Stopped screen time for DD (nearly 4), now finally sleeping through!

[peacefuleasyfeeling]

I know my DD1 (who will be 4 in a couple of months) is virtually a pensioner compared to most of the DCs in this topic, but it's been a long road... She has never, no word of a lie, slept through the night, in her whole life. Until last week. When I decided to stop all screen time. Just to sort of see if it would have any impact. Which it did. Stunned.

She was always a terrible sleeper, and has suffered "confusional arousal" (one of the lesser parasomnias, not dissimilar to night terrors) since she was 2. She would go to sleep like a dream, sleep for a few hours and then be off, doing her semi-conscious crying, shouting and leg kicking routine intermittently for another few hours until around 3 am and then sleep until morning.

Most afternoons she watches cBeebies for 30-40 mins (no other screens at other times during the day) while I cook dinner. Last week I thought we'd experiment with no screen time, partly to see if it would impact on her sleep, and partly to see if she would find something else to get busy with instead. Easy peasy, she has been happy to draw and build with Lego while I've been busy and hasn't even asked to watch anything. But she has been sleeping through the night, just like that!

Is this an odd coincidence, or has anyone else had a similar experience? I didn't think she spent enough time in front of a screen for it to matter, and not late enough in the day. Have we nailed it finally, or will it come to an end?

[itiswhatitiswhatitis]

We found a massive difference in ds's sleep when we cut down on screen time.

[LifeIsBetterInFlipFlops]

Screen time is known to stimulate them, and your DC is very young.

Tis a nightmare trying to keep them off it or limit it - well done.

[peacefuleasyfeeling]

We had a few episodes of kicking and shouting last night (but pretty minor) despite having stayed off-screen for over a week. But overall it has been an amazing turn-around!