Kids Need Sleep!

I realize I've been blogging about my parenting revelations a lot lately, but I have to share this.
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I have had a huge wake up call these past few weeks. Over the summer, we'd gotten pretty lazy with bedtimes. When Kaylin was littler, bedtime was 7:00 on the nose. As she turned 2 and Ryan was 4, we bumped it back to 7:30. This summer, it was 8...8:30...sometimes even later before the lights were out. Then they would come out of their rooms (individually) asking for water. Or they needed to go potty. Or they forgot to give one of us a kiss/hug. Or they were hot. Or cold. They needed a Band Aid. There was a ghost in the closet. It was always something.
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Kaylin especially had issues staying in her room after we closed the door. Sometimes she would come out as late as 9:15 or 9:30...an hour or more after we put her to bed. As Ryan began weaning himself off naps and doing more resting during "naptime" than actually sleeping, he was pretty tired by bedtime. But Kaylin was the stall master. I resorted to the fact that maybe she just doesn't need as much sleep as Ryan did? She does still take 2-3 hour naps during the day, after all.
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Enter Kindergarten. Ryan no longer gets his "rest time" during the day PLUS he's busy, busy from 8-3, with tons of learning, stimulation and excitement. After hearing stories of Kindergarteners falling asleep on the bus ride home and others begging to go to bed during dinner, I bumped his bedtime up to 7:00. I was curious how Kaylin would do going to bed so early; I figured her daytime naps would get shorter, if not disappear altogether.
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Boy was I wrong! Several things happened. First, Kaylin immediately stopped coming out of her room with excuses to stall her bedtime. At 7:00, the lights go out and she stays in bed. I still can't explain this one, but I'm loving it. Second, she's sleeping solidly until 7am, sometimes later. This morning, I had to wake her so I could throw clothes on her and walk Ryan to the bus stop at 7:35. Third, she's still sleeping 2-3 hours during the day, which is confusing, knowing that she's sleeping an extra 2+ hours every night. Last, she's so much happier. There are less tantrums. Virtually no meltdowns. She's less whiny, her attitude is better and she's more content throughout the day.
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Conclusion: my poor girl wasn't getting enough sleep. In hindsight, I was probably waiting too long to put her to bed at night and she was getting her second wind, then couldn't settle down. Both kids have internal alarm clocks and don't really "sleep in." They are up around 6:45ish whether we put them to bed at 7pm or 10pm. But they're tough to be around when they go to bed at 10:00! When Ryan was 2 and 3, we were very strict about him sleeping 12 hours at night plus a 2 hour daytime nap. But we slacked off with Kaylin and I'm realizing that her disposition was affected because of it!
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I actually thought this might be a fluke, but here we are at the end of week 3 of our new earlier bedtime and she's still sleeping like a champ with a better attitude during the day. And Mike and I are back to enjoying our evenings without multiple mini interruptions.
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If your child is having trouble staying in bed or sleeping a reasonable number of hours, try bumping up bedtime. It might sound counterproductive, but it totally worked for us!!!