How are the excitement levels in your house at the moment? As Christmas Day approaches, many parents are stuggling to get their children to sleep at a reasonable time. I mean, as if we need anything else interfering with the bedtime routine.

How early do your children wake up on Christmas Day? Parents of young children will be getting a rude awakening on Christmas Day, as their excitable children get up at 6.45am on average, a study has revealed. How does this compare with your house?

Research revealed millions of parents will be getting up early to tend to their little ones. Mums and dads of younger kids will be up earliest, with the average child aged two to six being wide awake by 6.45am.

Unsurprisingly, teenagers are least likely to be up before their parents – with just 15 per cent waking up before 7am. Those of you with teenagers, does this sound about right?

What’s more, one in six parents will be woken up in the night by their children unable to sleep due to the looming excitement of the following morning. Any excuse right?

A study commissioned by Happy Beds found that the most common excuse given by restless children for being unable to fall asleep on Christmas Eve is they are too excited, and three in 10 want to be awake for when Santa comes down the chimney. Or through the front door with the magic key if your don’t have a chimney!

Eighteen per cent want to leave their rooms to go and look at the Christmas tree, and one in eight think an early gift from their stocking would help to calm them down. I mean…that’s a poor one!

Parents reckon it takes an average of 33 minutes for their child to nod off when they have finally convinced them to go to bed. 33 minutes! I’d count that as a good night!

Top reasons children give for not going to sleep on Christmas Eve

I want to see Santa 33%
I want something from my stocking 13%
I want a present from under the tree 19%
I want some Christmas sweets 13%
I want some Christmas food 12%
I’m just too excited to sleep 37%
I want to see the reindeer 18%
I want to see if Santa has had his mince pie 24%

We normally go for the exhaustion option on Christmas Eve, by packing the day full of activities together. A good long walk, some craft or baking, movie night and so on.

If your children are still small enough that you can carry them when asleep, you can always stick them in the car and have a ‘drive to see the pretty lights’ #justsaying #yourewelcome !