Read Vs. Sleep

Wow, a 6 year old wanting to read - not a bad problem to have! Some kids need less sleep than others but if he is cranky he is probably not getting enough. How about taking the night light away and leaving the bedroom door cracked with the hall light on? Maybe just read to him to relax him for half an hour and then stay upstairs to monitor the sneaky reading? Or set aside an hour and a comfy chair for him to read before bed, but cutting it off at a good sleep time? I bought a book called "when you dread your bed" from Amazon.com since my 9 year old can't fall asleep for 2 hours but wants to - it recommends a routine called snack/snuggle/snooze: pick a bed time (snooze), go back half an hour for the snuggle (or read or talk or back massage whatever works to relax him), and go back another half hour for a bed time snack (glass of warm milk, a graham cracker, brush teeth again). Even with all that my daughter tosses and turns for 2 hours. The doctor recommended Melatonin tablets at dinner time (6 PM)and they help a little. Someone else told me to actually move bedtime earlier since she may be over tired. For us, the school routine is usually tiring which helps with getting her into a pattern. Whatever you do, enjoy the fact that he enjoys reading!

i hate to put it this way,but you might have to take his books away at night so he wont stay up all night reading. its not good for him and especially his education if hes too cranky in the morning and through school.maybe u can tell your son that he may read a book for an hour before bed but that once its bedtime he can no longer read by the nightlight, if he doesnt listen do like i suggested and take his books from him to prove your point that u are not going to tolerate this kind of late night reading, and keep thinking telling yourself your not being mean your doing this for his own good. hope this helps.

Hi K.,
You're lucky you have a reader in your hand.

I am not sure what the "problem" is for your son: is he afraid of the dark, does he want to practise his new reading skills, is he not tired enough (or too exited) to sleep?

I was exactly like your son as a kid. My problem was that as long as I had material to read I HAD to read it! And when I began a book, I just couldn't put it down until I finished it. (Unfortunately, I'm still a little like that!)

What my parents did:
- Allow long stories/novels only during daytime reading, especially on weekends
- When back from the library, they would keep all books and give me one to read at a time. (Otherwise, I would read them all with my night light)
- For night time reading, I was allowed short stories and "encyclopedia" type of books.
- In books with several short stories, my mother would put a note at the end of the story of the day telling me that the story of the day is over and I should now go to sleep. It was quite effective because if I read all the book anyway, the next day, I had to read the same again (and all the next days for as many days as stories in the book), so in order to keep some reading for the next day, I would stop after only one.
- In "Encyclopedia" type, with lots of information in every page, my brain needed some time to process all this new information and I tended to read the same page 2 or 3 times to be sure I remember all. This extra work for the brain usually made me fell asleep faster (with the book open on my face).
- My parents would check on me when they were going to bed themselves and whether I was alseep or not, they would remove the books from my room/bed.

I'm not sure how efficient was their method. For sure, it gave me the sleep I much needed, but it didn't really teach me how to stop by myself. And still today, at 37 years, I sometimes (but not too often!)forget to switch off the light and read until the morning alarm clock rings.

But, I don't consider that a problem :-)

It's awesome your son has such an urge to read. Can you feed that urge earlier in the day...after school, before dinner, after dinner? Some kids just can't get enough of reading, no matter how much time they devote to it. My best friend growing up always had a book in hand. The trick is to still get the needed rest while feeding the enthusiasm for reading.

How many hours of sleep did your son average during the summer months? And what time did he usually go to bed, usually get up, etc.? Is your current school schedule quite different from that or pretty similar?

I know we let our son (almost 13) stay up later during the summer and he then would sleep-in each morning. When left to his own devices, he consistently slept 10-11 hours. The trick was to slowly work our way back to decent hours for school in increments, perhaps 1/2 hour each day. Then the last couple of mornings, we made sure he got up at a specific time, regardless of whether he wanted to sleep more or not. That way, he'd be more tired at night and have a better chance to falling asleep at a decent time.

I don't know if this helps your situation or not. The other responder had some good ideas as well. Create a routine that incorporates the desired reading and cozy time, stepping back from the number of hours you think your son needs. Often kids are more into the routine than the actual time on the clock and can be wooed into earlier bedtimes if you provide the desired pattern.

Another trick is to make sure your son is getting plenty of physical activity during the day so that he is literally tired. If his body is tired, his mind will likely follow suit.

Lastly, and I've never been good at this part, it might be a good lesson for him to experience being really tired once or twice to make the connection. Then talk about the connection, asking him what he thinks would be a better solution. (I usually want to impart my wisdom from my own mistakes onto my son rather than letting him learn his own lessons. So, instead of my son getting tired, he gets mad at me for enforcing his bedtime. But that's my cross to bear. : )

Celebrate your reader and help him work his schedule back so that he is getting the sleep that nourishes his body and soul. What soul wants to be cranky, anyway?!

P.S. Are you and your husband on the same page about bedtimes? We have a challenge in that regard in our family. Our son wants to spend time with Dad but he doesn't get home from work till 7ish. In order to get the quality time they want, the bedtime gets pushed later. I understand this emotionally, but practically, I have to deal with the emotional fallout if our son doesn't get enough sleep. So, sometimes there are mixed messages regarding bedtime in our household. Ah the joys of modern life!