Why is my 2 year old terrified of bed tonight?

[Arthurflecksfacepaint]

She’s 2 years 7 months and currently we are sat on the sofa. She’s red eyed and exhausted. She falls asleep, we try and carry her to bed. She wakes up screaming “I don’t want bed.” She’s inconsolable if we even mention it.

We co sleep, always have done, so it’s not like it’s sudden separation anxiety or anything.

We usually go up to bed at 9pm, she falls asleep chatting away, it’s been that way since day one.

I feel so sorry for her tonight, she’s exhausted but she seems genuinely worried about going to bed. If we take her in the bedroom she screams.

I’m really hoping this is a one off.

Oh bless her! Did she seem distraught at all in waking this morning - as if she had a nightmare at all?

It may be nothing to do with the bedroom - maybe a temp and teething?
I remember my DS turned into a screaming banshee one night whilst teething and I literally thought I was going to have to take him to A&E. Does she have molars coming through?

No, all was fine this morning! She’s not hot no teeth coming in.

Shes sat on dh lap sobbing “no bed, daddy”. She’s just exhausted. She falls asleep, we try and move and she wakes up shouting no bed again.

She was happy all day/evening.

I hope you manage to get some sleep and she manages to settle soon.
Its heartbreaking when you know they’re upset but they can’t say why.

Thank you!

Do you have another bed you could co sleep in with her just for tonight?
Just so she breaks the association to let herself fall asleep?

We’ve pulled out the sofa bed so we’ll see how this goes.

I remember being distraught going to bed once as a child because I felt like I was falling - I must have had an ear infection or something and had vertigo, when I lay down it was absolutely awful. Could it be something like that? Is she ok to lie down somewhere else?

She might have had a nightmare or had a frightening hallucination. It is pretty scary in the dark for young children and their imaginations can run wild.

Probably not this, but DS was once very concerned and couldn't possibly sleep around that age because his shadow had gone missing. He took considerable convincing that it was just because it was dark.

Brilliant!!

She fell asleep on the sofa bed with us in the end, out of sheer exhaustion I think, then we all went to our bed as it’s not the most comfortable and she stayed asleep while we moved her.

She woke up about half an hour ago which is early for her, she always sleeps until 8am. She’s happy ish to be laying in bed now though with books and teddies but she’s quite cranky.

I just feel so sorry for her, she was distraught last night just at the mention of bed when she usually runs up the stairs.