3.5 year old waking all of a sudden at night

[Tulips14]

HELP!
So my 3.5 year old has recently started waking in the middle of the night crying and generally really upset. He says he is scared of the dark and doesn’t like his bed anymore.
If / when I leave the room he gets really upset again.
He has always been a great sleeper and it’s just come out of nowhere. Any suggestions on how to handle it???
He has a night light and one on the landing. The bed situation he’s in a toddler floor type bed. He says he’s too big for it and resorts to sleeping on the floor in the middle of the night 🤦‍♀️ should I just get a new bed???

If he's ready for a big bed then that would be a good start. It may not sort the sleeping but it's generally best to follow the child's lead when he or she shows signs of being ready for the next step in growing up/independence.

As for the sleep situation/nightmares, it's quite normal for children to have disrupted sleep from time to time - they're growing up, becoming more aware of the world and of themselves, and starting to understand scary things.

Bless him. I would continue to go in and see him, comfort him and maybe turn on a children's audio book or some classical music, very quietly, to see if it might help him to settle.

Sorry...keep forgetting to change back from my Christmas name! 🙄

@AllTangledUpInTinselAndTiaras Thanks for your reply. We have recently come back off holiday where he was in a double bed to himself so I’m not sure if that’s contributed to him saying he’s now too big for his bed.😂 It’s not a cot it’s a toddler single bed but yeah maybe your right and I should bite the bullet and get him a proper single or a small double.
Great idea re audio book I’ve been looking at the tonie boxes and the yoto player.
He has always been a brilliant sleeper, not sure if it’s a coincidence but it seems to all have started post holiday 😞

It might just be the change of routine. He could be extra wired and just taking some time to settle back down.

Tbh this is what it's like with children - new things will come up as they get older, and it's just a matter of working around it as much as possible and gently helping them to become more resilient.

Was he sleeping in the same room as you on holiday? He probably enjoyed that and is just struggling to go back to his usual routine

@mumTTCno2 yeah well I’d put him to bed and then I’d get in later with him as we only had the one bed on holiday, so yeah he’d wake up in the morning and I’d be there.

@AllTangledUpInTinselAndTiaras 100% it’s riding the wave I guess, hopefully it will pass if we stick to our usual routine. I don’t really want to go down the route of him getting into bed with us every night or sitting for hours on end as we are all just awake and tired. I think I’m going to try the tonie box idea and definitely upgrade his bed 🤞🤞

Maybe a new bedtime buddy to snuggle up with?

@AllTangledUpInTinselAndTiaras yes you’ve read my mind haha! I’ve actually just recently ordered him a brown bear that has a little night light inside, just waiting for it to arrive, I thought that might be cute for him.