4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

Ok, so my 4 year old has created a habit of waking up in the middle of the night, watches TV and falls asleep on our LR couch. He has done this the last 3 nights!! We don't hear him (plus we are in a ranch so no stairs)

Any tips, help, etc to stop this? Was thinking of letting him pick out new sheets to entice him to stay in bed.

Thanks!!

4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

I would put the parental controls on the TV and maybe when he realizes he can't watch anything, he won't do it? Or maybe he is totally oblivious to it, and is sleepwalking and doing it. While you are at it, I would put a top lock on your entry doors so he doesn't unlock them and get outside. Especially since you don't hear him getting up

4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

unplug the TV when he's not looking or otherwise disable it?
AJ just finally learned how to use our logitech Google TV remote with keyboard. Until now, she couldn't watch TV unless we turned it on. Even though she can turn it on she can't change the channels (hasn't figured that out yet as its really like a keyboard).

She used to wake up and ask me to turn on the TV. I told her I couldn’t that the TV went to sleep. I used to let her watch Yellow Submarine or Classical Baby (which is some strange baby show that has classical music set to baby images). It would knock her out. Once out I’d put her in her room. She wasn’t allowed to watch ‘her shows’ because they would hype her up. But mostly I felt her out. There’s a difference from “im not tired I wanna watch TV” and “im sleepy but can’t wind down”. If it was the first one, she didn’t get TV. It wasn’t fun but I stood my ground. If it was the second I gave her an allotted time (which she doesn’t understand time) and kept her to it.

I live in a one story and we still use her monitor. It’s on full volume so if we listen hard enough we can hear her snore from across her room to the monitor all while we lay in our bed 4 feet from out monitor! hahahaha It sits closer to the door than her bed (its about 8-10ft from her, 3 feet from the door). So if she were to get up and out, we’d hear it loud and clear on the monitor.

She doesn’t get up anymore in the night. That stopped around 4yrs. Before that she did it A LOT. We let her sleep when she’s tired and not at a bed time. So once she’s out, she’s out. We let her sleep on the living room floor and would move her. Then we started to move her closer and closer to her barely falling asleep until we could carry her to bed sleepy, then finally walk her to room sleepy to her walking herself to her room.

We are night owls by nature. Both hubby and I are up to around midnight or 1am. AJ these days is in bed by 9:30/10pm.

Good Luck!



ETA: never thought of the top lock thing.. great idea !! We don’t need one as our house alarm is set at ‘no entry delay’ at night. Open any of the areas with a sensor and the alarm goes out, loud and annoying! LOL

Message edited 4/26/2013 2:24:47 PM.

Re: 4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

If my son did that, as a consequence, he would have no tv the next day.

Re: 4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

My DD did the same age at about 3 1/2 or 4. We would hear the tv and go into the living room and she would have a blanket, pillow, snack and drink!

Re: 4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

He doesn't know about the monsters that live in the TV & come out at night?

First I'd want to know if something woke him up? Did he have to go the bathroom & then head to the TV? Did he have a bad dream? The reason this comes to mind first is that every morning when the alarm goes off, we shut it off & we have a kid crawling into bed with us. It's an automatic thing unless they are exhausted. It could be a toy going off or it could be they just can't get back to sleep. But I'd do some digging to find out & try to resolve the waking part (even if it means limiting drinks after dinner).

Then, you have to make the rule clear. Is it no TV or he can't get out of the bed unless he has to go potty? Can he read aka look at books in the middle of the night if he can't sleep?

After that, I'd bring the remote into your bedroom (if they can't figure out how to turn the TV on w/o it.) & let them know that it will be in there from now on. The only reason why I wouldn't unplug it is because I have a kid that would have plugged it back in & I wouldn't want my 4 year old playing with plugs.

4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

I would honestly just tell him he needs to stay in his own room/bed all night or else there will be consequences (no tv, no favorite toy, etc.). He is old enough to understand the ramifications of not following the rules.

Re: 4 wakes up and then falls asleep on the couch???

As I am not a mom yet, (four more weeks) I can only answer form my mom's perspective. I had a big problem with insomnia as a child so my mom got me a reader that would play books on tape. I could use it as late as I wanted as long as i stayed in bed. My mom says she could hear me most nights till the wee hours of the morning, but at least it kept me in bed and I would eventually fall asleep.