4 year old suddenly waking in night, every night!

[abbypigs2272]

Good morning! I am looking for some advice. My son is 4 and just started school a few weeks ago. He was ready and is loving it which is fantastic but his sleeping is all over the place! Not surprisingly he is exhausted by the end of the day and falls asleep about 7:7:15 most nights but and here's the kicker.....he has been waking at 2:30 am every morning wide awake, wanting to play. He is not hungry/not cold/doesn't need the loo and we can't figure out what is causing him to wake. He is usually up for 2-3 hours!!!!! He has always been a good sleeper/loves his room and rarely causes any problems about going to sleep so this is a shock to us all. Anyone else experience this? Anyone have any advice/tips as we're really struggling here. Thanks so much all :)

[FATEdestiny]

It's probably related to the complete change in routine by starting school.

2-3 hours awake will be significantly affecting how tired it is at the end of the day. If this was my son I'd assume he's trying it on and would do some rapid return - ie return to bed, "nan night" and leave every time he leaves the room. Then once he's staying in bed, I'd just ignore until he realises how boring it is to be awake and alone at that time of night, so goes back to sleep.