Can anyone help? Rhythmic movement in sleep

[wakarimasen]

Hello,I'm looking for some help. Every night my 3 year old son wakes us up multiple times as he makes a loud humming noise, puts his hands over his ears and rocks from side to side. He's done this since he was born and used to do it to get himself off to sleep but more recently he's doing it in the middle of the night, presumably during sleep transitions. Having looked online, I think it sounds like rhythmic movement disorder. The lack of sleep is really getting to the rest of the family (and my son also seems tired during the day) and we don't know what to do. Spoke to psychology services over the telephone and they just said that it was a good thing that he self soothed! Does anyone have any experience of this themselves?

I would say try an change his routine, possibly put him down later. My daughter used to sleepwalk a lot an have night terrors, I got really down with lack of sleep so in the end put her in mine an partners bed for a week. It was a long struggle but she was good after that. I know it's not the same thing but sometimes breaking routine can help! :) hope this helps

Our dd has rhythmic sleep disorder where she rocks backwards and forwards in a sitting position before falling asleep. She is up rocking in the night as well. There is also the vocalisation that keeps hubs and I awake. She did this from a baby and still does at 5yrs old. Thankfully we have a bedroom for each child as sharing a room became an issue as does sleep overs. We had a referral to the sleep clinic at the hospital. Our video footage along with movement monitoring and discussion of her symptoms resulted in the formal diagnosis. However, treatment is not forth coming unless dd decides she wants to stop. Reward charts do not work and she cannot seem to stop. In fact she has no desire to change although she is only getting between 5-9 hours sleep a night. The resultant daily behaviour has caused us to request sedation medication to see if we can break the cycle. Unfortunately after 3 months of sedating her has not changed the behaviour. So while it is a relief to get a formal diagnosis the road to recovery is a very long one. I only wish I could tell you how to stop the rocking.

No advice really but my son does exactly what you describe and has done since he was born. He's 9 now and the only difference is we gave him an iPod shuffle a year ago and he since then he sings really loudly and rocks from side to side to go to sleep instead of humming. He usually wakes once or twice and rocks himself back to sleep, I hear him bump against the side of the bed, but to be honest it's never really worried me because it doesn't seem to affect him, he has lots of energy during the day and sleeps well despite his unusual method of falling asleep! Off to google rhythmic sleep disorder...

I feel for you, we are in the same position. My 2 year old does this and has done since he was 9 months old, although he rocks back and forth on his hands and knees for hours.

It just cannot be good for him, it's like the equivalent of running a marathon every night. He's also very loud and the rhythmic humming often wakes his brother who he has to share a room with.

I wish someone had an answer. It's really taking a toll on our family too.