I am increasingly faced with a toddler who is tired beyond all reason but won't / can't go to sleep.
Warm milk, routine, wind down, gentle cuddle, story, sleeping in mummy's bed, in her big girl's bed, in her cot, with mummy, without mummy... nothing works. Trying these things calmly and firmly and persistently doesn't work. She gets tireder and more hysterical but will not or can not go to sleep. If I could just get her down I know she'd sleep for at least 90 minutes and be so much happier for the rest of the day.
Eventually, I prise her pitiously weeping, howling, gnashing her teeth and clinging desperately from around my neck and manage to deposit her in her cot very much against her will. I leave the room. She screams and howls, big tears, rivers of snot, choking, heaving, wailing, for about 10 horrible seconds. I go back into the room, pick her up and lie on her big girl's bed with her for a comfort and cuddle. She falls asleep within 60 seconds.
Lying on her bed with her for a cuddle is obviously the first thing I try. Why won't it work unless she's been left to cry first? I hate that she has to be so distressed before she'll sleep. Hate hate hate it. It upsets me, it upsets her. Going to sleep should be a positive, happy, calm thing, not an extract from a Hammer horror.
I often feel really sleepy after I've had a good bawl too. Is there a brain chemical or some biological reason for sleeping after crying?
(I've never cried myself to sleep though, and I can't imagine her suddenly dropping off in the middle of her violent sobbing, which is something I've never really understood about crying to sleep.)
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Join our Sleep forum for tips on creating a sleep routine for your baby or toddler.
Sleep
Does your brain release a post-crying sleepy chemical?
15 replies
BroccoliSpears · 19/02/2008 14:25
OP posts:
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.