What many child care centres fail to realise is that you cannot force a child to sleep at night if they are not tired. You can have all the bedtime routines in the world, soft music, mummy lying there, it wont work if your child is not tired because they had a long afternoon nap. It is common sense.
What they also fail to realise is that a child going to bed late at night is not only difficult for parents, but it means the child GETS LESS SLEEP. The child wakes at 5.30am as per their normal body clock, gets a total of 7 or 8 hours sleep and is sleep deprived, irritable, uncooperative, difficult and unhappy. The child suffers. The child is not getting enough sleep.

I have read a lot on this thread about 'the child needs to nap' 'the child must need the sleep' but timing that sleep so that the child is able to receive a good 12 hours within every 24 hours, is very important.
My child naps at daycare, she then doesnt get enough sleep at night, we call the following day 'disabled day' - I know my child better than my left hand. I have a bedtime routine that works very well when she doesn't nap during the day. Why would she go to sleep at night if she is not tired?? she doesn't and either would I.

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