Screaming during the night/bad sleeping pattern 20mo

[weasymeatsix]

my daughter has a really strange sleeping pattern lately.

she will wake up about 11am every day (no matter how hard i try to wake her before then) and she wont have a nap at all. she goes to bed about half 7 but will wake up without fail around 11 o clock every night screaming until i go into the room. when i do go into the room she thinks its playtime and thats her up jumping up and down. i can usually get her to sit quietly in her cot with a book or a toy and she will eventually fall back to sleep herself but sometimes its not until 5am and i am shattered.

she seems to be getting 5 or 6 hours sleep maximum a night and she always has loads of energy.

this is a recent thing as she used to sleep straight through without any problems.

anyone got any idea on what i can do?

No advice but do sympathise - think it is common at 18-21 months to have sleep going totally up the spout.

Mine (nearly 20 months) is the same (slighly different to you in that she settles fine then will wake up in the middle of the night for 2 - 3 hours). She is also in a very clingy phase, and is really blossoming with her talking, so think her little brain is whirring and she is anxious about being alone.

Don't think you can do much but ride it out. I do wake mine at 7am or thereabouts no matter how much she has been up - at least then the next day is vaguely back on track, she will then be up from 7 to about 11, then I let her sleep for an hour or so, then she has lunch and goes through till bedtime at about 7.30.

Yours sounds like she is just not very tired and is almost treating her early evening sleep as a nap.

Mine has only just crashed out next to me on the sofa as just wasnt sleepy earlier (despite being up at 6 and waking from nao at 1pm, so not late!)

Mine is better the more fresh air, stimulation and exercise she has. We havent done much today which is prob why she has been raring to go all evening!

It really does seem like she is treating her early evening sleep as a nap. she is awake again now and has been for a few hours and it looks as if she is going to be up for a while yet.

she is also clingy at the moment so it may be when she wakes up and im not there she gets scared.

thank you for your post im glad ive nothing to worry about and it just seems to be a phase that children go through

you learn something every day with kids :)

And when you think you've got it sussed, it goes to pot again.

Has yours been different with her food at all? Mine was a fab eater until early december when she turned 18 mths, then she started wanting to play about with her food a bit and be a bit silly with it. I think that is all part of the testing out how much control they have over their little world.

She has started eating better again now and I'm hoping it might mean she is settling down a bit.