3 year old night wakings

[Hoppityfuckingvoosh]

DS used to be a decent sleeper. He'd go down around 7.30-8 and that's the last I'd hear of him until 630-7 the following morning.

For the last month he's been waking up during the night and calling out for me. I go in, he asks he to sit down, I do and he falls straight asleep again. This can happen 3-5 times in a night. On terrible nights, he'll wake up and scream for hours because I won't allow him to come through to my bed.

I'm exhausted. He's exhausted. I need to break the cycle but if I try to ignore him he just thunders through to my room and we spend hours on the in bed/out bed routine.

I'm going to try a reward chart and bribery next. He has a gro-clock which he used to love but now completely ignores.

Is leaving him to scream the best option? I'm worried about my neighbours but I can't keep getting up 3-5 times a night. Will he eventually give in?

I could have written this. My dd is 3.5 and has started waking up, wide awake, in the middle of the night. She does this maybe 4 times a week. Nothing settles her back to sleep except one of us sleeping on the floor next to her bed, then she goes straight back to sleep. She just seems to want company! We are hoping it's a phase. Her imagination is really developing at the moment and I think she is dreaming quite a bit and is showing fear towards things she previously loved. I'm hoping that giving her the comfort that she needs will help her get over this bad sleeping phase. Please let it be a short phase!