong answer for him or any child. So, a while ago I started catching him up at crazy times during the night watching TV. He would be so cranky the next morning. I finally took it out if his room and retrained him to function without it. Several months have passed and he was doing well with his sleep. Now he is in my room 2-3 times a night not able to sleep. I have found him standing watching us sleep and not know how long he has been up. He goes to preschool and sleeps for about 2 hours during the day. I was going to ask them to stop letting him sleep, but I noticed he does it on days with no naps as well. He has no problem going to sleep it’s just staying that way.He does snore a little, but he’s a small kid and I associated sleep apnea with obesity more so. Anyway, his dad and I would love to have night time to sleep. Any suggestions?

Answer: Just a quick note on sleep apnea: While obesity is a risk factor for sleep apnea, it’s a much more pronounced risk factor in adults. With children, the main concern is typically tonsil size, and a child can have large tonsils irrespective of their weight.While the television was once his go-to for staving off boredom when he woke up, perhaps you can substitute reading or a similar activity that will work to increase his sleepiness (no bright lights) while keeping him from being too bored and wandering to your room.Are there any other suggestions out there?Good luck! Feel free to update this page with any progress or setbacks you have using the comments section below.

Thanks for your question and good luck,
Kevin